Critical Criticism Of Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a response to a contest put forth by Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. The challenge was to write a horror story. Fittingly, her novel was influenced by the discussion they were having regarding the nature of life, referring to Darwin’s theory of Evolution, and the possibility of creating a creature. As a result, she wrote about a curious minded individual, Victor Frankenstein, assembling a creature with human parts and giving it life. The creature is neglected and abandoned, eventually became a monster. Despite his essential goodness, he is hated, and so he can only hate mankind in return. While, Frankenstein gave life to the creature, he deserted his creation immediately upon laying eyes on him. Frankenstein, the modern scientist, carefully pieced together the creature out of human parts he considered to be beautiful. However, the outcome repulses him. Aboard the ship, to Captain Walton, he recounts the night of creation: “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I …show more content…

He is met with harsh treatments from the villagers he encounters. He explains, “One of the best of these I entered; but I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (73). He is treated with horror from all whom he faces. Eventually, he takes refuge in a hovel and encounters a peasant family that he watches over. He expresses gentleness about the family and the friendship he formed in his mind with the De Lacy family. Notably, it is the interactions with the cottagers that the creature develops his own sense of morality and

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