Frankenstein Essay
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s emotional journey is highlighted by the weather and scenery throughout the novel. In gothic literature, the environment is almost as important as the plot, and in Frankenstein, this is no different. The definition of an environment is “the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.”, seeing how victor operates in the different changes of scenery are crucial to understanding the novel as a whole. As he goes from his childhood in Geneva to working on his creation, to dying, and his emotions change so do the environments. While the creature, victor’s creation, also has
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From the sunny hillsides of his home in Geneva to the dark, rainy days of fall, to finally to the bitter cold of the arctic, the emotions coincide with these environments as they tell a story in themselves.
When describing the hillsides and sunny weather of his hometown, victor feels happy and has a sense of comfort. From the start of the novel, Victor reflects on his childhood and remembers the good memories of him in the lush mountains of his hometown. The warmth blessed upon him from the bright, yellow sun. The intense greenery brought about from the alpine forests in the summer. All of this majesty expressed when describing these emotions connotes the sense of comfort felt by Victor. In the beginning of the novel when telling about his childhood with his sister he states, “ She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home—the sublime shapes of the mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of
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Unlike when telling the reader about the sunny hillsides of Geneva, rain is only mentioned when Victor is in a time of despair and anguish. The gloomy lighting implied by the rain also connotes the second story in itself, along with the plot. When describing what the outside world is like as he is working on his creation, he describes the outside world as dismal with rain often an aspect of the imagery. In one instance right before the creature moves for the first time Victor states, “It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.” (58). While one would think Victor would be happy after spending months on end on his creation to see it finally move, but instead he is unevental. The rain is this scene amplifies the affect the feeling of indifference. After realizing what he has done, Shelly again uses the imagery of the rain to highlight the despair felt by Victor. Spending day after day with laser focus to create something that he would only think about the repercussions after he created it has a tolling effect on Victor. He does not want anything to do with what he just created and regrets all the hard work he has done. When in this slump he states, “I did not
The heavy rains and the bare house give off a gloomy vibe in the beginning and towards the end, the idea of vacations in Italy and the warm fire give off a more hopeful vibe.
The setting in Frankenstein is vivid and on the opposite ends of the spectrum to the setting in the poem A Cottage in Grasmere Vale. In Frankenstein, the novel is bookended by the setting as it starts off in the Arctic and also ends in the Arctic. These two settings, are in contrast as in A Cottage in Grasmere Vale the setting is scenic ‘Peaceful our valley, fair and green, and beautiful her cottages’ and in Frankenstein the setting is described as ‘those icy climes’ Shelley uses nature to represent Dante’s inferno and the ninth innermost circle of hell, the ninth circle of hell is for people who have betrayed god which is what Victor does by trying to change nature, and the setting is in the Arctic, surrounded in ice. Victor is fascinated with
did not watch the blossom.” Shelley illustrates to the reader how beautiful the “blossom” of the flowers are and how much Victor is missing out of by dedicating all of his time to making the “monster”. This is one factor of Victor’s suffering and depression, the act of missing out on the true meanings of life. Shelley wanted to make this a very personal matter to the reader and Victor because most people have a personal connection to seeing the flowers bloom in spring, which then lets the reader connect their own experience and back with Victors. Shelley also uses that same “blossom” reference as a symbol for Victor’s own intellectual blooming and expanding just as the flowers are expanding his horizon. Even though Victor “did not watch the blossom,” this gave him more time to “succeeded” with his making of the “monster”. There is an evident change in Victor's passion to create the “monster” when Victor says, “enthusiasm was check by my anxiety.” Here, Victors animal instinct of sensing fear is present. He knows that making life artificially is very risky and it gives him “anxiety” even though his intentions were originally pure and out of the passion for science. He subconsciously (instinctively) knows that
Shelley is very good at using the settings in this novel to evoke emotions from the reader. Whilst some of these settings are named areas, there are also some which include mere words that create a depiction of Frankenstein’s emotions and the seriousness of the current happenings. The significance of a setting is very important in a novel because, ‘Setting is the time and place where a scene occurs. It can help set the mood, influence the way characters behave, affect the dialog, foreshadow events, invoke an emotional response, reflect the society in which the characters live, and sometimes even plays a part in the story. It can also be a critical element in nonfiction
Victor’s obsession with the genesis of life prevents him from thinking clearly. Initially, Victor has a strong interest in science. However, during his time at Ingolstadt, when he becomes interested in the cause of the generation of life, he decides to create and animate a human being. He completely neglects his family and friends because his sole focus is on his creation. Victor prioritizes the creation of his creature over his own health and happiness. Since he works in complete secrecy, there is nobody to help him stop his obsession. In addition, there is nobody who can monitor the aesthetic quality of his creation. He is so fixed on completing his project that he fails to notice how ugly it is. As soon as the creature comes to life, Victor is so horrified and disgusted with it that he runs away. He feels like “the beauty of [his] dream [va...
Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, illustrates the trials including Victor Frankenstein's triumphs, a character who owned a lovely with memorable life experiences that shaped the independent college student he became. Despite Victor growing up in a welcoming setting, he struggled to find the intellectual purpose of acquiring a college education in his physical science interest to generate the likelihood of reviving a dead corpse with electricity to acquire the comfortability to feel like God. Mary Shelley used diction and imagery to convey shifts in mood that supported the plot of chapters one through five in Frankenstein to inundate the reader with the feelings the characters of the story were facing.
The story opens by embracing the reader with a relaxed setting, giving the anticipation for an optimistic story. “…with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (p.445).”
An idea becomes a vision, the vision develops a plan, and this plan becomes an ambition. Unfortunately for Victor Frankenstein, his ambitions and accomplishments drowned him in sorrow from the result of many unfortunate events. These events caused Victors family and his creation to suffer. Rejection and isolation are two of the most vital themes in which many dreadful consequences derive from. Victor isolates himself from his family, friends, and meant-to-be wife. His ambitions are what isolate him and brought to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated by everyone including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge. All the events and misfortunes encountered in Frankenstein have been linked to one another as a chain of actions and reactions. Of course the first action and link in the chain is started by Victor Frankenstein.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is a Gothic and Romantic novel written in the early 1800s. The novel opens with Captain Robert Walton as he is sailing on his ship on the search for new and undiscovered territory. During his exploration, Robert’s ship becomes trapped in ice, and he encounters Victor Frankenstein, who looks miserable. When Robert begins to talk to Victor, Victor starts to explain his life story, which ends up being a complete tragedy. Victor tells Robert of his desire to discover the secret to life, which ultimately leads to his creation of the Creature. However, Victor’s enormous creation and his ambitions do not bring him the fame and happiness that he had hoped to receive. He only receives pain and misery. The Creature ends up destroying all of Victor’s loved ones, which leads up to Victor’s death. From the beginning when he is born, the Creature is alone with no one to raise or take care of him, and he is forced to retreat and hide from civilization and the humans who fear him. As it can be seen, Victor and the Creature share miserable lives. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the characters of Victor and the Creature are developed through the use of Romantic elements, which greatly influenced Shelly in creating her novel.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment.
Victor Frankenstein and his creation are alike in several ways, one of them being their appreciation of nature. Victor embraces the nature for the quick moment that he escapes the creature as it “filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy” (Shelley 84). Vict...
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.
Victor and the creature both share a deep appreciation for nature and its beauty. Both of these characters look to natures beauty almost as like a getaway from the hurt and stress of their everyday lives. Victor has such a strong passion for nature. Victor says this which would back his admiration for nature, “During this short voyage I saw the lightning playing on the summit of Mont Blanc in the most beautiful figures. The storm appeared to approach rapidly, and, on landing, I ascended a low hill, that I might observe its progress. It advanced; the heavens were clouded, and I soon felt the rain coming slowly in large drops, but its violence quickly increased. While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific, I wandered on with a hasty step.”
In this alternate ending chapter to Frankenstein, Victor does not run away from his problems, but instead he decides to tackle them and does not see them as nearly as big of problems. He realizes that he needs to nurture his creation in the beginning instead of in the end when it is too late. He accepts the creature and decides to let his closest friend in and accept the creature as well. This chapter includes the gothic and romantic element of the supernatural creatures that Victor created. It also includes the romantic element of love of nature. Frank becomes fascinated with nature during Victor and Frank’s walk in the woods, and Frank and Vicki decide to live out their lives deep in the woods.
Which is more powerful science or nature? Author Mary Shelley shows us exactly what could happen when science and nature are pitted against each other in her novel “Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus”. In the novel the life of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein spirals out of control after the death of his mother. He consequently becomes dangerously obsessed with death. His mission becomes to go against nature in order to figure out the science of life. In his journey of giving a “torrent of light into our dark world” (Shelley, 61) Victor Frankenstein is faced with the consequences going against nature. I believe that Mary Shelley was against science that went over the bounds set by nature.