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Research paper on depression
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Research paper on depression
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Around the world, people battle with depression every day, causing them to feel alone, afraid and even suicidal. Although depression is a very serious and severe matter, many writers have enforced the issues of depression by writing about it as a main theme or topic in their stories. In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights symptoms of depression and its effect on Victor in order to understand his actions of creating the monster, his swaying mood swings and his irritability.
Throughout the novel, Victor develops mood swings that affect his judgment and outlook on life. The source of these mood swings can be connected to the grief that he feels after certain events in the story for example, the death of his brother, William. Victor
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These strong signs of irritability could be symptoms of depression according to an article by Harvard Health, irritability, agitation and anger are often signs of depression in teens and young adults.
Although Victor had a nurturing and caring mother with a strict, disciplinary yet still affectionate father, Victor suffers from loneliness because of his social awkwardness. As an outcome, Victor has a hard time finding friends and even connecting with people. This made him dive even deeper into his work and made him determined to do something creative and positive with his brilliance and tools. Because of his lack of companionship, Victor decides to reanimate a human carcass, thus the monster is created. With his newfound companion, Victor teaches the monster how to control its feelings such as kindness and anger. While doing so, Victor also teaches the monster how to read and speak clearly. However, this only makes Victor regret his decision to create the monster more as he continues to see characteristics of himself in the monster. With this regret grew hatred and grief as Victor started to neglect the repulsive creature making the monster despise Victor. Because of this, the monster murders William,
This shows the decay of his relationship with himself, because he wants to end his own life.... ... middle of paper ... ... This is when Victor is talking to Henry Clerval, someone who used to be a very close friend of Victor’s.
Similarly, the writer Brackett explains, “At times, Victor’s actions suggest that the id has overpowered him as, earlier in Chapter 23, he notes that he doesn’t know what happened . . . ‘I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed on me’ … Victor’s id, his subconscious desires, have overcome his ego, the more rational aspect of his character” (Brackett). Brackett notices the change in Victor’s character. This means that Shelley understands the way our attitudes change rapidly, sometimes for the
Emotional symptoms can be harder to detect sometimes, especially ones like hopelessness, and sadness. He indicates sadness by saying, “Then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome” (48). Holden, even though he says he does not need anybody, he really wants and needs that social interaction, with people like Ackley. He views phony people and social outcasts to have no life, when in reality,
Being isolated and separated from other people for a prolonged amount of time, can gradually make a person miserable. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is a martyr for Shelley’s view that a lack of human connections leads to misery. Victor being from a highly respected and distinguished
In most novel and movies monsters are known to be evil, committing numerous crimes against humanity and are normally the ones that we don’t sympathize with. However, this novel carefully shows the reader that monsters can be good creatures, with a decent heart and act based on the actions of others. The novel shows how the monster should be pitied, rather than criticised. Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” manages to create sympathy for the creature through speech, actions and mistreatment the creature suffers.
Victor’s lack of compassion and sympathy towards the monster causes him to become angry instead of guilty. His cruelness to his creation made the monster kill and hurt the people he did but “when [he] reflected on [the monster’s] crimes and malice, [Victor’s] hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation,”(Shelley 325). Without compassion Victor thinks that the only way to stop the monster is to get revenge on him, instead of just giving him the empathy and kindness that monster craved. Victor realizes that "if he were vanquished, [he] should be a free man...balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue [him] until death. ”(Shelley 731).
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.
...and when he ventures home to talk to Phoebe. In each of the situations Holden either becomes angry or he becomes depressed. These types of mood swings are signs of bipolar disorder. Each scenario is also associated with what could be believed to be triggers which cause these dramatic mood swings. Holden Caulfield’s trigger seems to be whenever he becomes overly stressed with a situation. When this stress comes over him by what someone says or what someone does, it causes Holden to have these mood swings. These mood swings either end with him being put into a fight, or with him becoming depressed. These are the reasons to believe that Holden Caulfield has bipolar disorder.
Bipolar depression has many symptoms; the main symptoms are a quick change in mood and usually followed by two or more personalities, Victor Frankenstein clearly shows these symptoms in the book. Heavy research evidence from the book “An Unquiet Mind” by Kay Redfield Jamison provide proof of these claims; explaining how Bipolar depression usually results in a multi-personality and severe mood swings. Redfield explains how these symptoms can be seen thru the patient outwardly saying they are unhappy. Text evidence of Victor Frankenstein's Bipolar behavior is found in the following quote; “I paused; at length he spoke, in broken accents: “Unhappy man!” Do you share my madness?” (Shelley 13). This provides solid evidence that Victor Frankenstein suffers from some sort of mental illness. Following along the lines of Bipolar depression; with sudden mood swings that usually indicate two or more personalities. Bipolar depression also has symptoms along the lines of having strong feelings of happiness and plunging into overwhelming feelings of sadness. Research evidence from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) explains how these Bipolar symptoms are imperative to depression and cause smaller mood swings to become an obsolete factor to the depression. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) explains how this symptom can be seen thru the facial expression of the person, going from smiling to a sad look instantly. Text evidence from the novel backs up this claim; “As I spoke, a Dark spread over my listener's countenance. At first I perceived he tried to suppress his emotions.” (Shelley 13). The quote shows how the narrator noticed a quick change in Victor's facial expressions and also added the fact of Victor trying to hide those emotions. This supports the claim of Victor Frankenstein having Bipolar depression. The final symptom of Bipolar depression are severe fits and/or
Victor Frankenstein serves as an instrument of suffering of others and contributes to the tragic vision as a whole in this novel. He hurts those surrounding him by his selfish character and his own creation plots against his master due to the lack of happiness and love. The audience should learn from Frankenstein’s tragic life and character to always remain humble. We should never try to take superiority that is not granted to us because like victor we shall suffer and perish. He had the opportunity to make a difference in his life and take responsibility as a creator but his selfishness caused him to die alone just like what he had feared.
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.
The poem suggests that one bad thought can pollute a human’s emotions. As Victor thinks about the death of his brother and Justine, we see how his nature changes. “I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness… There was always scope of fear so long as anything I loved remained behind” (Shelley 103) Here we see how Victor’s psyche becomes extremely tainted by these thoughts and they haunt his every moment.
Throughout the novel, Holden is in a constant war with his personal thoughts and society, which were often triggered by the change around him. Depression is a clinical disorder that is very common among adults and children
“Allure, Authority, and Psychoanalysis” discusses the unconscious wishes, effects, conflicts, anxieties, and fantasies within “Frankenstein.” The absence of strong female characters in “Frankenstein” suggests the idea of Victor’s desire to create life without the female. This desire possibly stems from Victor’s attempt to compensate for the lack of a penis or, similarly, from the fear of female sexuality. Victor’s strong desire for maternal love is transferred to Elizabeth, the orphan taken into the Frankenstein family. This idea is then reincarnated in the form of a monster which leads to the conclusion that Mary Shelley felt like an abandoned child who is reflected in the rage of the monster.
A motif in this work is misery, shared by both Victor and his creation. The monster states, “...I felt cold also, and half frightened… finding myself so desolate… I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch...” (119). The creature's misery after leaving Victor’s apartment following his abandonment is crucial to the events that occur later in the novel, such as the death of William, Victor’s brother. Shelley stresses the importance of the two main characters’ feelings, as they are central to the development of the plot.