What does ice represent in Marry Shelley’s novel? She uses ice throughout the novel for visual as well as sensory aid, but it also holds a deeper meaning. It is appropriate that the book ends with ice. Ice can be used to create anything. People can use ice to build igloo to find shelter but it is also very dangerous. Ice can trap, suffocate and freeze the blood in your vein. Walton Robert interests were to discover new power and knowledge in the unexplored artic.
While the virgin unexplored frozen sea of artic was an interest of Robert Walton, but this is the location where Victor picked to lure the monster. In Mary Shelley’s novel ice also represent the path victor’s and the monsters life took.
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His life became fruitless, barren and miserable life. It is very appropriate that the novel ends in ice. In the Novel Frankenstein Victor’s new discovery of giving life to inanimate object led his life to ruin.
With this new found power he created a monster. He worked on this project for years without eating and socializing. He became too absorbed in his project and did not socialize. The Project was successful, but then the next big obstacle came in his path. Would the people accept his creation? His creation in not natural and even Victor did not accept the creature he created. He became cold and unaccepting of the monster which led the monster become isolated. Not being accepted by the creator or the community he became sad and angry. It is not the creature’s wish to have a life like this. If only his master showed him love. Victor also suffered a lot from this creation of the monster. He isolated himself from his friends and peers. Artic ice can be harsh and cold just like doctor Frankenstein. In Artic only the toughest can survive. For example, polar bears thrive in the icy climate. They are also solitary animals. It is hard to live in a pack when the food is …show more content…
scarce. It is an unfriendly and largely uninhabited land at the edge of the known world, and one of the place where the monster can live. His exiled to this frozen place symbolizes his treatments of his creator and his rejection by the people in the society. The Monster lured his master to this land to end his life. It reflects most of life. Being isolated like that makes people lose their mind. It is probably the same case with the monster. Frankenstein found fire in the forest.
Ice is the opposite of the warmth, and life giving power of fire in the begging of the novel. The introduction of ice in the novel is in the Arctic. This is where Victor is at the point where he is at his life’s end. Ice is cold and unforgiving. The ice is a symbol of the fate of victor's life at this point. Victor is an intelligent man but his obsessive want for knowledge led to his demise. If he moderately practice his power this could have been prevented. He was blinded by his goal and he suffered for his foolishness.
Nature have different phases and power. It is better to leave the nature do its wohttps://www.paperrater.com/free_paper_graderrk. It is very important to not to mess with nature. Victor also tried to escape his problem by moving up north. Victor thinks of science as a mystery soon to be discovered; its secrets like the Artic, once discovered, must be jealously guarded.
He considers M. Krempe as model scientist: “an uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science.” Victor’s entire obsession with creating life is shrouded in secrecy, and his obsession with destroying the monster remains as a secret until Walton hears his tale. His cold and shrouded secret was found
out. “When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made.” The monster feels a similar disgust for himself: “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” Both lament the monster’s existence and wish that Victor had never engaged in his act of creation. His cold action towards the
Seeing his condition, Frankenstein moved to his country house. Now Victor was looking for "ease the pangs of physical movements and change places." He hired a mule, he went on a trip to the Alps. Two months later, crossing a glacier covered with deep cracks, he came face to face with his creation. All this time the monster was watching him. Being chosen is a lonely place, to speak with his creator, Frankenstein, and told his sad story (Shelley, 1999).
At the beginning or the story, Victor lives in ecstasy, reveling in life’s every joy. Desolation and darkness no doubt had minor roles in his life, but these were glanced over in an instant, as Victor was remembering the times as good and perfect. The harsh dichotomy of this perspective and the perspective he maintained for the majority of the novel after the creation of the creature is stunning. After, he saw the world as always filled with darkness and loneliness. He even stated that he almost caught himself feeling happiness at one point and stopped himself. This distortion that the world became a fruitless wasteland is simply untrue, but it sheds light on how totally our feeling twist our perception of the world. By shoeing the polar opposites, the novel further emphasizes how our outlook on life shapes what we see in the world around us, for better or for
In the novel, Victor creates a monster with pure intentions. Before the story of the life of the monster is told from the monster’s point of view, Victor recollects to Robert Walton about his journey to meet the monster. He explains the journey to the mountain to speak with the monster. Along his journey he experiences the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of waterfalls around, which expressed to him that water has the power of omnipotence (Shelley, 81). This expression of the archetype of water reoccurs throughout the novel. This becomes the basis of the inference that water will be a prevalent source of power not only in the novel, but also in major aspects of every day life. Victor’s actions show that although his intentions may have been pure, the results of his actions proved to be a deadly force. When the monster comes to life, it is raining (Shelley, 43). Victor holds power to give life, just as water does. This is a representation of the archetype, water. By water being present while the creature comes to life, it foreshadows the effects that Victor’s actions will have. Later, after parting with the monster that night, Victor comes home to find out his brother has been murdered. Eventually, Victor realizes it is the monster that has murdered his dear brother.
Victor uses his knowledge and attachment to science and becomes “thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit” (Shelley 68) and that pursuit is to succeed. He puts his whole heart and dedicates his every hour to the creation, which makes him “neglect the scenes around [him] causing [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time” (Shelley 68). After putting so much time and effort into the creation, Victor expects the product to be perfect, yet it is the complete opposite, unattractive and frightful. Victor barely gives the monster a chance to speak before he runs off, leaving the monster to fend for
Victor is so engulfed by his work that he is unaware of what is going on around him. He “bore onwards [with his work], like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success” and he wants to “pour a torrent of light into our dark world" (Shelley 55). Blinded by his yearning for making new discoveries, Victor thinks that his knowledge of the sciences will be enough for him to be successful. However, he does not understand that in order to create an auspicious relationship between him and his creation, he needs to have knowledge of society as well. Once his creation is animated, Victor is unable to see that all the creature wants is to be loved and accepted. The creature craves the maternal love that Victor denies him. From the beginning, Victor is unable to realize the significance of his creation. He describes how the creature’s “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath... [and] his hair was of a lustrous black... [and] his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 58). He immediately focuses on the negative features of his creation, and does not even attempt to learn the positive qualities. If Victor uses more social skills, rather than his knowledge of the sciences to manage his creation, all of the destruction the creation causes could have been
After examining Frankenstein’s inability to endure ice and metaphorically his own ideal, the reader recognizes Shelley’s purpose for repeating images of ice in Frankenstein. Every concept is subject to being distorted and utterly rejected, no matter how grand it is. Shelley is telling the reader it is necessary to be weary of any personal endeavor, for it never affects only one person. Sometimes, in achieving an ideal a person does not speculate any consequences and puts others in jeopardy. Shelley is clear to depict that that danger is far greater than subjecting only their self to cope with their ideal.
Victor being the stubborn individual that he is, could still not be swayed from studying what he wanted. This only pushed him to read further into this category of the supernatural and begin reading from authors such as Albert Magnus and Paracelsus. Victor was even quick to state “My dreams were therefore undisturbed by reality; and I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life” (23). His stubborn nature becomes more evident when Victor finally gets to Ingolstadt for his education. After being criticized for only studying those authors by M. Krempe, a professor that Victor is to study under, and refuses to take the recommendation from Krempe to study other authors. Victor is quick to say, “I returned home, not disappointed, for I had long considered those authors useless whom the professor had so strong reprobated; but I did not feel much inclined to study the books which I procured at his recommendation” (28). His constant stubbornness won’t even allow him to take suggestions from a Professor that he is supposed to learn from. This of course allows for bad choices to be made and just goes to show how Victor lacks compassion for the people around
Victor soon realizes that he is the only one that holds this type of power. No one else has discovered such science and the fact that he has, makes him better than everyone else. He is starting to realize the power that he is capable and what he will be able to do with such great power. "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless ...
Everything starts to change once Victors ambitions become his life. He leaves to study at Ingolstadt, where his destiny begins to unfold. This is when Victor’s isolation begins. The search for the secrets of life consumes him for many years until he thinks he has found it. For months, he assembles what he needs for his creation to come alive.
Victor’s ambitions and adulation toward science commence at a very young age. His childhood is the origin of his arrogance, which appears as the motivation behind his choices as an adult. Growing up in Geneva, Victor is introduced to science at a very young age. Fascinated by the secrets of life he starts his studies of the past and develops the background that serves him when he attends the University of Ingolstadt. Once in the institution, Victor prolongs his knowledge of modern science and masters most subjects. Not very long after attending the university, Victor obtains the proficiency and the components of creating a human being. The idea of controlling life however, did not spark to Victor’s mind when studying science. He first considered the idea after the loss of his mother while he attended the schools of Geneva. The death of his mother leaves him mystified but not discouraged. This is evident when Victor states: “ I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation”...
Victor Frankenstein finds himself exploring the world of science against his fathers wishes but he has an impulse to go forward in his education through university. During this time any form of science was little in knowledge especially the chemistry which was Victors area if study. Victor pursues to go farther than the normal human limits of society. “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Chapter 4). He soon finds the answer he was looking for, the answer of life. He becomes obsessed with creating a human being. With his knowledge he believes it should be a perfe...
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, highlighting the strife that her society is 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.
From the onset of Victor’s youth, his earliest memories are those of “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember” (ch. 4) This is the first example of obsession that we see in the novel. This drive to learn the ‘hidden’ laws of nature is the original driving force that sets the plot in motion. Without this, Victor would have never embarked on his unholy quest to overcome mortality, thus leading to his creation of his monster.
Because of Victor’s need for fame and desire for power leads to Victor becoming a monster. Victor begins his quest to bring life to a dead person because he does not want anyone to feel the pain of a loved ones death. At first he is not obsessed with his project. As he moves along in the project he thinks about what will happen to him. "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source, many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me." (Shelley 39) He realizes that he will become famous if he accomplishes the task of bringing a person back to life. The realization that he will become famous turns him into an obsessive monster. He wanted to be admired, and praised as a species creator. He isolates himself from his family and works on the creature. “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I deprived myself of rest and health. 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 156) By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, he has no time to write or contact his family. He puts fear within his family because they fear for him.
Victor was reared in a household where he had the proper environment to learn many things. His father was well-educated and encouraged Victor to further his knowledge. There was, however, one subject that he did not encourage Victor on; it was natural philosophy. Victor’s father told him not to waste his time on such trash. This remark fueled Victor’s curiosity and he studied further into it. At the age of 13, Victor “entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained [his] undivided attention”. This foreshadowed Victor’s biggest mistake of his life that was to happen later in his life. When he entered the university, Victor started his studies in great detail and intensity. His greatest ambition was this: he wanted to recreate life out of something which life had already parted. He “described [himself] as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”.