Many stories are derived from stories from the past. Walt Disney’s popular movie, The Lion King, is based on the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This is just one out of many things that are from the past that appears in novels and films today. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a novel about a mad scientist who wants to make an immense discovery as said by Brett Weiss, “The Frankenstein monster first lumbered into existence in 1818 in Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, a work that many have called the first science-fiction story.” (Weiss, Brett). Well, this mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein, eventually makes his discovery: the secret of life. He ultimately creates a monster out of body parts he dug from graves, strikes the sewn up corpse with lightning and the monster is created. Yet, instead of being overjoyed about his creation and discovery, he is bitterly disappointed about what he has done and abandons the creature. After this, the creature murders all of Victor’s family and friends to get revenge and the monster eventually kills Dr. Frankenstein and commits suicide. On the other hand, the story of Prometheus, the man who discovered fire and wanted to show his discovery to the other humans, but the God Zeus says no, but Prometheus does it anyways and is ultimately punished by getting his heart eaten out by an eagle for an eternity. Yet, the funny thing is that even though Prometheus is in excruciating pain, he still screams at Zeus that he would do it again. Victor and the monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are both like Prometheus, and Victor ultimately rises as the hero in the novel.
To begin, Dr. Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein is a modern day Prometheus. This observa...
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...eated when Caroline Moore states, “The ending of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is not at all neat, but, like the novel itself, is wild, flawed and magnificently strange. Rekindling life in a dead frame” (Moore, Caroline).
Works Cited
James, Frank A J L., Field, J V.. "Frankenstein and the spark of being." History Today. 01 Sep. 1994: 47. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Moore, Caroline. "Rekindling life in a dead frame." Spectator. 06 Sep. 2008: n/a. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Thomas, Louisa. "Their Love Is Alive." Newsweek. 14 Sep. 2009: n/a. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Weiss, Brett., Star-Telegram, Fort Worth. "Frankenstein monster still going strong in popular culture." Waterloo Region Record. 24 Jan. 2014: N12. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Williams, Albert. "Playing With Fire (After Frankenstein)." Reader. 12 Mar. 2009: 58. eLibrary. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Previously portrayed through Frankenstein’s letters as the sole cause of both his and society’s despair, the monster’s use of the word “abortion” instead demonstrates Victor’s individual contribution towards his creature’s destructive path. Since the definition of abortion serves as the premediated act of terminating life, Frankenstein’s deliberate decision to desert his artificial creature exhibits society’s lack of sympathy for those with uncontrollable differences such as the monster’s physical deformities. Nevertheless, the textual irony of the monster’s frustrations eventually becomes apparent when the creature exclaims “Was there no injustice to this?”. Setting off a chain reaction of several more questions, Shelly’s text further mirrors the monster’s bafflement with the careless actions of Victor Frankenstein. That is, although Frankenstein gave his creation the “gift” of life, the monster has been perpetually denied every chance to live happily because of mankind’s relentless and inescapable hatred. More so, explained as the abandonment or failure of a process, Frankenstein’s ultimate refusal to love his own creation typifies how the creator’s ironic choices remain accountable for failing both the monster and
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1996.
Levine, George. ? Frankenstein and the Tradition of Realism?. A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 7, no. 1 (1973): 17-23. Rpt.
The interpretation of the young girl’s ghastly nightmare, fashioned by her own imagination derived the novel “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus.” Mary Shelley began, putting pen to paper reveling her cautionary tale, a moral lesson hidden within a horrifying story that would awaken thrill and terror in her audience. Mary felt that if this was not accomplished, the novel would not live up to its title “The Modern Prometheus.” She relates to geographic elements that are subsequent the French Revolutionary era, with a strong connection to Greek mythology. In metaphor she illustrates how creature and creator are one in the same and with the symbolic use of sickness and nature creating the foreshadowing for events to come. Mary Shelley divulges though this novel her personal approach on humanity and life’s lessons; formulating the idea that ignorance is bliss and human injustice is wrong by taking in to account the sexiest views of the later eighteenth-century.
Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, that is revolved around a under privileged scientist named Victor Frankenstein who manages to create a unnatural human-like being. The story was written when Shelley was in her late teen age years, and was published when she was just twenty years old. Frankenstein is filled with several different elements of the Gothic and Romantic Movement of British literature, and is considered to be one of the earliest forms of science fiction. Frankenstein is a very complicated and complex story that challenges different ethics and morals on the apparent theme of dangerous knowledge. With the mysterious experiment that Dr. Victor Frankenstein conducted, Shelly causes her reader to ultimately ask themselves what price is too high to pay to gain knowledge. It is evident that Shelly allows the reader to sort of “wonder” about the reaction they would take when dealing with a situation such as the one implemented throughout the book.
Frankenstein is the story of an eccentric scientist whose masterful creation, a monster composed of sown together appendages of dead bodies, escapes and is now loose in the country. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly’s diction enhances fear-provoking imagery in order to induce apprehension and suspense on the reader. Throughout this horrifying account, the reader is almost ‘told’ how to feel – generally a feeling of uneasiness or fright. The author’s diction makes the images throughout the story more vivid and dramatic, so dramatic that it can almost make you shudder.
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.
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.
The idea of duality permeates the literary world. Certain contradictory commonplace themes exist throughout great works, creation versus destruction, light versus dark, love versus lust, to name a few, and this trend continues in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The pivotal pair in this text however, is monotony versus individuality. The opposing entities of this pairing greatly contrast against each other in Frankenstein, but individuality proves more dominant of the two in this book.
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.
Harold Bloom, a well-known American critic explores Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to find true meaning. Throughout his essay, he gives answers to the lingering question of who the real monster is. He also paints a clear picture of a major theme in the novel, the Romantic mythology of the self. Through reading his essay, it opens up new light to Mary Shelley's novel. It gives new meaning to the monster and his creator.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Walter James Miller, and Harold Bloom. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York: New American Library, 2000. Print.
Burns, Alisa. “Frankenstein of the Future.” Frankenstein Commentary. N.p., Sept. 2002. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
Walter Scott’s critique in the 1818, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein, is that Frankenstein is a novel of romantic fiction depicting a peculiar nature that narrates the real laws of nature and family values. This review explains that Mary Shelley manages the style of composition, and gives her characters an indirect importance to the reader as the laws of nature takes course in the novel. In addition, Walter Scott appreciates the numerous theme...