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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a literary examination of monstrosity
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Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader is lead to sympathize with the monstrous creature, which was created by Victor Frankenstein. Despite any internal contradictions, the creature has the indisputable outward appearance of a monster, one repulsive to even his own creator. Inevitably, the appearance becomes the creature’s most significant quality, which eliminates any recognition of other, more human, qualities. As a result, any possibility of acceptance within human society are completely destroyed. The creature himself even recognizes this fact. Expressing many human qualities, such rejection and the consequential loneliness has a tremendous impact on the creature, especially in the impressionable years after his initial animation. With the psychological effects caused by these factors, the creature is sent on a rampage, causing tragedy throughout the course of the novel. Many may question Victor’s culpability and lack of responsibility over his creation; however, the ultimate blame for the events must be placed while considering the situation on a larger scale. Without a structured beginning to life, the creature is subjected to the harsh society around him, whose reactions only lead the creature to exile and psychological torment, justifying his wrongful actions. As a result of the creature’s outward appearance, there is never hope of acceptance within human society. Again and again the creature finds himself rejected and attacked by all beings, and he quickly realizes that he is abhorred by his world. Joyce Carol Oates, an american author and Princeton professor describes the situation in her article, “Frankenstein’s Fallen Angel.” She recognizes that, as any human, the creature, “requires love in order to become less monstrous, but, as he is a monster, love is denied him” (Oates, 546). Oates suggests that the creature can never possibly be loved
Frankenstein is a magnificent peace of literature written by Mary Shelley. Mary’s style of romanticism and gothic writings shed light on society and its effect on human nature. Her use of symbols and figurative language help the reader grow accustomed to the fact that society can ultimately change someone for the worse or for the best. The story consists of a being that was created by man who strives for acceptance and kindness from those around him. During this process the creature soon runs into certain conflicts, which could have been avoided if only society hadn’t shunned him. The creature born from limbs of others and created by man was doomed when he first took breath. Children who are often nurtured by loving and responsible parents grow up to be kind and welcoming to others, but those with parents of a different nature, ones who neglect their own children can only help lead to their child’s ultimate defeat of not being accepted by society. Born as a child with no idea who or what he
Robert Walton (the first narrator) finds Victor Frankenstein adrift in the Arctic. After a week’s recovery Frankenstein tells his story. As Victor was growing up he had always been interested in alchemy and pseudo-sciences. He hoped to one day to be able overcome death and decay. Victor learned how to create life in the laboratory and collected parts from cadavers to create his creature. After giving his creation life, he was horrified and fled. He was hidden away for two years, then received a letter telling of his little brother’s death. He suspected the creature, but the police suspected a female friend of his family’s and hanged her. One day the being found Victor and told him of his survival and his knowledge. He requested Victor make him a companion and in return they would flee away never to be seen again. He eventually agrees to make the “bride,” but after much pondering destroys all the work he had done. The “monster” curses Frakenstein assuring revenge on his wedding night. Later another of his friends turns up dead. Victor still made plans to marry Elizabeth with whom he was raised. On their wedding night she is strangled by the monster. He follows the monster pledging to destroy it. The story leads to where he is taken aboard the ship. Soon after the story Victor dies. The monster s discovered on board and announces his plans to kill himself.
Mary Shelly (1797-1851) is one of the world’s most renowned authors and has authored numerous books which are still read and highly respected today. However, her best known work is Frankenstein. Mary Shelly’s first novel, Frankenstein, is one of the world’s finest pieces of literature and the definitive novel of the English Romantic Era; the novel combines a detailed critique on humanity with many powerful themes and multiple characters in the novel reflect the troubled woman who authored the classic tale.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (sometimes also known as The Modern Prometheus) is the classic gothic novel of her time. In this eerie tale, Dr. Victor Frankenstein – suffering from quite an extreme superiority complex – brings to life a creature made from body parts of deceased individuals from nearby cemeteries. Rather than to embrace the Creature as his own, Frankenstein alienates him because of his unpleasant appearance. Throughout the novel, the Creature is ostracized not only by Frankenstein but by society as a whole. Initially a kind and gentle being, the Creature becomes violent and eventually seeks revenge for his creator’s betrayal. Rather than to merely focus on the exclusion of the Creature from society, Shelley depicts the progression of Dr. Frankenstein’s seclusion from other humans as well, until he and the Creature ultimately become equals – alone in the world with no one to love, and no one to love them back. Frankenstein serves as more than simply a legendary tale of horror, but also as a representation of how isolation and prejudice can result in the demise of the individual.
Many events influence the main antagonist’s actions throughout Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, but the creature is fundamentally driven by the absence of love. Victor neglected to provide the creature with this luxury, so he sought it from the De Lacy’s family affections. “They loved, and sympathized with one another; and their joys depending on each other, were not interrupted by the casualties that took place around them” (146). The creature became a victim of his desire, because he reasoned himself to be worthy of their admiration, but failed to expect any disappointment. Finding the courage to confront the old man, conflict arose and he once again received rejection. “Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?” Since the creature
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a novel about the struggle of acceptance, yet the debate between nature and nurture as well as whom the real monster actually is shines through. Shelley brings the serious juxtapositions of acceptance and rejection, companionship and isolation, and their consequences to readers’ attention through the encounters between man and monster. Victor Frankenstein’s creation is left in isolation and forced to live through everyone’s hatred towards him. Because the monster is a dismembered, strange looking creature made from body parts, many people who meet him are frightened and therefore do not want to form a relationship with him. This can be very damaging to someone, monster or not. The monster’s character is directly
In Frankenstein and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” the Creature is misunderstood and rejected by society despite his innocence at birth. In Frankenstein, despite living on the fringe of society, the Creature selflessly helps the people around him. For instance, he secretly assists Felix’s family survive the harsh winter (Shelley 78) and saves a young girl from drowning (Shelly 101). However, the fear that his stature inspires prevents any human being from communicating with him, and instead provokes violent reactions, notably the beating (Shelly 97) and the gunshot (Shelley 101). The violent backlash he suffers gives evidence of the society’s misunderstanding toward him: due to his physical ugliness, he is unable to find a human companion,
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus can be interpreted as a chilling warning of the dangers of scientific overreaching and ambition. Mary Shelley was already aware of the works of scientists such as Erasmus Darwin and was being influenced by writers such as Byron when, at “the age of nineteen, she achieved the quietly astonishing feat of looking beyond them and creating a lasting symbol of the perils of scientific Prometheanism” (Joseph, 1998, p, xiii). The fact that Shelley parallels her story of Frankenstein with the myth of Prometheus is interesting and gives an immediate insight into the extent of criticism she bestows on Victor Frankenstein’s scientific ambition. In one version of the Prometheus myth (Prometheus Pyprphoros) he brought down fire from the sun to succour mankind, and was then punished by being chained up with an eagle feasting on his liver in a perpetual cycle. In another version (Prometheus Plasticator) he animated a man from clay in an act of usurping God. The undoing of Frankenstein can be taken as a metaphor for either version and is key to understanding that as Shelley orchestrates Victor’s downfall she is presenting his actions as a warning of what horrors blind scientific ambition can wreak upon mankind.
In Frankenstein the monster remarks, “There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other” (154). The duality presented by the monster showcases the complexity of its nature, and the human nature inside of him. Although established over one hundred years after her death, Shelley develops Frankenstein’s monster, though not inherently human, parallel to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This suggests that monster developed psychologically similar to how modern research suggests humans develop, with human nature supplying his needs and Victor’s rejection nurturing his violence. Shelley also portrays the monster as a conscious
However repugnant he was on the outside, when Frankenstein’s creature begins to tell his tale of sorrow and rejection the creature does not seem to be monstrous. Although rejected multiple times by the humans around him when he finds a family in poverty and “suffering the pangs ...
The novel Frankenstein follows a tale of a man and his monster, a monster that was shunned by his maker and the rest of the world around him. Throughout the novel, the beast grew morose after mistreatment from his creator and all he encountered during his endeavors. Learning about society, left him no choice, but to become the monster he was believed to be because he was enveloped in self doubt and isolated from companionship. Mary Shelley used indications of emotional issues and insecurities to indirectly shape the beast’s personality in her work of fiction Frankenstein through abandonment and depression. The monster is rejected by his maker and abandoned by him. The abandonment by his maker and the realization of what he really is leads
Most affiliate knowledge with freedom and empowerment, the more knowledge you have the more empowered you are. However, according to Mary Shelly, knowledge does not empower one but enslaves them. Some might then go on to inquire how one, if they become enslaved by knowledge can one escape its rule. The answer to this question according to Mary Shelley is death. Death is where knowledge is no longer present. When one inquires about knowledge it usually revolves around the world in which they live or those that inhabit the world in which they live. When questions are asked about the world in which they do not live, the after life, there are no answers to be found or proofs to be shown, nor will there ever be since knowledge does not extend past the world in which we live. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Mary makes the point that knowledge enslaves others and the only way one can escape knowledge is through death. Mary not only uses her two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and the monster, as representations in order to support this claim but, she also uses herself to support it. Mary has embodied herself in her characters and has also underlying reflected her own life through her book, thus allowing her to support this claim through her own personal life.
The monster in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein is a creature somewhere in between human and non-human being. Through learning and observation, the monster acquires the basic skills to live in the human world. He perceives the world and himself through the view of human, and he develops the emotion and taste similar to human. However, his human identity is constantly rejected by people—even his creator, Doctor Victor Frankenstein refuses to acknowledge him as human and refers to him as “the monster”. Throughout the whole novel, the monster struggles to pursue a human identity yet suffers from the sorrow of failure, which ultimately leads to his hatred and retaliation.
The creature of Victor Frankenstein was originally fashioned to be a superior race of man. However, upon his resurrection, Victor deserted his creation and it had to fend for himself. The creature journeyed in search of food and shelter and a way to survive. Eventually, it began to learn language and more about human relations and the creature longed to join man. Unfortunately, mankind turned him away due to his haggard appearance, and this infused the creature’s heart with hate. Mary Shelley constructed Frankenstein’s creation as a representation of intellectual women since, like the creature, they were also rejected in society and by man.
Great knowledge of the world and its mysterious ways is something many would love to have. With this great knowledge we have been able to find many of the technologies, medicines, and amazing works of art that we have today. But “evil” comes in hand with the power of such knowledge. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the powerful knowledge that Frankenstein possessed brought him nothing good but his end. His creation wasn’t something that was “good” or that brought him joy as he initially believed it would. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein, there is a clear important social value placed on beauty. Also visible are the repercussion of these social values, that leak into ones own personal values, and its effects on others.