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Moral and ethical implications in frankenstein
Psychoanalytical view on frankenstein
Moral and ethical implications in frankenstein
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Frankenstein: Psychoanalysis of Victor Frankenstein and the Monster The circumstances in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley can be best expressed on the lines of literary fiction in the form of psychoanalysis. Throughout Frankenstein it fits the criteria for Freud's theories. In the following paper it will take a look at the personality similarities between Victor Frankenstein and his creation the Monster. Certain of the Monster’s actions mimic those of Frankenstein’s, and may be reasons as to why the Monster is the way he is. Looking at the fundamentals of Frankenstein’s creation one can say that “through mirroring, we as readers are able to witness the ways in which the characters and Shelley struggled with their imperfections” (Romero).(Such as in a reflection) This is an instance where the id, or lack of logic, comes into reality. Frankenstein allows his obsession to drive his work rather than the rational side of his mind to do the work. As a result of his work, he started to neglect others. “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time” …show more content…
At this point Frankenstein is confronted with the harsh reality of his occupation. Once alive the Monster murders Frankenstein’s entire family. The result is remorse on Frankenstein’s part, for having created the monster. In turn, the Monster has some feelings of guilt after the Monster metaphorically kills Frankenstein. In transition the Monster has an intense feeling of what it is to be human. So both Frankenstein and the Monster mirror each other’s personalities. Freud's theory of superego discusses guilt and a sense of conscience which is now possessed by both of
The creature’s moral ambiguity characteristic was a vile ingredient to the construction of this novel Frankenstein because it made the reader 's sympathies with him even after the audience knows he had committed murder because the readers had seen the truth this creature had to face. That he had tried everything within his power to peacefully live with them, to interact, communicate, and befriend them “these thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language”, that even though he was seen as a monster because of the looks he was created with, something he had no control over, he still had hope to be seen as equals, ”My organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration;” this hope of his was utterly crushed, and can only set him up for utter disappointment(12.18). Because in the end he only received hates, scorns, violence, and prejudice from his good will. So in the end of the story, Mary Shelley’s forces the readers to see within the creature’s heart and for
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.
As Frankenstein is enroute to his pursuit of gaining more knowledge, he states, “I wished, as it were, to procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my nature, should be completed” (Shelley 41). Frankenstein’s decision in allowing his intellectual ambitions to overpower everything else in his life leads him to be blinded to the dangers of creating life. He isolates himself from his society when creating the monster, letting himself be immersed in his creation while being driven by his passions, allowing nobody to be near him. The fact that he allows this creation of a monster to consume his total being reveals how blinded he is to the immorality of stepping outside the boundaries of science and defying nature. His goal in striving to achieve what wants to in placing man over nature makes him lose his sense of self as all he is focused on is the final product of his creation. He starts to realize his own faults as after he has created the monster, he becomes very ill and states, “The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him” (48). His impulsive decision to make the monster leads him to abhorring it as it does not turn out to be what he has expected. Because he chooses to isolate himself in creating the
“Allure, Authority, and Psychoanalysis” discusses the unconscious wishes, effects, conflicts, anxieties, and fantasies within “Frankenstein.” The absence of strong female characters in “Frankenstein” suggests the idea of Victor’s desire to create life without the female. This desire possibly stems from Victor’s attempt to compensate for the lack of a penis or, similarly, from the fear of female sexuality. Victor’s strong desire for maternal love is transferred to Elizabeth, the orphan taken into the Frankenstein family. This idea is then reincarnated in the form of a monster which leads to the conclusion that Mary Shelley felt like an abandoned child who is reflected in the rage of the monster.
...ions toward one another. However, Frankenstein’s uncaring, negligent-parent approach to his creation who emotionally resembles a lost child, allows Shelley to establish the conflict between scientific discovery and moral consequence, as well as the greater conflict between right and wrong. She allows the audience to question who the true villain is in the story, and allow each reader to determine for themselves if the “parent” Frankenstein or the “childlike” monster is truly to blame for all the evil deeds that occur. Today, our society should view Frankenstein as a cautionary tale of the possibilities and consequences of scientific discovery mixed with greed.
The fact that Frankenstein’s monster kills out of revenge and anger is a form evil but one can understand and to a certain extent sympathise with his inability to reason right from wrong. Many examples of this inability are shown, for example, the creature strangles Frankenstein’s innocent young brother because he cannot under...
In the novel Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley writes about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings to life a human- like creature. Viewing this book through a psychoanalytic lens uncovers the many layers that make up this text and the characters. The psychoanalytic theory deals with a person’s underlying desire, most famously, the oedipal complex. The oedipal complex is the belief that all people possess the desire to partake in affectionate relations with a parent of the opposite sex. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victors conscious and subconscious to suggest that Victor possesses the oedipal complex, and that he feels intense guilt for the monster that he has brought to life.
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. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein centers around a creator who rejects his own creation. The plot thickens as Victor Frankenstein turns his back on his creation out of fear and regret. The monster is cast out alone to figure out the world and as a result of a life with no love, he turns evil. Shelley seems to urge the reader to try a relate with this monster and avoid just seeing him as an evil being beyond repentance. There is no doubt that the monster is in fact evil; however, the monster’s evilness stems from rejection from his creator.
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...
“The doctor [Victor Frankenstein] and his monster represent of one another and their relationship mirrors that of the head and the heart, or the intellect and the emotion. In this context, the monster’s actions have been viewed as manifestations of the doctor’s—and Shelley’s—repressed desires” (Bomarito and Whitaker). The motif of doppelgänger is established when Victor created the creature. As Victor is alone and obsessed with science, he resorts to creating a “being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionally large” (Shelley 38). Whenever the creature comes to life, Victor is frightened and flees from the creature, even though he does not realize, that he has subsequently created a double of himself.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
Monsters embody brutality, twisted morality, and irrationality—the banes of human existence, yet the children of man’s inner demons. Monsters are, in short, projections of man’s wicked id. The term creature may suggest monstrosity, and Frankenstein’s creation in Mary Shelley’s novel may be perceived as a personification of the Freudian id. In this case, however, the creature also mediates between its neurotic creator and societal values, just as the Freudian ego, conditioned by the reality principle, mediates between external reality and inner turmoil through practicality. The ego is the psyche’s driving force and, arguably, the real protagonist of Frankenstein. But in the fierce tug-of-war within the ego between the id and its law-abiding opposite—the superego—lies the true battlefield of Shelley’s novel. For ironically the man of science embodies an ego-ridden id, a man-monster, but creates a monster-man that embodies his counterpart: an id-ridden ego. In the wake of his mother’s death, Frankenstein’s tinkering with reanimation unconsciously shapes a symbiosis between himself and his creation—between two tortured halves of one neurotic mind. In fact, Shelley’s novel sinks deep into the crevices of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, oozing into pits of neurosis, repression, parapraxes, dream symbolism, and the Oedipus complex.
Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein is a novel narrated by Robert Walton about Victor Frankenstein and the Monster that he creates. Frankenstein grew up surrounding himself with what he loved most, science. He attended Ingolstadt University where he studied chemistry and natural philosophy, but being involved in academics was not enough for him. Frankenstein wanted to discover things, but did not think about the potential outcomes that could come with this decision. Frankenstein was astonished by the human frame and all living creatures, so he built the Monster out of various human and animal parts (Shelley, 52). At the time Frankenstein thought this creation was a great discovery, but as time went on the Monster turned out to be terrifying to anyone he came in contact with. So, taking his anger out on Frankenstein, the Monster causes chaos in a lot of people’s lives and the continuing battle goes on between the Monster and Frankenstein. Throughout this novel, it is hard to perceive who is pursuing whom as well as who ends up worse off until the book comes to a close.
The most prevalent theme in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is that of obsession. Throughout the novel there are constant reminders of the struggles that Victor Frankenstein and his monster have endured. Many of their problems are brought upon by themselves by an obsessive drive for knowledge, secrecy, fear, and ultimately revenge.