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The world is a carousel of color. Yet we often find ourselves confined to the blacks and whites we are taught to see. In doing this, we not only ignore the many shades of greys, reds, and blues in between, we also refuse to acknowledge the larger carousel of light we cannot behold with our eyes. Even the purest white and the heaviest black contain many other shades within the hue that the human eye cannot comprehend. This analogy applies to humanity as well. Humanity exists in the eyes of its own people as only the ends of a wide spectrum, with a generally ignored void in between comprising of all of the colors we choose to ignore. Even the ends of the spectrum that we choose to see contain some of these colors within their clarity and purity. …show more content…
This spectrum brings with it the distinctions of man or monster. However, when the full spectrum is considered, these distinctions disappear, as every man and monster carries a bit of the other side within him. The most prominent and obvious example of this is Robert Louis Stevenson’s titular character of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a man with two drastically different dispositions. Two more cases, which appear in themselves and as a collective entity, appear between Mary Shelly’s creations: Dr. Frankenstein and his murderous creature. Each character in these two books is read as a man or a monster by their crass and consternating society, leading to the eventual dismissal of the other shades of their color, whether they are those that are hidden within or are pure and visible. The more difficult end of the spectrum is the “men,” as they have reputations of being figures in society to which they must adhere.
The Richard Cory of their society, the “men” of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both conceal terrible secrets that haunt them and drive them mad, yet they cannot reveal. Born to a wealthy family, Victor’s name goes along with an upper-class, knowledgeable persona. Should word of the creature’s existence find its way into society, Frankenstein knows he would be seen as a madman. As he retains his knowledge, staying silent during Justine’s trial, Victor wonders if he is “really as mad as the whole world would believe [him] to be if [he] disclosed the object of [his] suspicions” (Shelley 78; ch. 16). Frankenstein knows that for the sake of himself and his upper-class family, he must keep to his expected behavior. For this reason, he keeps quiet during the trial as no one would believe him. His own father even dismisses his story, thinking it “the offspring of delirium” (Shelley 157; ch. 22). This is partially what drives Frankenstein mad, although he cannot show it because of the status he is expected to have. This drives him mad. His madness is ultimately what reveals the monster within …show more content…
him. Jekyll faces similar problems to Frankenstein, as he finds himself victim to a stereotype of his society. Jekyll is a well-known doctor, and a respected member of society. When Utterson becomes suspicious of his connections with Hyde, Jekyll dismisses his comments out of fear. Jekyll does not want to discuss the issue of Mr. Hyde, as it would reveal a secret that would destroy his status and reputation in the city. When he first finds himself stuck as Hyde, Jekyll, horror-struck, wonders how to fix his predicament as “the servants [are] up; all [the] drugs are in the cabinet…It might indeed be possible to cover [his] face; but of what use was that, when [he] was unable to conceal the alteration in [his] stature?” (Stevenson 68). Thankfully, Jekyll realizes that his staff is accustomed to seeing Hyde and is able to move through the house. This allows him to keep his secret and his expected personality. While Jekyll is able to maneuver through his problem more easily than Victor, he becomes addicted to Hyde, finding himself in that personality more and more, until the monster within him is revealed permanently. The monsters of the story have a slightly easier judgement to which to conform, but they are each negatively affected by it. Frankenstein’s creature only receives kindness from a blind man, finding himself beaten and hated everywhere he went because he was ugly. Even his own creator denies him. Eventually, the creature succumbs to these insults. “For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them, but allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death” (Shelley 121; ch. 16). When the monster decides to be what society expects of him, even though in reality he is not, he goes on a killing spree and tears apart Frankenstein’s family, causing his creator to give him even more hatred. This leads to more death as the monster is forced to neglect the man he was created as for the monster he is seen to be. In another sense of stereotyping, Hyde finds himself confined in a similar way to the monster. The difference is that, while the monster does not enjoy the killing but does so out of hatred for his creator, Hyde relishes death and blood. His killings are solely for his own joy, and he knows this. Jekyll reveals that Hyde knew that he could commit crimes “for his pleasures…could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and…strip off these landings and spring…into the sea of liberty” (Stevenson 66). Hyde’s murderous nature is relieving, freedom-giving. This makes Hyde’s persona all the more attractive to Jekyll. This leads to the taking over of Jekyll persona by Hyde until Hyde is all that remains, and the man no longer exists. Each society in these books has and acknowledges a man and a monster, a white and a black: Frankenstein and the Creature, Jekyll and Hyde.
However, the colors present in the void provide explanations for many events within their respective stories that may or may not have resolved their issues. The monster really wishes for love and a caring family, or even just a companion. He attempts to show kindness and reason to others, but these feelings are not reciprocated and the man is denied. Frankenstein is so repulsed by his creature that he refuses to grant the creature a companion, and thoroughly expresses his hatred for the creature, solely based on appearance. He destroys the creature’s hopes and feelings of kindness towards humanity and gratefulness toward his creator, which causes the creature to kill Frankenstein’s family and eventually Victor himself. The feelings are only out anger and despair within a man caused by another who let his internal monster get the better of him. Jekyll faces a strange predicament as he and Hyde are two sides of the same person. Yet Jekyll is a perfect example of the void and the visible ends. His real character is somewhere in between black and white, a grey, but he is only ever allowed to show one or the other as either Jekyll or Hyde, but never a mix of the two. The bad side is easier to give in to, and this leads to the monster taking over the man. However, Jekyll realizes the disaster that this could create should Hyde take over
permanently, and kills himself to keep Hyde from running amuck and killing for sport. Both groups of men show how the man and the monster must be able to coexist as one human, and not the perfect version at either end. Disaster strikes when the monster or the man is put away by the other. Both Frankenstein and Jekyll, paired with their respective creations, create an example of how humanity can limit its vision of a person to man or monster, causing that person to lose all traces of the other. On both sides of the spectrum, the characters showed signs of the other side, but these and the unseen colors in between were lost when they were forced to conform to the role set out for them. This only had harmful, disastrous effects on their lives. It also serves to show how little society can know about a person, and how much they can influence that person. It is often a surprise, then, when an unexpected turn of events takes place. It is the forced neglecting of these hidden colors that sent Richard Cory home that one summer night when he put a bullet through his head.
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
The book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the old movie of Frankenstein are very different. While they are very different there are also some similarities. In all, the old movie does not accurately show what the book is describing in the slightest. The old movie has the excuse of older technology in contrast to the technology available today. But it still could of portrayed what actually happened in the book extremely better. This essay is meant to describe the similarities and differences, even though the differences could be a full page in length.
In the stories Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are characters that have similarities, and also share some differences. In the book Frankenstein, the character I chose is the monster, and the character I chose from the book A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Oberon. I chose these individuals because they are both out for revenge, they both are cruel, but they also differ. Their differences are that Oberon has a wife, but the monster does not. The monster was created by Victor Frankenstein, but Oberon was born.
As Jekyll reached adult hood, he found himself living a dual life. He had become more curious in discovering his other side. Jekyll insists, “Man is not truly one, but truly two” (125). This eventually led Jekyll into the scientific interests of separating his good and evil side, and he finds a chemical concoction that transforms him into a more wicked man, Edward Hyde. At first, Hyde was of pure impulse, but in the end, he became dominate and took control over Jekyll. Jekyll had never intended to hurt anyone, but he was aware that something could potentially go wrong. Jekyll presumes, “I knew well that I risked death, for any drug that so potently shook the very fortress of identity… utterly blot that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change” (127-129). One could say this makes Jekyll equally as menacing as Hyde. Jekyll couldn’t control the imbalance between the two natures. Jekyll foolishly allowed his evil side to flourish and become stronger. This is shown when Jekyll has awoken to find that he has turned into Hyde without taking the solution. Jekyll says, “But the hand in which I now saw, clearly enough in the yellow light of a mid- London morning…It was the hand of Edward Hyde” (139).
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde becomes Jekyll's demonic, monstrous alter ego. Certainly Stevenson presents him immediately as this from the outset. Hissing as he speaks, Hyde has "a kind of black sneering coolness . . . like Satan". He also strikes those who witness him as being "pale and dwarfish" and simian like. The Strange Case unfolds with the search by the men to uncover the secret of Hyde. As the narrator, Utterson, says, "If he be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek". Utterson begins his quest with a cursory search for his own demons. Fearing for Jekyll because the good doctor has so strangely altered his will in favor of Hyde, Utterson examines his own conscience, "and the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded a while in his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there" (SC, 42). Like so many eminent Victorians, Utterson lives a mildly double life and feels mildly apprehensive about it. An ugly dwarf like Hyde may jump out from his own boxed self, but for him such art unlikely creature is still envisioned as a toy. Although, from the beginning Hyde fills him with a distaste for life (SC, 40, not until the final, fatal night, after he storms the cabinet, can Utterson conceive of the enormity of Jekyll's second self. Only then does he realize that "he was looking on the body of a self-dcstroyer" (SC, 70); Jekyll and Hyde are one in death as they must have been in life.
Jekyll is respectable man with a very good career. He is a doctor that is highly regarded in his community for what he does as far as charity and his manners. As young man growing up, he was secretly involved in weird behaviors that made him a bit questionable. Dr. Jekyll finds his other side to be quite bothersome and he decides to experiment so he could try a separate the good from the evil. He creates potions and other things that really do not help. After so many attempts of trying to restrain his evil side, he brings forth Hyde through his failed experimentation. Therefore, he only accentuates his evil self to come forth. Hyde is an extremely ugly creature that no one could stand the sight of. He is deformed, violent, and very evil. Throughout the story, he fights against Jekyll to take over his life eventually causing Jekyll to murder one of his good friends, Mr.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the Creature seem different from each other throughout the whole story, however, they actually share many similarities when the story is looked at deeper. Both the Creature and Frankenstein share a connection with nature, a desire for more knowledge, a need for family, and experiences in isolation.
Victor Frankenstein, blinded by pride, remained unaware of how his experiment would affect not only him, but the world around him as he formed his new discovery. His secret to creating life only caused more life to be lost. Because of Victor’s reckless behavior, he caused the depressed and lonely world around his own creation, one who, in the end, Victor did not want to take responsibility for making, no matter how remarkable. The Creation, a being of unfortunate circumstance, exemplifies how knowledge has dangerous and everlasting effects if not used safely or for good intentions. Unfortunately, The Creation leaves his own damage behind as well, again showing how knowledge is harmful, by killing Elizabeth, Victor’s wife, Henry Clerval, his dearest friend, and other members a part of Victor’s family and friends. This demonstrates how knowledge, if not used wisely, can lead to death and suffering. The power of knowledge, in Mary Shelley’s writing, is a gift bestowed on those who can handle the power responsibly, as opposed to using it for selfish boasting. In contrast, she uses these two characters to show the importance of being knowledgeable in both science and responsibility and the unforgivable mutilation that comes if you fail to overcome
James Whale's Frankenstein is a VERY loose adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel. The spirit of the film is preserved in its most basic sense, but the vast majority of the story has been entirely left out, which is unfortunate. The monster, for example, who possesses tremendous intellect in the novel and who goes on an epic quest seeking acceptance into the world in which he was created, has been reduced to little more than a lumbering klutz whose communication is limited to unearthly shrieks and grunts. Boris Karloff was understandably branded with the performance after the film was released, because it was undeniably a spectacular performance, but the monster's character was severely diminished from the novel.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley combines three separate stories involving three different characters--Walton, Victor, and Frankenstein's monster. Though the reader is hearing the stories through Walton's perspective, Walton strives for accuracy in relating the details, as he says, "I have resolved every night,...to record, as nearly as possible in his [Victor's] own words, what he has related during the day" (Shelley 37). Shelley's shift in point of view allows for direct comparison and contrast between the characters, as the reader hears their stories through the use of first person. As the reader compares the monster's circumstances to those of Victor and Walton, the reader's sympathy for the monster greatly increases.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep a good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. Eventually this plan got out of hand. Having two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, he started not being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Mr. Hyde permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry. Then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a monster. Having two identities is not only monstrous but it’s psychological. (Dr. Jekyll and
Free will is an inherited ability everyone obtains from birth. This ability allows humans or any living being the freedom to act on their own behalf without being influenced or forced by an external medium. However, this fragile, yet powerful capability is susceptible of being misused that may result in unsavory consequences to the one at fault. In Paradise Lost and Frankenstein, both texts feature powerful figures who bequeathed the characters in focus, the freedom to do whatever they desire in their lives. Satan and Adam and Eve from Paradise Lost, and the monster from Frankenstein are given their free will from their creators, all encounter unique scenarios and obstacles in their respective texts however, have distinctions in how they handle
Examining the Similarities Between the Creature and Victor Frankenstein A large portion of society holds the belief that hierarchies were created in order to uphold the idea that one person is better than another. Power, social standing, and fortune can all influence this. Although hierarchies promote differences and a sense of essential power, they frequently ignore the humanity that all people share, regardless of social class. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, both Victor and the creature are solely people with similar needs and goals in society, highlighting the pointlessness of making hierarchical divisions based on inadequate standards like social status or physical features. Numerous similarities exist between them, including
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a little different then Frankenstein in a way that the monster isn’t identified as a monster as much for his appearance as he is for his actions. Dr. Jekyll was a scientist and as a scientist he had to keep and good name but he didn’t want to be good he want to be bad. So, he decided he would have two personalities. Thinking that if he had two personalities he could be good and evil. He made a potion that transforms himself into a man without a conscience. So, He could do all those bad things that he wanted to do but then had a way to cover it up by saying it was someone else. But, eventually this plan got out of hand yes, he had two personalities of Dr. Jekyll being the good doctor and then Mr. Hyde being the murder, but he started no being able to control when he was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He fears that he will turn into Jekyll permanently. Society doesn’t except this because your not supposed to be two different people. Trying to be two different people is monstrous because that just doesn’t happen and him to think that is okay is monstrous. Also, for him to murder people makes him a monster. By Dr. Jekyll’s friend starting to get suspicious about this situation drive Dr. Jekyll to worry then, he turns back to Mr. Hyde and thinks it’s a good idea to kill himself. So, society drove his monstrosity to kill himself, which made him to continue to be a
Appearances can be deceiving. In society, individuals use impressions and reputation to build up trust between other individuals, and also to become more distinguished among others. Occasionally, appearances and social status are the undoing of an individual. Consequently, appearances and its reality expose the faults of society and its values and Shakespeare’s Othello and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein exhibits this. Shakespeare and Shelley use the contrast between appearance and reality in their works to illustrate the flaws of society, through the characters’ use of deception, the dehumanization and humanization of Othello and the monster, and society’s misplaced value on reputation and its façade.