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“How does Phillip Pullman explore the themes of power, rejection and revenge and analyse how the audience’s ideas, values and beliefs are challenged by the presentation of these themes in the play Frankenstein?”
The themes of power and rejection are explored through techniques such as characterisation, how the characters reactions affect others, their limitations and dreams. Conflict can move the plot and storyline forward and create many different audience views as they side with the characters.
Power is shown throughout the play of Frankenstein from the characters created by Pullman. These characters invoke power from their personalities, as the characters develop; they acquire new strengths and leverages. Frankenstein created this monster
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and in his eyes, he is the master, Frankenstein does not seem to picture The Monster as a fellow human, until The Monster holds more power. The Monster holds physical power over Frankenstein, “The monster is far stronger than he is”, and when, The Monster uses this strength, the audience can see him as a monster and may take Frankenstein’s side. The Monster shows a ‘monster’ side of himself when he kills Frankenstein’s brother “No, not my brother-Be silent”. The Monster know that he is stronger than Frankenstein and holds the power in this scene, therefore he exploits this power to get what he wants. The audience can see The Monster as what he himself hates, ‘humans’, and that he has changed views and developed. The Monsters limitations are extending and the audience can see that he is on the way to becoming a monster. Characters can be shown as powerful or not, but these powers help the audience decide the protagonist and antagonist for themselves. Frankenstein is a play with much rejection; the characters suffer from rejection throughout the play and can encourage conflict.
The Monster is the character who endures the most rejection in the play due to his looks and intelligence. ‘He was an outcast just like us. We could have helped him”. The outcasts Felix and Agathe had experienced a type of rejection just as the monster had. As he was rejected, the audience saw a conflict within himself in the form of internal conflict, he was facing himself. Humans were rejecting him even though he had seen a form of himself in them, the audience takes strong empathy for The Monster and after this moment, may take his side in the play and try to understand what he is going through. This scene can help the audience understand the conflict The Monster takes with Frankenstein in later scenes, “I shall be terror and hatred”. Frankenstein viewed his work as a masterpiece from the very start of the play, he was so sure of his work that he would do anything to see it continued, “They won’t give me anything now.”. The University does not believe in Frankenstein, but he believes in himself, he faces a conflict against society, and society is rejecting him. The audience could see what he is doing and believe it is morally wrong and take the side against Frankenstein seeing him as evil. Frankenstein was against the University but soon came to understand what they were talking about, “No, this isn’t what I wanted”, Frankenstein rejects the monster and faces conflict with himself, doubting if he was really right and instantly rejects the monster due to its gross appearance. The different types of conflict in this play show insights into what the different views
are. In Frankenstein, Pullman shows ideas of revenge from different points of view. Different characters will have different points of view about certain events. The Monster sees his creation as a mistake late in the text and argues against Frankenstein, “Did you create me to be evil”. The Monster is taking his revenge on Frankenstein because from his view, Frankenstein was not trying to create a human, he was creating something evil. Frankenstein does not see The Monster in this way, “No, never”, these two different views leave the audience to decide which view they will side with. Although Clerval is not a noticeably main character he does make a contribution to the theme of revenge. “I’ll never let it happen”, Clerval has seen what the monster can do and his limited experiences with monster leave him thinking that The Monster is evil, from his limited point of view; the monster has done only wrong. Clerval sabotages The Bride’s life. A point of view is defined on what the subject has seen, so the different experiences arrange a perspective. Based on what the characters have seen, they will take revenge into their own hands. Power, revenge and rejection are shown in Phillip Pullman’s adaptation of Frankenstein through characterisation, point of view and conflict. The characters show certain traits to doing certain actions and these impacts on the stories themes. The point of view can define how events are seen and reacted to. Conflict keeps the storyline moving and creates new problems and solutions.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley introduces the change from good to evil with the attention that guardians give a child. William Crisman, in his critique of Mary Shelley’s work, identifies the “sibling rivalry” between Victor and the rest of his family. Crisman remarks that Victor feels as if he is the most important person in his parents’ lives, since he was Alphonse’s and Caroline’s only child. The Frankensteins adopt Elizabeth and Victor sarcastically remarks that he has a happy childhood. This prompts Victor starts to read essays about alchemy and study natural science. Anne Mellor, another critic of Frankenstein, proposes that Frankenstein’s creature was born a good person and society’s reaction to him caused him to turn evil. Victor’s makes the creature in his own perception of beauty, and his perception of beauty was made during a time in his life when he had secluded himself from his family and friends. He perceived the monster as “Beautiful!”, but Victor unknowingly expressed the evil in himself, caused by secluding himself from everybody, onto the creature (60). In this way, the creature is Victor’s evil mirrored onto a body. The expression of Victor onto the monster makes the townspeople repulsed by the creature. The theory of the “alter ego” coincides with Crisman’s idea of sibling rivalry (Mellor). Mary Shelley conveys that through Crisman’s idea of sibling rivalry, Victor isolates himself from society. Mellor describes the isolation during his creation of his creature leads to him giving the creature false beauty that causes Victor to abandon him and society to reject him.
I believe Frankenstein is a villain in this book. I believe he promotes the idea of evil which is symbolised through creating the creature. He is described as “a creature causing havoc”. The creature is an unwanted person. He has no belonging in this world. He was created, and because of this, he is an outcast because of Victor Frankenstein. The creature is the victim. He is lonely and rejected. Frankenstein is the cause of this. I believe it is wrong to play god. No man should try and create human beings. He has created a being that is driven to the extremes of loneliness in life. This is destroying innocent lives.
One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical, powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunning this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. The “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , “Leda and the Swan”, and “Harrison Bergeron” all utilize an archetypical powerful character to create tension from how each character uses their power.
We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think. It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil.
Frankenstein is a horror movie that tells the story of Dr. Henry Frankenstein’s experiment. In search for the fame and glory of playing to be god, he reaches a point where he is able to revive dead people. In this version of Frankenstein’s monster we see a selfish and careless scientist that created a creature with his intelligence. The way the character is shown reflects how ambitious someone can be to reach to be known in the world. This movie makes the people who are watching to feel empathy on the poor creature. This poor creature that did not want to live in a life where everyone is going to hate him for having a horrible aspect and not following rules that he has no idea about.
Many authors have different ways of building characters and how they look. It is up to the reader to build their perspective from the descriptions given by the author in order to understand books. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, sculpts the readers’ perspective of her monster through powerful diction and emotional syntax. After Dr. Frankenstein finally accomplishes his goal of re-animating a lifeless human, Shelley uses her strong word choice to fully express the extent of horror that Frankenstein had felt, describing his monster as a “demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 45). Frankenstein’s horror is shared with the reader simply from a well descripted sentence. The detail Shelley put into Victor Frankenstein’s perspective is gradually shaping our own, as the reader’s, perspective. Furthermore, the diction being used adds a more definitive appearance to the monster. It helps us imagine what the monster looks like and additionally, how Frankenstein feels about his success.
“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.
Locked in a perpetual struggle for dominance, both struggle to gain internal peace. Victor Frankenstein feels obligated to destroy his creation for the good of society, and the Monster wishes to come to terms with his abandonment – both are unable to find happiness. Here there is a contrast of power: Frankenstein’s intellectual power contrary to the Monster’s physical power (this is however, not to say the Monster lacked intellectual power, only that Frankenstein possesses greater fear of the physical aspects of the Monster). The first instance of this battle for power can be seen when the Monster demands of Frankenstein to “create a female…with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.” (p174) – here Frankenstein is in control. He is the only one that has the knowledge to create another being like the Monster, and thus, when the Monster asks this favour of Frankenstein he places his happiness in the hands of another. The Monster is dependent on the actions of another. However, there is a power reversal when Frankenstein denies the monster his ‘female’ (p174). Frankenstein dashes the Monster’s last hope at happiness, so the Monster threatens the life of his loved ones. Here, Frankenstein is at the mercy of his creation. For though “[Frankenstein is the] creator… [the Monster is his master” (p205) – here the Monster establishes his dominance over Frankenstein by outwardly stating his power over his creator. This power struggle is most effectively culminated in the chase around the globe. Yet it must be seen that neither Frankenstein and his Monster are in control. The Monster leaves clues for Frankenstein, demonstrating his need for Frankenstein to follow him, for without Frankenstein the Monster has no purpose in life. On the other hand, Frankenstein is following his creation all over the world, through desert, sea, and cold. Thus, it is clear that as a
Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, follows the story of Victor Frankenstein, his self-driven seclusion from society due to his fixations on life and death only stimulating his madness: “I paused, examining and analyzing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to life… I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect… that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret” (Shelley 38). Frankenstein always had a passion for gaining knowledge. His feelings and actions were based on reasoning, which deeply contrasted against his more romantic-thinking family. In his years leading up to going to university, he found a new passion for alchemy. While attending the University of Ingolstadt, he became entranced with the studies of alchemy along with natural philosophy and modern sciences. This ardor would eventually be his downfall after his fixation on life and death in relation to science led to the construction of an eight-foot behemoth. Frankenstein exemplifies the effects of
middle of paper ... ... Generally in the novel, most readers tend to sympathize with Frankenstein because of the way in which he is mentally and physically harmed by his creation. However, one must also realize that while Frankenstein is a victim in the novel, he also exhibits features that make him a monster. These monstrous qualities, however, stem from his passion for science and his desire to create life. Not only does the reader criticize and pity Frankenstein, but the reader also empathizes with Frankenstein’s creation.
The monster of the novel is often misattributed with the name, “Frankenstein.” However, Victor Frankenstein can ultimately be considered the true monster of this tale. His obsession would lead to the corruption of his soul and the creation of two monsters—one himself, and the other, the creature. In attempting to take on the role of God, nature would become a monster to Victor and destroy his life. These elements of monstrosity in Frankenstein drive the meaning of its story.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, many similarities can be seen between the creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein. While Victor and the creature are similar, there are a few binary oppositions throughout the book that make them different. The binary oppositions in the novel serve as thematic contrast; and some of the most illustrative oppositions between the two characters are on the focus of family, parenthood, isolation and association with others.
... the monster from the novel. At the end of the play he appears to Frankenstein, appeals to him for a little bit and then Frankenstein accepts him and they live together. The monster from the book undergoes a much harsher life and end, and as a result the sympathy a reader has for him far exceeds that of an audience member.
In many instances the hero and the villain are very easy to tell between, but in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley these two symbols come together to create confusion among readers. Many can argue that because Frankenstein’s creation viciously murdered so many people he is the obvious the bad guy in the story but what people must take into account is all the things in the creations life that caused him to behave as he did. He was one of the ugliest beings on earth, not knowing where he came from, and having no one love him. He did not begin to turn violent until his creator left him to go the world alone and be disowned by everyone that met him. Frankenstein wanted so badly to play God but when he had finally gotten what he wanted his disrespect for others took over and made him the ultimate villain. He stole what his creation needed to survive, love, acceptance, and an authority figure. Ultimately, it is Frankenstein’s selfishness that brings down not only his own self, but that of his creation as well.
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 ...