This paper seeks to address the literacy and stylistic issues presented in two texts. Specifically, an extract from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Wilfred Owens’s Dulce ET Est. Decorum. Initially, the paper will outline the prevailing social and historical contexts associated with the two texts. The principal purpose of this work is to address the themes common to both texts. For this to be achieved, an initial investigation and critique of both authors use of language will also need to be looked at.
Wilfred Owen was of a lower middle class background, he was the son of a railway worker who was the superintendent; he attended Shrewsbury Technical High School he had applied to go to the University Of London but was rejected. He worked as a lay preacher in his locality attending to the spiritual needs of the parishioners. He travelled to France to work as an English teacher within a French language school.
Whilst in France he decided to enlist in the army; he is quoted to have said “I have enlisted to help the boys as best I could.” This poem was written in Craiglockart Military Hospital in Scotland under the guidance of Siegfried Sassoon. At first glance, this poem may seem vehemently anti-war – but it actually directs most of its bitterness at the people who rally around the troops without ever understanding exactly what they're sending those troops off to do. Owen spent years on the battlefields. The poem itself wasn’t published until after the war, where Sassoon made sure that it was published. In dissimilarity to this, Mary Shelley was of the aristocratic background and was born in Somers Town, London, England on the 30th August 1797 She did a grand tour around Europe including Greece, Italy, and Rome studying culture, arts...
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...he creature which has also resulted in death, It could be argued that Victor himself is a monster as his ambition, secrecy and selfishness that alienated him from human society is what eventually consumed him.
Another similarity within both is that both of these ‘monsters’ are both man made.
To conclude, there were some vast differences in Owens’s and Shelley’s lives which influenced their works, nevertheless there are some similarities in both ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dulce et est. Decorum’ as shown throughout this essay in the use of themes, styles of writings and literary devices.
Works Cited
1. http://www.shmoop.com/dulce-et-decorum-est/
2. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index/qid=20080703091816AAppuk7
3. http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-literacy-techniques-used-by-poet-this-poem-434244
4. http://www.egs.edu/library/mary-shelley/biography/
The idea of duality permeates the literary world. Certain contradictory commonplace themes exist throughout great works, creation versus destruction, light versus dark, love versus lust, to name a few, and this trend continues in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The pivotal pair in this text however, is monotony versus individuality. The opposing entities of this pairing greatly contrast against each other in Frankenstein, but individuality proves more dominant of the two in this book.
In this piece of work I hope to compare successfully Wilfred Owens ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ with Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. I will compare the similarities and differences between the two texts in themes, styles and linguistic features. When first reading both pieces of writing you wouldn’t assume there are many similarities between the two authors, as they were written one hundred years apart and came from completely opposite social and historical backgrounds.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein addresses the problem of epistemology by creating within the reader a sense of mistrust regarding the narrative. Presented in the epistolary format, each of the successively burrowing narratives is likelier than the preceding to have been altered in some fashion by its myriad raconteurs. Writing to his sister, Mrs. Saville, Walton suggests to his siste...
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
To draw into the poet’s world, the poet must draw relations between them, including the reader, making them feel what the poet feels, thinking what the poet thinks. Wilfred Owen does this very creatively and very effectively, in both of his poems, Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori and Anthem of Doomed Youth, who is seen as an idol to many people today, as a great war poet, who expresses his ideas that makes the reader feel involved in the moment, feeling everything that he does. His poems describe the horror of war, and the consequences of it, which is not beneficial for either side. He feels sorrow and anger towards the war and its victims, making the reader also feel the same.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
Wilfred Owen was a war poet from the First World War; he was born in
... Instead of idealizing war in a romantic way, war poets such as Wilfred Owen aimed to expose gruesome truths about these wars and how they impacted lives. It points a finger and criticizes the governments and authorities that wage these wars but don’t fight in them themselves but rather watch as lives are lost. It exposes propaganda for what it is, a tool for brainwashing. It puts into question the notion of dying for ones country to be noble, honourable and admirable.
How Wilfred Owen Uses Language and Imagery in His Poetry to Communicate his Attitudes of War
Walter Scott’s critique in the 1818, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein, is that Frankenstein is a novel of romantic fiction depicting a peculiar nature that narrates the real laws of nature and family values. This review explains that Mary Shelley manages the style of composition, and gives her characters an indirect importance to the reader as the laws of nature takes course in the novel. In addition, Walter Scott appreciates the numerous theme...
Wilfred Owen was an officer in World War I, who was sent to a hospital because he suffered from "shellshock". There, he met poet Siegfried Sassoon, who played a part in influencing him to write poetry about war and the suffering of soldiers. He later returned to the war, where he was killed. ' '
Wilfred Owen was born on March 18, 1893, in Oswestry, England. His parents were Percy Oliver and Nellie Parnaby. Wilfred had two brothers and one sister. His brothers names were Harold and Colin. His sisters name was Mary. Two years after Wilfred was born his grandfather died nearly bankrupt. His family had to move and Wilfred was unable to go to a public school because they had such little money. Wilfred began to read and write poetry at a young age and shared his mother’s interest in religion. Wilfred failed to win an academic scholarship to the University of London so his parents did not have enough money to send him to college. Since Wilfred was unable to go to college he had to find work, and in 1911 he worked as an assistant to a clergyman until 1913. Wilfred began to attend class at the University of Reading, but he failed to win a scholarship. In 1913 after becoming sick he started to work as a private teacher. He moved to France and worked there until 1915. Wilfred returned home in 1915 and enlisted for the Artists Rifles. In the March of 1916, Wilfred began his officers tra...