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Literary analysis for frankenstein
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Since the beginning of time, water has been a source of utmost power. In the Bible’s book of Genesis, the story of creation is told. On the third day, God is said to part the waters to give life to men, animals, and vegetation inhabiting the land. This is similar to how Victor Frankenstein gives life to his monster. Later in Genesis, God approaches Noah, who is a righteous man of God. He tells Noah to build an Ark because he intends to flood the Earth to rid it of the evil and corruption. The Bible, written over 3,000 years ago shows the ability and power of water to transcend time. This allusion shows the power which water can have. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she relates water to her main character, Victor Frankenstein. He gave life to a monster with innocent intentions, yet the monster goes on to kill and destroy. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s actions symbolically relate to water and the antithesis in which it not only creates, but also destroys life.
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.
First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness
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.
It is not arduous to find meaning in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein but the more complex part is trying to find one definite feeling in the novel. Allied with references to other Romantic Period works and Greek mythology is a portion of a poem that seems out of place – “Mutability,” by Percy Shelley. The reader will feel it irrelevant with the sudden introduction of the poem “Mutability” in chapter 10, when Victor is enjoying his encounter with nature. It is only when the reader analyses the poem , does one realize the significance of the intertext. Mary Shelley includes the last two stanzas of Percy Shelley’s “Mutability” in chapter 10 of Frankenstein to reflect a correlation between nature and Victor’s actions and thoughts, and to showcase
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...
Victor had created the creature with the vision from his dreams of a strong, tall perfect being with no flaws. His years of study with the unnatural and science had come to this final conclusion and masterful idea that he was determined to finish. To his surprise, he had created the opposite, “For this I had 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 35) Victor is saddened by what he thinks of as a failure. He leaves his own apartment to go sleep in his court yard outside following his creation. He begins to isolate himself from the creature because of his fear of the creature’s outward appearance. He loses all hope for the creature without even learning anything about him. The fact that Shelley begins to refer to the being that Victor created as a “creature” shows Victor’s ignorance and lack of acceptance. It is Victor’s prejudice that blinds him of the creature’s true potential due to the unwanted preconception that follows the creature as he finds meaning in
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, who is described as a beautiful man with no apparent flaws. He created another life and kept it a secret until the monster actually came to life. Mary Shelley knew what she was doing because she wanted to portray Victor as being a loyal and caring person. Shelley wanted us to view victor as the one who does not need to take responsibility for their actions but it all catches up with him in the end. Victor is selfish and doesn’t want to take responsibility for his actions, or his creation. Victor states, “I had desired it with and ardor that far exceeded moderation: But now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and the breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (Shelley, Kindle) When reading this quote, you can see that he does not care anything about the monster after it has come to life. He spent all that time on it for him to judge the monster by its appearance instead of treating his creation like a child and teaching him everything he needs to know. Now all he knows is neglect and
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
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.
By attempting to create life and messing with the natural order of the world, Victor loses his connection to the earth and eventually ends up as a shell of what he once was. No matter how hard he tried to redeem himself, he could no longer be one with nature. The creature that Victor creates by using the malicious techniques of science actually starts out to nature than Victor himself. The Creature recognizes the wonders of nature and finds temporary happiness in his closeness to the world. 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 to highlight the strife that her society was 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. Even now, people are constantly enraptured by the possibilities that science and technology offer, while neglecting their duties towards nature and the
In 1818 Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein brings a creature to life. The creature kills William, Henry Clerval, and Elizabeth. Victor had promised to make a female creature for the creature, but he did not fulfill his promise. This makes the creature enraged. The creature runs away and Victor follows him. Victor gets on a boat with Walton. Victor dies and the creature comes and is very sad that his creator has died. The creature says that he must end his suffering and he jumps into the ocean. In the novel Frankenstein, Shelley uses the theme of nature to show how it is like the characters of the story and how it affects the characters.
He had asked Victor to create him another monster as a companion and if he doesn’t keep his promise, then he will be miserable. When Victor goes to England with the intention of creating this promised monster, his friend Henry follows him. After several months, Victor destroys the half created creature and this upsets the monster very much so because he wants this companion. When he kills Henry, the monster distinctly planned it so that Victor would be blamed for the murder. Through all this confusion on who killed Henry, Victor knew all along that the monster did it. At this point, Victor knew that he must return to Geneva to protect his family whom he loved very much (Shelley 181). Since this monster killed Henry, Victor knew that his family was now is in danger. The monster is very happy that Victor is having to suffer because, Victor is now feeling the loneliness that he feels all the time. Though the monster’s character is not evil, the pain he feels is what he wants his creator to feel. His revenge only increases throughout the book because he is only longing for a fellow companion that Victor can only give him, but yet he is choosing not to create it. The anger that is within the monster is only growing and this is increasing the possibilities of him hurting more
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
A book or story is full of references and themes generated from the words that the author wrote himself inside that said book or story. Themes are the author’s way of messaging a “big idea” to his/her readers and is important to understand them. Themes are formed from quotes that the author present in his/her books or stories via by characters, narration, or by events from the book or story. Those quotes that generate those themes and reference are important and can develop or redefine one’s character. In all three stories, “Flowers for Algernon”, Frankenstein, and Prometheus all share a common quote that fits all three of their individual stories and theme. The quote is “It has been said that these are the stories of a man, so consumed by ambition and a thirst for knowledge that in the end his desire to live his dreams, becomes the death of something within him.”
Victor and the creature are very similar yet vastly different. They share a beginning and an end, an introduction and a conclusion. They are both brought to ruin by the same factor: the thirst for knowledge. These two characters are brought to their downfall by knowledge: Victor by penetrating too deep in to the mysteries of nature and the creature by learning to cause pain and death upon others. Victor and the creature engage in gathering knowledge, each for their own purpose, but the outcome is the same. Knowledge is dangerous.