Chapter 5 of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Within this essay I intend to discuss how Frankenstein and his
creature change and how subconsciously they love each other. Chapter 5
will be used to show different themes as well as seeing how
Frankenstein acts around his creation. Also the way Frankenstein has
played God will be seen in this chapter.
I will start this essay by looking at chapter 5. Shelley shows, in
chapter 5, Frankenstein and the creature’s reaction to the ‘creation’.
Shelley conveys Frankenstein’s horror at the creature he has brought
to life and his reaction to it. ‘How can I describe my emotions at
this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite
pains and care I had endeavoured to form?’ This quote shows how
Frankenstein is amazed that although he worked so hard to create a
being, it has ended in tears. Frankenstein therefore has reacted with
horror at his creation. Rather that creating a superior healthier
human, he ended up creating a monster.
In chapter 5 we learn next to nothing about the creature. It is living
however it is like a newborn child and therefore doesn’t do much. In
paragraph 3 in Chapter 5 we see how the creature tries to smile at
Frankenstein just like an animal, the creature looks upon Frankenstein
as its parent. ‘His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate
sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks’. This quote from paragraph 3
shows that already the creature is trying to communicate to his
‘father’.
Despite the fact that all we learn about the creature in chapter 5 is
that he is hideous and seems harmless however, later in the book we
read how the creature evolves into a character of his own. The
creature later in the book comes acro...
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...haic using short
sentences throughout the novel to cause impact. ‘Beautiful!’ and
‘Great God!’ are both examples to show this impact.
I conclude by talking about what Shelley was trying to convey by
writing this novel. I feel as if the novel is very personal and direct
to Shelley’s life. She used her own previous life experiences and used
them to write Frankenstein. I think Shelley was critical of Victor’s
creation. She wrote about the creature in such a horrible way and
really made the reader feel sorry for the creature even if he was an
8foof, ugly, repulsive, scary monster. Shelley also made Victor a very
complex yet overly focused character.
Mary Shelley made Frankenstein a best selling book for many years to
come after the first copy. This book would continue to sell until it
became what it is today, one of the best Gothic Horrors ever written.
As Frankenstein is enroute to his pursuit of gaining more knowledge, he states, “I wished, as it were, to procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my nature, should be completed” (Shelley 41). Frankenstein’s decision in allowing his intellectual ambitions to overpower everything else in his life leads him to be blinded to the dangers of creating life. He isolates himself from his society when creating the monster, letting himself be immersed in his creation while being driven by his passions, allowing nobody to be near him. The fact that he allows this creation of a monster to consume his total being reveals how blinded he is to the immorality of stepping outside the boundaries of science and defying nature. His goal in striving to achieve what wants to in placing man over nature makes him lose his sense of self as all he is focused on is the final product of his creation. He starts to realize his own faults as after he has created the monster, he becomes very ill and states, “The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him” (48). His impulsive decision to make the monster leads him to abhorring it as it does not turn out to be what he has expected. Because he chooses to isolate himself in creating the
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is an old classic that has been enjoyed by many generations. Despite the fact that the novel was written over a hundred years ago, it is not only beautifully written but also enthralling and well composed. At the young age of eighteen, Mary Shelly raises questions about education and knowledge to which are answered through the well written characters in the novel. The Monster, who is a creation of another character, is highlighted as an individual who goes through an intellectual change.
The Significance of Chapter 5 in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Works Cited Not Included This essay will consider the significance of Chapter five to the rest of the novel, and look at how Mary Shelley's life has influenced her writing. I am going to focus mainly on Chapter five, but first I am going to consider some important aspects of the preceding chapters. In Chapter one Victor describes how his mother and father met and how he and Elizabeth where brought together. When he first describes her, it contrasts greatly with his primary depiction of the creature "Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless, and her Lips and the moulding of her face so expressive of sensibility and Sweetness" (chapter 1, pg 36). Whereas Frankenstein's description of his creation is "His watery eyes his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips" (chapter 5, pg 58).
The creature was created with the intention of goodness and purity but because of this, he wasn’t equipped to deal with the rejection of his creator. After Victor Frankenstein’s death, Robert Walton walks in to see the creature standing over his friend’s lifeless body.
on the gothic genre of the book, and her life is also mirrored in that
Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley and is a gothic horror. It is an important book because it tells us about when scientists and doctors started to experiment with bringing back the dead. I will look at arguments for both sides of the question. This is an important question because there is a strong argument for both sides and in a lot of modern films about him he is portrayed as a villain who likes nothing more than killing and lightening. Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ also known as ‘The Modern Prometheus’ in 1818, when she was seventeen.
This novel supports Shelley’s thought about society’s attitude toward female authors and how they were considered inferior. She demonstrates how female authors are shunned by society, just like the creature is shunned. The creature embodies the feminist ideals Shelley weaves into the novel and highlights societies unfair treatment of women. In some ways Shelley identifies with Victor because both of their creations were not what they expected them to be and were worried about the criticism they would receive for it. They both hid their creations for a while, Shelley did not immediately claim the novel and Frankenstein did not claim his experiment
Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Analyzing a book can be a killer. Especially when it contains tons of subtle little messages and hints that are not picked up unless one really dissects the material. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a prime example.
The biggest question one can be left with is why would Frankenstein do this to himself and his family, but this can be answered by looking at all of his flaws. Griffith does an excellent job illustrating Victor’s flaws that Shelley seemed to cover up by the presence of the monster. The audience is left to think that the monster caused all of the deaths, which is true for the most part, but he would have not been so mean had Victor taken care of him from the very beginning. The novella is categorized as gothic fiction, horror fiction and soft science fiction, which are all very real, but this story also encompasses Victor’s coming of age. An inexperienced reader might not pick this theme out of this messy work of fiction, but after reading Griffith’s take on it and analyzing the book, it becomes clear that as the monster learns and grows, so does Victor, and he realizes that his actions were
In this essay I will be looking at the differences between the creation of the first and second monster, how Mary Shelley portrays the feelings of Victor and the monster and the different myths and legends that she refers to within the novel. Victor Frankenstein had a wonderful life as a child: 'No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself' (p.39) He was loving and cared deeply for his family, especially for his foster-sister, Elizabeth, who he looked upon as his own, and saw as a 'more than sister' (p.37). Victor always had an 'eager desire to learn' (p.39) about 'the secrets of heaven and earth' (p.39). When he was thirteen years old he started studying the works of Cornelius Agrippa and the fact that his father called it all 'sad trash' (p.40) fuelled his curiosity and enthusiasm and caused him to study even more which was to him, 'the fatal impulse that led to my [his] ruin' (p.41).
Andrew Lustig proposed a great question to the readers of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, “How far should we go in out efforts to alter nature, including human nature? As stewards of God’s creation what are our responsibilities?” (Lustig 1) This question results in theme of nature vs. nurture in the novel. The nature vs. nurture debate is an important topic in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The two central characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature that he creates; both, characters were raised differently. The nature and the nurture of their upbringing can be a cause of why they are, the way they are. Victor and his creature are subject to very different nurturing styles. Shelley also incorporates the representations of light and fire. This representation is key to the nature vs. nurture discussion in the novel.
The creature’s moral ambiguity characteristic was a vile ingredient to the construction of this novel Frankenstein because it made the reader 's sympathies with him even after the audience knows he had committed murder because the readers had seen the truth this creature had to face. That he had tried everything within his power to peacefully live with them, to interact, communicate, and befriend them “these thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language”, that even though he was seen as a monster because of the looks he was created with, something he had no control over, he still had hope to be seen as equals, ”My organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration;” this hope of his was utterly crushed, and can only set him up for utter disappointment(12.18). Because in the end he only received hates, scorns, violence, and prejudice from his good will. So in the end of the story, Mary Shelley’s forces the readers to see within the creature’s heart and for
Imagine an eight-foot-tall, misshapen human child. You might complain that this is contradictory - but do it anyway. Imagine some sort of humanoid being with the mind of a human child in an eight-foot body, green with a nail in its head if you want. This is what Frankenstein's creature is. Frankenstein's creature is mentally a child, and we see its evolution through traditional child development in the course of its narrative. But the creature is the only member of its species, and therefore its narrative can be taken to represent the history of an entire species - the creature's first experiences can be viewed as an amalgam of creation myths.
The Creature, Victor Frankenstein’s creation, is shaped into a monster through its experiences, instead of the nature of itself, which is more expected. Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, is shaped into a monster because of his mind’s power-hungry nature. Victor treats his creature poorly and he himself becomes wicked. While the Creature also becomes wicked in the end, its actions are more justified because multiple people treated it poorly, causing the Creature to lash out. Even though Victor Frankenstein and the Creature both turn into wicked monsters, to some extent, only one of
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.