Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Women's roles in Frankenstein
Psychoanalytic interpretation of Mary Shelley's frankenstein
Psychoanalytic interpretation of Mary Shelley's frankenstein
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Women's roles in Frankenstein
Frankenstein Speech Outline
Introduction
What happens when you abandon somebody that you use to care for so dearly? Are they mad and want revenge because of this or do they keep on living their life? In the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, recounts, to his sister back in England the progress of his dangerous mission. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein, who has been traveling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster that Frankenstein created and abandon. The monster in Frankenstein goes through a lot of phases and changes and has traits such as being confused, sad, evil, good, and depressed. In the story Frankenstein, it suggests that people must take responsibility for what they do.
(First, let’s talk about the very beginning of the monster’s life)
Body
I. Monster’s misunderstood by everybody. He doesn’t understand why people didn’t like him at first, until later on in his wandering. Making him confused and depressed all of the time because of this reason.
A. People run away in fear of him, or try to kill him to get rid of him. Even his creator abandoned him. Everybody won’t give him chance to be understood, he is a mystery to everybody, representing the question marks going down the face for his confusion.
1. I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. (115) This line evokes the motif of abortion: the monster is an unwanted life, a creation abandoned and shunned by his creator.
2. The monster Frankenstein travels alone by himself a lot so no one hurting or screaming at him since he is the eight-foot-tall, hideously ugly creation that everybody runs in fear of. The monster clearly understands later on in the story his position in the world, the tragedy of his existence and abandonment by his creator.
2
3. The monster assists a group of poor peasants and saves a girl from drowning, but because of his outward appearance, he is rewarded only with beatings and disgust. Making him having to fight back and run away.
B. Wants to be loved and taken care of, he also wanted to know his purpose in life and why was he created.
In most novel and movies monsters are known to be evil, committing numerous crimes against humanity and are normally the ones that we don’t sympathize with. However, this novel carefully shows the reader that monsters can be good creatures, with a decent heart and act based on the actions of others. The novel shows how the monster should be pitied, rather than criticised. Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” manages to create sympathy for the creature through speech, actions and mistreatment the creature suffers.
In Shelley?fs Frankenstein, Victor brings a monster to life only to abandon it out of fear and horror. ?gThe beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart?h (Shelley, 35). The reader must question the ethics of Victor. After all, he did bring this creature upon himself. This renunciation later comes to haunt Victor, and hurts his creation more than Victor can ever imagine. When Victor leaves the monster, Shelley is exploring abandonment by the parent. Later in the novel, when the monster tries to confront Victor and Victor shows that he does not want any part of the Monster by saying ?gBegone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!?h(74). Shelley is showing us that the monster is not being nurtured, as a child should. Blade Runner also looks at the roles of parenting and abandonment. When first meeting Tyrell, Roy states, ?gIt's not an easy thing to meet your maker?h, Scott reveals that the Nexus 6 have been discarded by their family, and have had a lack of a loving relationship throughout their lives.
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein the protagonist Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster in the novel is deprived of a normal life due to his appearance. Like the creature, some serial killers today are killers due to the same rejection. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that a childhood of abuse and neglect will often result in evil actions.
...e seeking help and strength to take care of problems in their lives. Victor Frankenstein is a man with a loving and caring family. Family and friends are an important part of his life. He has his whole life in front of him, when creates his monster. He creates the monster in the likeness of man with same need of love and affection as man. Although, this is his creation, he lets the monster down and does not care for him. The monster begins to feel neglected and lonely and wants desperately to have a human relationship. The monster turns angry and revengeful because he is so sad and abandoned. He wants Victor to feel the way that he does, all alone. The monster succeeds and Victor ends up losing all the important in his life and his own life. In the end, the monster dies and the need for human relationship becomes the destruction for both the monster and Victor.
Tragedy shows no discrimination and often strikes down on those undeserving of such turmoil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature more repulsive than one can imagine is brought to life by a young scientist. Although this creature is horrifying in sight, he is gentle by nature. Unfortunately, the softer side of the creature is repeatedly overlooked and the so called “monster” is driven to a breaking point. Even though the Creature committed many crimes, Mary Shelley’s Creature was the tragic hero of this story because of his efforts rescue the life of a young girl and helping destitute cottagers.
Isolation is one of the major motifs that resonates throughout Frankenstein. Tying into the romantic style of the novel, Shelley uses this element all the way through the work to show a repetition of isolation, an aspect that is present in almost every character in the novel and expressed primarily in Victor and the monster. But even some other minor characters such as Justine, Caroline, and Walton deal with isolation in one way or another.
An idea becomes a vision, the vision develops a plan, and this plan becomes an ambition. Unfortunately for Victor Frankenstein, his ambitions and accomplishments drowned him in sorrow from the result of many unfortunate events. These events caused Victors family and his creation to suffer. Rejection and isolation are two of the most vital themes in which many dreadful consequences derive from. Victor isolates himself from his family, friends, and meant-to-be wife. His ambitions are what isolate him and brought to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated by everyone including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge. All the events and misfortunes encountered in Frankenstein have been linked to one another as a chain of actions and reactions. Of course the first action and link in the chain is started by Victor Frankenstein.
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein secretly creates a monster without considering the consequences. After the creation of the monster and throughout Victor’s life he and the monster suffer constantly. Because Victor keeps his monster a secret from his family, friends and society, he is alone and miserable. The monster is also alone and miserable because he is shunned by society due to his grotesque appearance.
Both internal and external consequences were the cause of being isolated from society. Frankenstein began to feel depressed after the creation of the monster and decided to isolate himself from his friends and family. Frankenstein kept his creation a secret from everyone because he was afraid of the consequences. Ironically, Frankenstein was the main problem for all of his sufferings. He thought that he could keep everyone safe if he were to not tell them about the monster, however, everyone died because he wanted to keep everyone from the truth. The creature also suffered many consequences from being isolated. He wanted to be part of a family, and feel loved, but everyone judged him based on his monstrous appearance. The creature suffered through every encounter he had with people and he began to hate mankind. Both Frankenstein and the creature ultimately sought for revenge. They both suffered tremendously due to their isolation and thus resulted in their
Mary Shelley’s use of a frame story in her novel “Frankenstein” generates the problem of reliable narration as many narrations do. However unlike most novels, this story is told through three different narrations allowing much room for bias and a slight change in the tale. The title character, Victor Frankenstein, is not trust worthy due to his deep personal loathing for his monster or another narrator. This narrator cannot be taken as an accurate depiction due to its lack of empathetic behavior and constant vying for pity but also acts in a manner that is gruesome. The last narrator proves to be most reliable because he has the least amount to do with the actual story other than to pass along Victor’s story and to carry on what happens when one is tainted by science and the pursuit of too much knowledge.
...luding intelligence, compassion, and emotions. The monster attempts to make friends with his peer humans, despite his continuous rejection. His efforts show that even the monster experiences vulnerability and desire for companionship. The monster proves his intelligence as he devises a plan to learn the English language by observing his neighbors. Meanwhile, Doctor Frankenstein lacks the human quality of intelligence as he fails to foresee the effects of taking creation of life into his own hands. The doctor also lacks compassion when he abandons his creation, the equivalent of a parent leaving his child. Frankenstein flees from his monster because he actually fears the monster as much as the rest of society due to its frightening stature. Doctor Frankenstein and his creation exemplify the qualities people should exude to consider themselves members of the human race.
The Monster’s confusion about the world and his inability to understand why he cannot simply be accepted in society drives his actions. Dutoit elaborates on the not so apparent truth that The Monster goes to great lengths to assimilate by acquiring language, understanding mannerisms and participating in customs. The Monster grows fond of a family, at first he watches them carefully, paying close attention to the details of their life and even steals food, unaware of their poverty. Supporting evidence which allows for the conclusion that he is innately good and simply longing for domesticity is shown by The Monsters willingness to help the family with chores, in secret of course. Nevertheless, he is universally shunned by everyone he encounters, except for the old blind man who was willing to have a social connection with him, until his family returned home and in fear rebelled against The Monster. This constant exile only leads to a greater alienation from the social world he deeply longs to be a part of. Unfortunately, due to his outward appearance, his good intentions are ill received by the people he
Mary Shelly explains in her novel Frankenstein the cause of Victors abandonment was the rage of the monster that he created. The monster’s reaction to his creator is “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, yet so vicious and base? (119) The monster’s curiosity was similar to his creator’s strive for knowledge. The monster wanted to confront the mad man who brought him to life only to reject him. The monster was alone and confused when he was abandoned, just the way Victor Frankenstein was in seclusion in his laboratory when creating the
Frankenstein only realizes the full ramifications of his actions when the monster first opens its eyes, but by then it is too late and nothing can stop the monster from being alive. Instead of taking responsibility for the monster he has created, Frankenstein flees and does not really question where it went upon his return, celebrated for a bit when he “becomes assured that [his] enemy had indeed fled” (Shelley 46), and it was not on his mind until it was seen when he got to his home town. This shows Frankenstein's true personality when faced with a difficult problem, as far as physiological reactions go he has the “flight” response. Every time a situation comes up that provokes stressful emotions he seeks for solitude in
The greater detail about the monster’s experiences provided by the book is the first thing that allows a reader to sympathize with the monster better than an audience member. When the Frankenstein monster is retelling the story of the hardships he has endured, he mentions events that were overlooked in the play. One example of this is when the monster saved a young girl’s life. An act such as this would be praised with the greatest heroism if it was done by a human, but as a reward he is shot, receiving only “the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone.” (Shelley 135) The book also examines the months of hard work the creature put into learning about human nature and language in order to be fully accepted when he chose to reveal himself. The monster hid by the cottage for around a year, never leaving during the day and working to help the cottager’s at night in order to learn from them. The monster went ...