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Literary theories in the metamorphosis
Literary theories in the metamorphosis
How are the themes of acceptance and rejection explored in ‘Frankenstein’
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An unnamed, grotesque monster-like human was brought to life by an unorthodox science experiment performed by Victor Frankenstein, a devoted scientist. Victor was raised by a loving and supportive family which in turn gave rise to him discovering and pursuing his passion, the sciences. While Victor had a comfortable and loving upbringing, his creation, did not. Instead of being mystified and proud of his creation, Victor was horrified by The Monster’s grotesque appearance and abandoned him so after he came to life. Along with Victor’s abandonment, The Monster was also rejected by many others while tried to integrate into society. Gregor was a traveling salesman whom woke up one day to find out that he had turned into a large bug. Frightened …show more content…
by this unexpected occurrence, Gregor was also rejected his family and others he encountered. Even though Gregor’s family could not stomach the sight of his new physiological change, they did their best to care for him.
Societal rejection is nonetheless a common theme throughout both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, with this rejection no doubt influencing both The Monster’s and Gregor’s behavior throughout the course of their lives. Even though rejection from non-family members did influence their fates, it was not the primary contributor to them. In Frankenstein, Shelley shows that the abandonment by The Monster’s creator had a greater impact on his fate that the rejection of others while in The Metamorphosis, Kafka shows that the idea of becoming a burden to his family had a greater impact on Gregor’s fate than the rejection due to his physical appearances. Both authors show that it was those differences in their experiences rather than the societal rejection both characters experienced that made the difference in their individual fates. Before we describe why these character’s family played a greater role in their fates, we first need to understand how societal rejection influenced their …show more content…
fates. The Monster’s first experienced rejection by a poor family, the DeLaceys, he had grown fond of when secretly living outside their home where he learned to read and speak by watching them.
After learning to read, The Monster learned through a note written by Victor that he was abandoned due to Victor’s inability to withstand The Monster’s grotesque appearance. Once The Monster was finally spotted by the DeLacey family, they were also frightened by The Monster’s appearance and ran him away. The Monster then sought-after Victor in search of a social connection to someone. On his way he rescued a little girl from drowning but is ran off by her male companion because he thought The Monster was trying to harm her. He describes this encounter stating that he was dashed to the ground and struck violently with a stick. The Monster follows to say, “I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained.” (Shelley 161) This statement shows that although The Monster was upset at the way people reacted to him, he did not turn to rage and instead was able to refrain from lashing out. The Monster even goes as far to say that for some weeks he had led a miserable life in the woods trying to cure the wound which I had received from the rejections he encountered. Further along his journey, he is teased by a little boy for his grotesque appearance. Once he finds Victor he asks him to create an equally ugly
companion, but Victor goes back on his word later, leaving The Monster no hope for someone to love him. Each of these unfortunate circumstances The Monster faces throughout his life, further hatred for humanity. Gregor like, The Monster was also rejected because of his physical appearances, something neither of the two could control. One day Gregor woke up to discover that he had turned into a large bug and once his new change was discovered he was immediately met with rejection. Gregor’s co-workers and later the boarders who moved in his home were frightened and disgusted by his bug-like nature. After seeing Gregor, the boarders who were split the rent with Gregor’s family declared to move out and withhold rent pay rent because of Gregor’s nature. Now that we have touched on the commonality of their rejection, we can now understand how the characters felt and how they tried to adjust to their novel situations. Gregor eventually grows annoyed at the cleaning lady who cannot refrain from starring at him who even invaded his privacy out of curiosity of his condition. Gregor also felt a sense of disparity once he realizes the burden he placed on his family due to his new condition. Both men as a result commit acts that they may not have otherwise committed if they been treated better by society. It is no secret that both characters, expressed outrage and despair by the rejection they experienced, however their interactions with their family seemed to take a more fatal role. Because The Monster did not retaliate by harming the man whose wife he rescued from drowning, this shows that The Monster actions were not solely determined by his rejection from society. When describing his life to Victor after his birth, he states “I found myself similar yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read and to whose conversation I was a listener.” (Shelley 151) In this line The Monster acknowledges his obvious difference from other humans. The Monster also knew that he was ugly when he saw his reflection in the water. Both of these acknowledgments show that The Monster why people were reacting to him the way that they did. What The Monster couldn’t understand was why his own creator would turn his back on him. Because The Monster was disowned instead of loved by his creator, the only connection he had in society, he was flooded with feelings of revenge and hatred. The very thought that his own creator could abandon him even though he was the cause of his appearance made The Monster outraged. The Monster expressed this outrage, stating, “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance.” (Shelley 155) The Monster nevertheless only turned violent, becoming a harm to others when he was seeking revenge on Victor. On his journey to Victor he decided to kill the boy tease him about his appearance not because the boy was teasing him but because he learned the boy was related to Victor. The Monster was furthermore hurt when he tried to get Victor to see that he was not a monster and had many good qualities, Victor still didn’t want anything to do with him. Even after The Monster asked Victor to create a companion for him so that he wouldn’t feel so isolated he didn’t fall through on his promise. This upset The Monster even more and he vowed revenge on Victor once again causing him to kill Victors best friend. The Monster then threatened to make an appearance on Victor’s weeding night to make sure that he did not achieve happiness since Victor denied happiness to him when he destroyed the companion he began to make for The Monster. Without The Monster having to say the words, Victor already knew that this was a threat to either his life or his soon to be wife’s. The Monster succeeded in killing Victors bride on their wedding night. Nevertheless, only after Victor’s rejection did The Monster do bodily harm to anyone and not when others rejected him. Gregor was also rejected from society and like The Monster, he thought about retaliating with violence. Whenever someone would enter Gregor’s family home and react with disgust or terror at the sight of him, he would of course feel despair, however his sadness will only intensify after he saw how people’s reaction to him affected his family. Once Gregor lost his role as the breadwinner in the family due to his inability to work, his mental state slowly began to deteriorate. Even though Gregor’s family had been trying to be supportive and show their love and support he sometimes heard the truth of the burden he was placing on his family with them having to take care of him even though they were barely fit to work. Once Gregor realized he was becoming a burden on his family, he begins to lose his will to live and his behavior began to shift drastically. Because the family was struggling to make ends meet, they took in boarders to help with rent. Once the boarders discover Gregor they became frightened and this placed another strain on his family. With Gregor in near depression and the family struggling to withhold their home, Crete, Gregor’s grows tired of their circumstances and tries to make a proposal. She states to her father, “You must try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we have believed for so long, that is truly our real misfortune. But how can it be Gregor? If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily.” (Kafka 69) This was the last and final straw in Gregor’s will to keep going and he soon stopped eating and hardly moved until he eventually died. Although Gregor was upset by the rejection of others, the role his circumstances played on his family had a much larger impact on his fate. In The Metamorphosis the effect that rejection had on Gregor differs with that of The Monster because they had different circumstances with their family. Gregor’s family showed him a little remorse by allowing him to stay in the house with them and by choosing to take care of him despite his unusual predicament. Gregor’s mother stressed the importance that Gregor family still loved and wanted to do all they can stating, “And isn’t it a fact that by removing the furniture we’re showing that we’re giving up all hope of an improvement and are leaving him to his own resources without any consideration?” (Kafka 43) Victor on the other hand showed very little remorse, finally agreeing to make The Monster a companion which he soon reneged on. The Monster’s creator also believed he would be harmful to others due to his monstrous appearance while Gregor’s parents didn’t necessarily believe him to be dangerous but instead was grossed out by his appearance. This is why Gregor, throughout The Metamorphosis, expressed more sadness than anger. The anger mostly stemming from irritation from not being able to provide for his family, the maladjustments to his new body and from the stares of his cleaning lady. The Monster, because he was more monster-like and not a bug, like Gregor, was presumed to be dangerous and therefore harm was done to him whether physical or emotional. The Monster attempted many times to integrate with society to prove that despite his grotesque look, he was not a monster but instead a very longer person. Gregor could not control his inability to work so he only had to deal with the reality that his family had to struggle due to his. It also upset Gregor that his sister had to take on the responsibility to take care of the family. Most of the intense feels Gregor felt however came crashing down towards the end of his life because his family tried to protect him by keeping their misfortunes a secret. The Monster was not awarded this luxury being that he had been abandoned following his birth. Gregor’s humanity also was not questioned until only near the end of his life while The Monster’s was questioned for the entirety of his life. This allowed anger to build up more in The Monster than Gregor which explains why the Monster killed and Gregor did not. These very differences in the way their families handled their physical difference obviously led to the two developing different levels of anger about their rejections and even different course of actions. Gregor allowed himself to die because he couldn’t take being a burden on his family and The Monster killed to seek revenge on his creator for abandoning him with no one.
The monster tells Frankenstein of the wretchedness of the world and how it was not meant for a being such as himself. At the end of his insightful tale the creature demands a companion of the same hideous features but of the opposite gender to become his. Victor only has the choice to make the monster or suffer a lifetime of horror his creation would bring upon him. Which the creator ultimately agrees to make the female monster to save the lives of his family but gains a conscious that fills with guilt of all the destruction he has created and creating. When the monster comes to collect the female he tears her apart and the monster vows to destroy all Victor holds dear. The monster’s emotional sense is consumed with rage against Victor, murdering Frankenstein’s best friend. Though when the monster’s framing ways do not work to lead to Victor being executed, he then murders Frankenstein’s wife on their wedding night. This tragedy is the last for Victor’s father who becomes ill with grief and quickly passes within a few days, leaving Victor with nothing but his own regret. Shelley doesn’t give the audience the monsters side of the story but hints that the remainder of his journey consisted of being a shadow to that of his creator. It is at the graves of the Frankenstein family when the creature makes an appearance in the solemn and
Victor Frankenstein, a medical student spend two whole years trying to create a human out of body parts in his apartment while studying in Ingolstadt. Frankenstein focused his time and energy on his creation, isolating himself from his friends and family back home and he succeeded in making a human, albeit an abnormal human. Victor at seeing his Creation let his instincts take a hold of him which lead to his demise in the end. Victor flees the apartment in fear of the Creature, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and … I escaped and rushed downstairs” (59). Due to his appearance, which is grotesque and ugly with scarring and yellowish skin, Frankenstein’s instinct is to flee from the Creature.
In the novel, Victor is raised up by two happy parents in caring and indulgence. He receives a sister, an education, affection, and a wife from his family. However, unlike Victor, the Monster does not have any maternal or paternal figure to care and teach him values. When the Monster first escapes from Victor’s apartment and enters into the forest, he lives like an animal. He eats berries, drinks water from the streams when he gets thirsty, and sleeps in anywhere. These actions illustrate the Monster’s natural impulse for needs of food and shelters.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Franz Kafka’s clear isolation of Gregor underlines the families’ separation from society. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka emphasizes Gregor’s seclusion from his family. However, Gregor’s separation is involuntary unlike the family who isolates themselves by the choices they make. Each family member has characteristics separating them from society. These characteristics become more unraveling than Gregor, displaying the true isolation contained in The Metamorphosis.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein describes a mad scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein and the initially amiable creature assembled by him. Through questionable means of experimentation, this monster is constructed through the reattachment of several cadavers and a bolt of lightning. Upon achieving the magnificent feat of reanimation, Victor, rather than revelling in his creation, is appalled, abandoning the creature. The physical appearance of the monster terrorizes everyone he meets and is unfortunately shunned from the world. The newborn monster develops a nomadic lifestyle after being ostracized by nearly every community he travels to, but eventually finds refuge near a secluded cottage. While returning from a nearby forest, the creature
Rather, it is others who alienate it because of its grotesque appearance. The monster is quite literally ‘born’ into perpetual isolation beginning with Victor’s abandonment of it. He denies it domestic safety when he flees to his bedchamber. Victor disregards the monster’s utterance of “inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” then escapes its outstretched hand “seemingly to detain [him]” [Shelley 49]. Examining the monster’s body language as though an impressionable infant, its actions can be read as a child-like plea for its father though the absence of speech not yet learned. Instead, its unattractive appearance causes Victor to run, leaving the creature alone with no information about himself or his surroundings. Therefore, Victor’s abandonment is a crucial justification of the monster’s negative experiences with society and nature and actions in desiring community. The monster’s alienation from family is the missing first school of human nature, and the first lesson where he learns he does not belong. The creature leaves into the wilderness to learn about the world and himself on it own, only to understand his interactions are
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
Both Victor and the monster suffer tremendously both physically and emotionally throughout their life. Victor’s physical suffering was brought on by his inability to cope with his tremendous guilt and secret. The monsters physical suffering was due to the abuse inflicted upon him by society’s fear of him. Both also suffered emotionally; they were both alone, Victor due to his secret that caused isolation and his inability to admit and disclose what he had done. The monster suffered emotionally because of his creator’s rejection and society’s inability to get past his grotesque looks and accept him for who he was.
Like a child longs for a mother’s love, the monster longs for the love of his creator. When the monster was first created, Victor says that the monster looked at him “while a grin wrinkled his cheeks.” The monster looks at Victor with love and instead of receiving love in return, he receives complete rejection. The monster cannot understand why his own creator does not love him like God loved Adam. The monster believes he should be like Adam but is “rather the fallen angel.” God made man in his own image and loved Adam even with his flaws. Yet, victor made “a monster so hideous that [Victor] turned from [his creation] in disgust.” This rejection from Victor makes the monster angry and
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis takes on an wide variety of main themes. One of the most important of these is the collapse of morality and mercy, even among those people who are expected to be most fair and compassionate. Gregor’s metamorphosis is indeed terrible, but more terrible still is the psychological corruption of Gregor’s family. Their inability to adapt to the changes that have occurred signal a total breakdown in the family structure, and offer a cautionary tale about the fragility of notions of justice and mercy and how a certain change can change a persons perception of them.
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
The creature is born into the world with a fully functional brain; however, he has no knowledge of anything. As the story progresses, the creature quickly learns the language, culture, and customs of the world he lives in. Since he is horribly ugly, he is rejected by the people of his society, this is the motivation behind his need and desire to learn about himself and the society he lives in. As the creature obtains more and more knowledge, he finally discovers his origins and birth from Victor. As a result, the Creature becomes a wretched monster, who now has no sympathy for anyone or anything. The Creature becomes fixed on the idea of needing a companion, and due to this obsession, he turns Victor’s life upside down. The Creature is able to torment Victor by killing his family members, then quickly vanishing so Victor can not tell who or what he saw. The Creature and Victor finally meet again and the Creature tells Victor of his stories and struggles. Throughout the novel, the Creature remains in the same state of being, he persistently harasses Victor and maintains a watchful eye on him. At the beginning of the novel, the Creature is an innocent being, made purely for science. In the end of the novel the reader sees what the Creature truly becomes when Victor has died and the Creature is having his last words, he says: “I felt the cheering warmth of summer, and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation”(pg. 166). This explains how the Creature is aware of how he has changed from start to beginning. The society that he lived in, causes him to shift from an innocent and loving creature, to a hopeless and wretched
When the monster was created, he was born in the world with innocence, as a defenseless being in the world. Even when Victor rejects him, the monster still seeks love from society and performs unselfish acts. He seeks the love of others. Longing for company, the monster stays in the cottage without revealing himself and watches the family that lives there. By watching them, he learned how to speak and read.
Most people have experienced rejection at some point in their lives. Certainly, some cases are worse than others, but generally rejection is an unfortunate life experience that leaves people feeling isolated, bitter, and sometimes resentful. This rejection, which is a product of our external environment, can lead to an internal rejection where we choose to accept the external decision as valid and we reject ourselves. The rejection of self is dangerous because it can lead to self harm or the harm of others. Both Dante and the Monster struggle with these consequences in their own way and some end up being fatal. Is it inevitable that the rejected would act out destructively some later point in life, or are has their character been altered by