Psychoanalytic Criticism Frankenstein

1309 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Frankenstein by mary shelley critical analysis

Brittany James
Mrs.Shelley Wisener
ENGL 2321: Frankenstein Analysis Essay
29 September 2017
Frankenstein
Frankenstein is a complex novel written in 1818 by the young Mary Shelley. She uses a multitude of applied criticisms that can infer deeper meanings. Shelley also uses ideas from existing literature to further comprehension in a more sophisticated manner. By applying psychoanalytic criticism, in the form of the Oedipus complex we are better able to understand that main character in Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein. In addition, comparing the novel to other literary pieces helps us interpret the novel's themes and meanings.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there is a strong factor of Psychoanalytic Criticism, specifically the Oedipus Complex. …show more content…

“Psychoanalytic Criticism and the Works of Mary Shelley.” Critical Companion to Mary Shelley, Facts On File, 2012. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/481012?q=frankenstein psychoanalytic . Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Brackett, Virginia. “Frankenstein.” Critical Companion to Mary Shelley, Facts On File, 2012. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/480976?q=frankenstein psychoanalytic criticism. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Brizee, Allen, et al. “Psychoanalytic Criticism (1930s-present).” Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab, Owl Purdue, 1995, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Genesis 1 and 2. The Holy Bible: King James Version, 2000, www.bartleby.com/108/01/1.html.
Hunt, J M. “Mythology: Prometheus.” The Legend of Prometheus - Mythology, The Hellenic Society Prometheus, 2011, www.prometheas.org/mythology.html.
Lehman, Steve. “The Motherless Child in Science Fiction: Frankenstein and Moreau.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, Mar. 1992, pp. 49-58. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=23538339&site=ehost-live.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus. 1818. New York, Signet Classics, 1963.

Show More
Related

  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Metropolis, by Fritz Lang

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1996.

    Read More

  • Isolation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1383 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frankenstein: Contexts, nineteenth century responses, criticism. By Mary Shelley. Norton Critical Edition. New York: New York. 1996.

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein as the True Monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. Paul J. Hunter. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996.

    Read More

  • Poor Parenting Revealed in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques.  Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love.  To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”.  Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility.  Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness.    Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved.  Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.

    Read More

  • psychoanalysis of frankenstein

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2001. 212-217. Shelley, Mary. “Frankenstein” New York: Bantam Dell, 1981.

    Read More

  • Tragic Hero in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.

    Read More

  • Comparing Frankenstein, Origin of the Species and Decent of Man

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1999.

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein’s Isolation

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Lens In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a Critique of Masculinity

    1775 Words  | 4 Pages

    The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.

    Read More

  • The Consequences of Man's Ambition

    1660 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." The Presence of Others:Voices that Call for Response. 2nd ed. Ed Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewics. New York:St Martin's Press, 1997. 230-235.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Unconscious Mind In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a story about the dangers of knowledge and the consequences of overstepping moral and ethical boundaries. By examining Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through a psychoanalytic lens, it can be interpreted that the creature is a mirror of Victor Frankenstein’s personality. Psychoanalysis argues that the conscious and unconscious mind are made up of the id, superego and ego. In order to self-actualize the conscious and unconscious mind must be in equilibrium. The creature and Victor both strive for self-actualization through their yearning to understand the world. They share the experience of lower-level emotions like the need for revenge. Ultimately, the destruction in the novel is rooted in Victor’s and the creature’s experience of parental abandonment,

    Read More

  • The Analysis Of Women In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many critics have argued how much Mary Shelley’s personal life and background should be considered in the reading and interpretation of Frankenstein which contains many autobiographical references and experiences of her own. Analyzing the combination of a complex novel and biographical information readers find evidence that circumscribes her life produces a possible feeling and intentions that the author may have possessed. During the time period of writing Frankenstein, f...

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Theory in MacBeth

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barry, Peter. "Psychoanalytic criticism." Beginning Theory: an Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009. 92-115. Print.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Critical Analysis Essay

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).

    Read More

More about Psychoanalytic Criticism Frankenstein

Open Document