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Literary analysis chapter 5 frankenstein
Literary analysis chapter 5 frankenstein
Mary Shellys Frankenstein a gothic novel
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is a novel about a man who lets the power of creating a paradox ultimately destroy his life as well as the lives of those he loved the most. The scientist, Victor Frankenstein, tells his story to a captain he meets by the name of Robert Walton to warn him not to meddle into the unknown. He tells him from the beginning that he was inspired by the thought of the creature looking to him as its God. His shallow ways drove him eventually drove him to his demise. He allows the power to take over his life, and ruin everything good he has going for him.
Growing up, Frankenstein became interested in science and mathematics. When he turned 17, his parents suggested he attend a college in Ingolstadt, Germany. However, his
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plans become delayed after the death of his mother. This tragedy gets him thinking more about death and how it works, and if it is possible to reverse. Even though Victor is still upset, he decides to go to college anyways. “There he learns about modern science and, within a few years, masters all that his professors have to teach him. He becomes fascinated with the “secret of life,” discovers it, and brings a hideous monster to life” (SparkNotes). This becomes a muse for his obsession, along with his experience with the oak tree. All of this combined leads him to the creation of the impossible. Frankenstein tires himself with this project for two years. He loses sleep, as well as his appetite. He becomes so obsessed that he does not respond to his family’s letters for the time he works on the creature. “As he went on, I felt as if my soul was being transfigured; soon my mind was filled with one thought, one purpose: I, Frankenstein, will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (Shelley). Victor attempts disgusting, unnatural tasks to reach his goal. The night he finishes, he looks upon this creature with angst and disgust. Victor hoped the creature would exceed his expectations, but it does the opposite instead. He describes the horrible monster from which he made with his two hands as revolting and an abomination to the Earth. When he looks onto this atrocity, he is not only sickened with it, but himself as well for bringing it to life. Victor becomes so carried away with his scientific breakthrough, he loses sight of his morals. After bringing the fiend to life, Victor abandons it to care for itself. This act alone is the reason for Victor’s downfall in the very end. Everything Creature does lies on Victor’s shoulders because he never taught the Creature right from wrong. If Victor did not want to take care for this ugly beast, he should have ended its life before he became smart enough defend himself. Instead, Victor becomes sick and plays the role of the victim throughout the entire story. Creature’s actions fundamentally destroy the lives of four out of the seven people he loved most in the world. “Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man” (Shelley). Victor disowns Creature to live or die on his own, he does not love it, nor does he care for it at all. He soon realizes the great mistake he has made when almost a year later when Creature kills his little brother, William.. If Victor had had gone home with his family like they had begged him to, he would not have meddled with this subject and everyone he loved would still exist. Victor’s mistakes are also defined by his lack of explanation to his family. If they would have known what was going on with him, they may have become more capable of defending themselves. They may not have believed him at first, but they would at least acquire the knowledge and ability to pay closer attention. “His friends and family weren’t around to give him balance and to temper his flame. It wasn’t until he could hear the voices of those closest to him that he realized how selfish and frankly, crazy, he was being” (Anderberg). If he had his family on his side the entire time, he may have not created the monster in the first place. He should have talked to Elizabeth or Henry about his fixation, they may have talked him out of his idea. In the very end, the only ones who knew were, Victor, Creature, Walton, and Walton’s sister. However, Victor never shares his creature-building process. He wanted to ensure that no one ever made the same mistake he did. Victor had good intentions when creating Creature, he wanted to make a beautiful beast whose abilities were better than that an average human. “I had begun life with benevolent intentions, and thirsts for the moment when I should put them into practice, and make myself useful to my fellow-being” (Shelley). He wanted to become the first man to create such a paradox. In the beginning Creature was kind, and innocent but the non acceptance of his peers lead him to hate not only the way he is, but the one who made him that way. “The monster begins its life with a warm, open heart. But after it is abandoned and mistreated first by Victor and then by the De Lacey family, the monster turns to revenge” (LitCharts). Creature lived his short life hoping Victor would care for him in any way, but he never does. The Creature now wants his revenge; he sought after all of Victor’s loved ones in hope to make his creator as miserable and lonely as he. “But, in fact, all that tragedy, murder, and despair occur because of a lack of connection to either family or society. Put another way, the true evil in Frankenstein is not Victor or the monster, but isolation” (LitCharts). The reson Creature acts out and seeks revenege is because he is afraid. Victor never shows him right from wrong. The only kind of human contact he recieved ended in screams of terror and abuse. He learned he was an abomination from the cottagers. As he gained knowledge, he began to see how terrible he really looks. “Loneliness also plays out in the monster’s life. He turns to killing because he’s so lonely – nobody accepts him, he has no companion, and even his creator has rejected him. At one point he tells Frankenstein that if he simply had a female mate, he’d stop killing and run away to never be seen again. Frankenstein, who should understand the perils of loneliness, rejects this idea, however” (Anderburg). Creature curses his producer from the beginning of his abandonment, for making him a hideous beast which no human eyes could bare to see and especially love. Throughout the entire story, Victor loses one loved one after another.
When losing his brother, he ran away to the mountains to collect himself before facing his family again. “When Victor Frankenstein creates the creature, he collapses because of a nervous illness and describes himself in this state as ‘lifeless’” (Ruston). Every time Victor loses someone, he goes to be alone and blames himself, claiming he is the victim of these heinous crimes. However, Victor is a victim because it is his creation, and his family, he believes that he is the only victim and the Creatures actions do not affect anyone else. When the Frankenstein’s lost William, they lost a brother and a son. As well as when they lost Elizabeth and Henry. The sole survivor of the story was Ernest, and he was not mentioned often. Victor frequently asks himself, “Why me?” and bares all the weight of the deaths on his shoulders. This goes back to Victor never telling anyone about the Creature. “Frankenstein’s deceitfulness is one of his greatest flaws. His whole obsession with science is shrouded in secrecy. It is what keeps him from saving his loved ones from the monster. His failure to reveal his secret of the monster leads to the destruction of those he loved” (Nguyen). If someone else had known, Victor would not have carried the entire burden
himself. After the death of his new bride, Elizabeth, Victor sets off behind the Creature with wide eyes for revenge. “Revenge does not just consume the monster, however. It also consumes Victor, the victim of the monster's revenge. After the monster murders Victor's relatives, Victor vows a "great and signal revenge on [the monster's] cursed head." In a sense then, the very human desire for revenge transforms both Victor and the monster into true monsters that have no feelings or desires beyond destroying their foe” (LitCharts). When Victor establishes a goal, he becomes obsessed and will not stop until that goal is achieved. This turns into his greatest undoing because the same with when he torn himself down to create the monster, he is now going to destroy his mental and physical health to end the monster. When Victor floats up to Walton’s ship, he is malnourished and weak and this time he cannot recover. Victor dies on this ship because he tampered with what he never should have. The entire Frankenstein family, including Victor and Creature, die because of Victor’s selfish decisions. He wanted a monster that would look to him as a God and worship him, but instead he received a hideous beast that had eyes for murder. Victor’s downfall is the result of his negligent parenthood towards Creature. His abandonment became the cause of his misfortune because the Creature acted out of spite for not getting the love and compassion he so desparately desired. Victor told his story to Walton in hopes of no man ever venturing too far as he did, and tampering with what is to be left unknown.
I believe Frankenstein is a villain in this book. I believe he promotes the idea of evil which is symbolised through creating the creature. He is described as “a creature causing havoc”. The creature is an unwanted person. He has no belonging in this world. He was created, and because of this, he is an outcast because of Victor Frankenstein. The creature is the victim. He is lonely and rejected. Frankenstein is the cause of this. I believe it is wrong to play god. No man should try and create human beings. He has created a being that is driven to the extremes of loneliness in life. This is destroying innocent lives.
"Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you contains several thematic elements; specifically, the element of betrayal. Through a complex plot, Shelley creates dynamic characters who come to the realization that the dangers of searching for the unknown secrets of life can lead to ruined and tarnished relationships. The irreversible damage that comes with finding the unknown appears to have a substantial effect on the character’s relationships with one another; especially, the central relationship between Victor Frankenstein and the monster. To the reader’s surprise Frankenstein is not the monster, but the doctor and creator of the monster, Victor. Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster and avid scientist, is perhaps the most complex character due to the
We first view Frankenstein’s ignorance while he is busy in his work. He had not visited his family for two straight years. These are the people that love and care about him, yet he does not go home. Not even to visit his own father, the man who pays for his schooling and necessities.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that follow the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being. This is obviously something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and finding out what he is doing. At the end of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor says:
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. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Since a boy, Frankenstein’s passion is to explore science and that which cannot be seen or understood in the field. He spent the later part of his childhood reading the works of commonly outdated scientists whose lofty goals included fantastic, imaginative desires to “penetrate the secrets of nature” (Vol. 1, Ch. 2). While he was told that these authors predated more real and practical scientists, he became intrigued by their ambitions, and devoted himself to succeeding where they had failed. When Victor is criticized at college for his previous studies in obsolete research, he takes after one of his professors, M. Waldman, in studying chemistry. In a lecture, Waldman tells of ancient teachers in chemistry who promised miracles and sought after “unlimited powers” (Vol. 1...
...Frankenstein and the creature. The situations that each character experience are lessons about how seeking prohibited intelligence comes with extreme consequences. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel which means it involves the supernatural; however, because it contains religious qualities it is more appealing to the common people’s idea of knowledge. Mary Shelley achieves her goal of informing the audience that man should not seek or possess the level of knowledge that God acquires. One should learn from the situations present in the novel because life comes with an enormous amount of knowledge; going after the unknown is an act of rebellion against God.
In Frankenstein, a gothic novel by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein has created this monster that has been killing all the relatives to Victor to make him suffer like the monster has suffered. The monster blames Victor for all that he has done, but Victor only created the monster. The monster knew what he was doing when he killed all those people; therefore, the monster should be more responsible for all he has done to Victor, and should be punished for murder.
Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein cannot merely be read as a literary work of the early 19th century. It represents the workings of young Shelley's mind. Further, it represents the vast scientific discoveries of the time, combined with Mary Shelley's intuitive perception of science. She views science as a powerful entity, but also recognizes the dangers if uncontrolled. Shelley demonstrates this fear in the book as science drives Victor Frankenstein to create his monster. In the end, it is also his use of science that inevitably becomes his demise.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
When Justine is put on trial for murdering William, Frankenstein dose not tell his family that it is the creature, but allows them to be the “first hapless victims to my hallowed arts” (Shelly 71). This shows that he does not care about the damage that could be done to his family by not telling them. Also, by not telling them, it leads to the deaths of two of his family members. Later when Frankenstein finally finds the creature again, it mocks at him saying “I grasped his throat (William’s), and in a moment he laid dead at my feet.” (Shelly 122) This confirms his suspicions of the creature killing William and shows how much the creature hates Victor. It also shows that if he would have told his family about the creation of the creature William may have survived along with Justine. Also Victor tells Elizabeth he has a “tale of misery and terror” that he will tell her “the day after our marriage” (Shelly 167) This was a start for Victor towards telling his family by telling his soon to be wife about the creature. However, it was to little to late as it did not stop her from dying by the creature’s hands. By refusing to tell his family about the monster he further endangers the lives of his family and takes blame off of himself for creating the being that has killed his family
Monsters can come in various physical forms, but all monsters share the same evil mentality. A Monster is a being that harms and puts fear within people. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of how appearance does not determine whether a creature is a monster or not. In the story, Victor Frankenstein tries to change nature by creating a super human being. The being appears to be a monster. Victor becomes so obsessed with his creation and then rejects it. Victor is the real monster because of his desire for power, lack of respect for nature, and his stubbornness.
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
In the Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein, she tells a story about a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who is set on creating life. To accomplish his hopes, Victor uses dead human and animal body parts.When his creature had finally awoken, Dr. Frankenstein was frightened by its appearance. His creature was not the perfect being that he imagined. The creature was different due to his extremely large stature, vicious red eyes, and sickly yellow-greenish skin, and because of this, he was perceived as scary, which not even Victor could look over. Due to his terror, Dr. Frankenstein abandons the creature and leaves him to figure out the way of the world by his lonesome. Also as a result of the abandonment, the creature never