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Discuss Frankenstein as a critique of society
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Monstrous is a term that carries a lot of meaning. Monstrous means something or someone who is evil by having inhumane morals, values, and obligations. The word carries the meaning of something that is great or to an extreme extent, but monstrous also carries a negative connotation. Hitler was considered an extremely monstrous person for conducting mass genocide and treating people inhumanely in his concentration camps. Mary Shelley views the Creature’s actions as most monstrous in Frankenstein because his conscience and his intuition clearly demonstrate his understanding of right and wrong, yet the Creature fails to live by this moral code despite how he is treated.
A monstrous person chooses to behave inappropriately, but in order to make
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The Creature admits to his cruel morals after Victor’s death. While talking to Walton, the Creature reflects on his behavior and shares his intentions of those actions. The Creature says, “I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen that of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery;” (190). The Creature admits he has committed harm against guiltless people in order to achieve his goal of making Victor miserable. The Creature uses the words “murdered” and “strangled” to emphasize the ruthlessness of his actions and that killing people are his intentions. Along with the intention to kill, the Creature says he “devoted” his creator to “misery,” obligating himself to hurt others in order to achieve his goal of hurt Victor. Additionally, the Creature confesses to murdering “the lonely and the helpless,” “the innocent,” and those “who never injured” him, which means the Creature is morally content with killing innocent people. Furthermore, the Creature again shows his poor morality when he frames Justine for the murder of
...society rejected; some may argue it was simply the creature’s bad decisions. The argument is that the decision to kill William and to blame the murder on Justine is an idea that never came from Victor and was the entire creature’s idea. This argument is invalid because Victor created the creature in his perception of “beautiful” during a time when he had secluded himself from society (60). After the creature introduces himself to de Lacy, the creature is expelled from the house due to his scary countenance. The reason that he killed William was because the creature had claimed “war against the species” because Victor had put him into “insupportable misery” (122). The reason that the creature made the bad decisions is because the creature was created as an ugly creature by Victor and was subsequently therefore rejected by society.
power. This being a new idea and quite big news at the time, this must
Victor Frankenstein and the others who have encountered the creature all recoiled in horror at the mere sight of him. He is described by Victor: “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!—Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips” (Shelley, 35). Even his creator shuns him based solely on his looks. Another attribute of the creature that makes him monstrous is his thirst for revenge against Victor and the hateful attitude he develops toward humans throughout the book. While he has not developed the emotional intelligence and experience of other human beings, he has learned to differentiate between right and wrong. Therefore, the murders he has committed are taken into consideration when labeling the creature as a monster. If anything, as I will later demonstrate, the creature is an antihero. He is mostly monstrous in appearance but his thoughts, feelings and circumstances create the ingredients of an antihero, who has doubtlessly committed
...e all the evil things they have done. When he goes to Victor's coffin, the creature does the opposite of what a evil being would do. He grieves over Victor despite all the horrible things the creature has done to Victor. The creature even feels guilt over the innocent people he has killed and the torment he put his creator through. Despite Victor's actions leading the creature to commit evil deeds, the creature finds in himself to feel regret in the end.
By the time of their death, both Victor and the creature has committed repugnant acts: Victor created a being out of corpses and then abandoned it and let it wreak havoc on the people he loved, the creature directly killed three people. But Victor tells Walton that, “During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable […] nor do I know where this thirst for vengeance may end” (269). Victor is not able to see past the metaphorical clouds that seem to shroud his mind from seeing the truth. Furthermore, Victor is not able to let go of his hate for the creature. In contrast, the creature admits, “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless” (275). The creature is able to recognize that he has made mistakes and as a result he loathes himself. He tells Walton that, “You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself” (275). Although no amount of regret or sorrow can bring back the people that he has killed, the creature does acknowledge the evil of his actions, which in turn allow him to make come to peace. He is able to reconcile his vengeful feelings towards his creator and praises Victor by calling him, “worthy of love and admiration among men” (275). Both Victor and the creature have done committed actions against each
What is a monster, really? Is it really a Creature that has three eyes instead of two, with pus seeping out of every crevice in his face and an abnormally large form? Or is it someone with a mind so corrupt it rivals that of Satan? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story within a story that centers on the tale of a man with an immense thirst of knowledge and a fetish to imitate the Creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a lot like the Greek mythological tale of the Greek God, Prometheus, and his brother, Epimetheus, who were assigned the task of creating man. The story captivates the theme of monstrosity. Mary Shelley wrote the novel in a form so the reader’s opinions never stray far from sympathy for the monster and apathy for Victor Frankenstein. The novel looks at “Monstrosity” and “Humanity” in a deeply analytical way.
There are obvious similarities between Victor and his creation; each is abandoned, isolated, and both start out with
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. Throughout the novel, Shelley investigates the idea of monstrosity. She makes the point that a monster does not have to be genuinely evil in order to be considered monstrous.
Society is inevitable. It will always be there as a pleasure and a burden. Society puts labels on everything such as good or bad, rich or poor, normal or aberrant. Although some of these stamps are accurate, most are misconceptions. In Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein, this act of erring by society is extremely evident. Two of the most inaccurate assumptions of society revolve around the central characters, Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. Society's labels for these two extremely different characters are on the exact opposite side of the scale of what they truly are. Dr. Frankenstein is more of a monster while the monster is more humane.
The literary critic Harold Bloom, in his Afterward in the Signet Edition of Frankenstein states that, “The monster is at once more intellectual and more emotional than his creator.” Bloom continues to say that the creature is more human, more lovable, and more to be pitied than Doctor Frankenstein (292). Throughout the novel Frankenstein, the monster portrays more human qualities than his creator Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein appears less human than his creation because he rejects his own creation and he fails to plan for the results of his experiment. As the monster wanders through the novel searching for companionship and acceptance, Dr. Frankenstein refuses to provide the support expected of a parent or creator. While the monster appears human in his attempts to socialize with his peers, Dr. Frankenstein represents the monstrosity that occurs when humans tamper with life.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
Victor Frankenstein’s monster, a hideous being that was most often described as a terrifying wretch by those who became scarred by his figure. When Frankenstein gave life to this creature, he was unaware of what he had unleashed to the world. The monster would go on a murderous rampage and kill one of Frankenstein’s brothers, William. However, who is to blame for this homicide? The creator or the created? If Frankenstein never fashioned such a demented concept, no one would have be hurt in the first place. On the contrary, if the monster learned to control its inner rage, then lives would not have ended so violently. In the novel it is portrayed that Frankenstein’s monster is quite an intellect. If everyone was to accept him as who he was,
Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily, and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes ‘human’ as being ‘Of, belonging to, or characteristic of mankind, distinguished from animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright posture.’ (OED). The term ‘monstrous’ is described as ‘The condition or fact of being abnormally developed or grossly malformed.’
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.
There is a monster in all of us. The question that is commonly asked when someone reads Frankenstein is, who is the monster the creature or Victor? But as we read and dug further. We realized that all humans are capable of great evil, Frankenstein abandoned his creation, thought him ugly, while the Creature went on a killing spree, this shows us that we all have a monster within us, with the right situation it will come out. This applies to today because there have been a lot school shootings lately and scientists have noticed that a lot of them are from single-parent homes, where the other parent in a sense abandoned them.