In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Nature, an almighty force is portrayed as something that should be respected, and to try uncover its power is foolish. Nature can and will hurt the person physically and mentally who tries to uncover it. Nature also rewards those who respect it with its healing properties. Shelley uses romanticism and gothicism to characterize Nature as superior to man.
Shelley first demonstrates nature’s omnipotence when she shows Nature take action upon those who defy it by administering punishment on the physical level. When Victor Frankenstein, son of aristocrats and creator of the monster comes to terms with the fact that his wife has died at the hands of his creation on their honeymoon his “skin [became] parched with the
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heat of a fever”(Shelley 187). Being a product of Nature The Monster, Victor's creation carries out the punishment of killing Elizabeth in retaliation to the monsters companions destruction. Nature punishes Victor because of his decision to deny The Monster a companion. Also, when Victor begins his undertaking of creating life from death, he becomes so consumed by it and he allows his “person to become emaciated with confinement”(Shelley 40). Nature punishes Victor because the intention with his enterprise is to cheat death. Cheating death is a direct provocation towards Nature because cheating death is cheating Nature. Nature responds to this provocation with a punishment that causes his body to waste away. Through this, Shelley demonstrates that man is not powerful enough to control or defy Nature and will face the consequences for trying. Similarly, when Victor as chasing his demon he concludes “the triumph of my enemy increased with the difficulty of my labors”(196). Victor earns this punishment through his irresponsible and disrespectful treatment of his Creation. By disrespecting the creation Victor directly disrespects Nature and Victor suffers for it. With no hesitation Nature acts upon acts of insubordination with physical injury. Alternatively Nature fervently torments when met with disobedience from man.
When Victor arrives in Geneva and hears the results from the jury regarding the monster’s murder of William, Victor feels absolute guilt. Victor states “ words cannot convey the heart sickening, despair I then endured”(Shelley 72). Victor's guilt eats away at him for being responsible for the murders of William and Justine. Victor is responsible for the murders because he is responsible for the malign nature of his Creation and its’ actions.This shows that Nature is capable of using its omnipotent sway to alter the mental state of man. When Victor's Father visits him while sick after the recent death of Clerval, Victor's best friend Victor proves himself to be delirious. After an outburst Victor’s “ speech convinced my father that my ideas were deranged”(Shelley 176). Natures punishment of mental decay has caused even Victor’s family to believe he is deranged. Victor is suffering because when a person possesses guilt from a tragedy, the guilt manifests into reality and plagues the guilty. Nature uses its power to manifest toxic emotions into reality to affect current state as punishment. Also The monster demands Victor create a companion for him. While Victor is reluctant to begin construction because he fears “vengeance of a disappointed monster”(Shelley 139). Victor is plagued again because he allows his mind to be polluted with thoughts of defying nature. Nature applies mental deterioration as a punishment as a response to
opposition. Contrasting Nature’s previous treatment towards man when respected Nature compensates with its all-powerful healing properties. Since the monster relates to Nature he consistently respects Nature and Nature consistently rewards. As The Creation journeys to Geneva in search of Victor he feels an increasing rage as he gets closer. The Creation begins his journey in the morning which causes him to feel “emotions of greatness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead revive within me”(Shelley 129). Nature heals The Creation’s emotions because The Creation respects Nature. After being stricken with grief and guilt after the deaths of William and Justine Victor leaves Geneva and journeys through the valley of Chamounix. As Victor makes his through the valley a “ long-lost sense of pleasure came over him”(82) and “maternal nature bade [him] weep no more”(82). Nature sees Victor in his moment of grief and decides to relieve him of this hardship. Nature does this because, by Victor leaving his home he separates himself from his original aspirations of knowledge as an attempt to reconcile with the forces that cause him his pain. Lastly after discussing the possible companion for The Creation, Victor becomes worried and seeks solace in nature. Victor spends days on a boat allowing the “fresh air and bright sun seldom failed to restore him “39” to some degree of composure”(Shelley 139). Victor directs his focus into helping The Creation obtain his companion. Nature sees Victors inner compassion and manifests that into reality and heals Victor. Nature's all-healing properties clearly indicate the benefits of abiding by Nature's laws. Nature inflicts suffering on those who aim to unearth its power and rewards those who respect Nature and its laws. Shelley does this by using Romanticism and Gothicism interchangeably to empower Nature by giving it Omnipotent power to sway the emotions and thoughts of man. Shelley believes that the appropriate relationship between man and nature is that man is lesser to Nature and would be idiotic to oppose it.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. "Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve." Reprinted in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Norton Critical Edition. 1979; New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. 225-240.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley scrutinizes the Enlightenment era’s pursuit for progress and knowledge as it is seen as morally chaotic for overstepping the natural order idealised by the Romantics. Victor F’Stein’s amibition to overpower the boundaries of nature by attempting to take up God’s role as the creator is enunciated in the metaphor “many excellent natures should owe their being to me”. Victor’s hubris and ambition reflects aspects of the Enlightenment – Shelley criticises the attempts of the age to control and empower natural processes, embodied in Galvani’s experimentation with animal electricity. Victor F’Stein represents humanity’s hubristic ambitions and fondness of knowledge. Shelley uses intertextual reference by characterising F’Stein as the “Modern Day Prometheus”. In Greek Mythology, Prometheus usurped the natural order by the creation of man. Prometheus was punished for for this crime eternally – an eagle eating from his liver; the implications are that nature is having its revenge for upsetting hierarchal order. However, Vi...
Throughout Frankenstein, nature is considered to be a healing remedy in the process of Victor Frankenstein’s recovery.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think.
Victor’s lack of compassion and sympathy towards the monster causes him to become angry instead of guilty. His cruelness to his creation made the monster kill and hurt the people he did but “when [he] reflected on [the monster’s] crimes and malice, [Victor’s] hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation,”(Shelley 325). Without compassion Victor thinks that the only way to stop the monster is to get revenge on him, instead of just giving him the empathy and kindness that monster craved. Victor realizes that "if he were vanquished, [he] should be a free man...balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue [him] until death. ”(Shelley 731).
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment.
The creator of the monster, Victor Frankenstein is a man full of knowledge and has a strong passion for science. He pushes the boundary of science and creates a monster. Knowledge can be a threat when used for evil purposes. Though Victor did not intend for the being to be evil, society’s judgement on the monster greatly affects him. As a result he develops hatred for his creator as well as all man-kind. Victor’s anguish for the loss of his family facilitates his plan for revenge to the monster whom is the murderer. While traveling on Robert Walton’s ship he and Victor continue their pursuit of the monster. As Victor’s death nears he says, “…or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death…Yet, when I am dead if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live-swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes” (pg.199). Victor grieves the death of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth and his father. Throughout the novel he experiences the five stages of grief, denial/ isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Victor denies ...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
Victor Frankenstein and his creation are alike in several ways, one of them being their appreciation of nature. Victor embraces the nature for the quick moment that he escapes the creature as it “filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy” (Shelley 84). Vict...
This paper will concentrate on the definition of human nature, the controversy of morality and science, the limits to scientific inquiry, and how this novel ties in with today’s world. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein expresses human nature specifically through the character of the “Creature” and its development. The Creature has an opportunity to explore his surroundings, and in doing so he learns that human nature is to run away from something so catastrophic in looks. The Creature discovers that he must limit himself in what he does due to the response of humans because of his deformities. I feel that Mary Shelley tries to depict human nature as running away from the abnormal, which results in alienation of the “abnormal.”
By attempting to create life and messing with the natural order of the world, Victor loses his connection to the earth and eventually ends up as a shell of what he once was. No matter how hard he tried to redeem himself, he could no longer be one with nature. The creature that Victor creates by using the malicious techniques of science actually starts out to nature than Victor himself. The Creature recognizes the wonders of nature and finds temporary happiness in his closeness to the world. He turns away the peace given to him by nature just to satisfy his desire for revenge, and becomes a broken being. Mary Shelley demonstrates in Frankenstein what happens if someone strays too far from nature. Shelley purposely shows the destructive nature of science in her novel to highlight the strife that her society was going through. Her society, disillusioned by war and the devastation that new technologies caused, wanted to go back to their roots in nature, and her novel pushes at that idea. Shelley’s example of Victor’s and the Creature’s downfall warns us of the dangers and temptations of science. Even now, people are constantly enraptured by the possibilities that science and technology offer, while neglecting their duties towards nature and the
He possibly could have located the monster, with the help of others, in a timely fashion, thus averting the many calamities that followed. However, Victor chose to abandon his monster and not inform anyone of its creation, and ignore it for months (Shelly 56). When Victor finally sees the monster again, it is after the monster has killed his youngest brother, william. When an innocent woman is blamed for this crime, and Victor could testify and save her life, he takes no action, saying that he would be thought crazy for his tale (Shelly 66).This in and of itself is an insanely selfish thing to do, with minimal effort Victor could have saved another person's life but because it could jeopardize his own reputation, he chooses not to. Even after two people have perished due to his thoughtlessness, Victor still does not inform anyone of the monster which he has created and still allows it to run loose. Later in the novel, after Victor destroys the companion the monster asked him to build, the monster strangles Victor's innocent friend Henry (Shelley 166). Victor’s actions caused a number of deaths and endangered many people. Henry, Elizabeth, William, and Justine all had nothing to do with the creation and subsequent abandonment of the monster, and yet due to Victors irresponsibility, they paid the ultimate price. Williams death is a turning point in the novel, as it shows victor for the first time that his actions actually do have consequences “Nothing in the human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it”, and yet he chooses to continue to make irresponsible choices that continue to endanger more people (Shelley
Scientists always tell us that interfering with the environment too much can lead to dangerous consequences. This type of sentiment is perfectly echoed in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, which goes into the moral ethics of bringing back creatures from the dead. Mary Shelley uses the setting of nature to ground Victor into reality and help him cope with his guilt of the creature’s murders and spreads the message that nature is beautiful on its own and should not be tampered with.
The dangerous nature of human experimentations is a frequently recurring theme in fiction stories and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of such stories. The central character, Dr. Frankenstein, is obsessed with knowledge and in his pursuit of knowing all the secrets of life he creates a monster. The monster is a hideous creature, lonely and incapable of love. The creature laments the day of his creation and eventually resolves to destroy Dr. Frankenstein’s life by killing Dr. Frankenstein’s whole family. Dr.Frankenstein’s thirst for knowledge drives his whole life to destruction where his loses his family as well as his sanity dying alone in an explicable grief. Reckless and unnecessary manipulation with nature produced a desired result (the creation of a monster gave all the answers to the secrets of life), but the consequences that Dr.Frankenstein fails to foresee lead to a tragedy. The message Mary Shelley hoped to deliver to her contemporaries as well as to the future generations was a warning against taking extreme steps in experimentations towards promising, but radical scientific advancement. Many of was would agree that by manipulating natural world we often cross the borders of ethically acceptable conduct where the potential benefits seem to justify the evil nature of the experiment.