Chapter One, Two, and Three:
These chapters focus mainly on Victor Frankenstein's back-story as he was growing up. He describes his cousin Elizabeth, who he later becomes married to, and about how they came about finding her. Later we are introduced to Victors best friend, Henry Clerval. We also learn that Frankenstein became fascinated with the sciences by the 16th century author Cornelius Agrippa. This along with many of the other philosophers of that time inspired him to become a scientist. Later he also witnesses the power of electricity when a bolt of lightning strikes a tree nearby where he is staying. At the start of chapter three we learn that Victor is in the process of leaving for college when Elizabeth gets sick. In an effort to save her Victors mother nurses Elizabeth back to health yet manages to contract her disease. As she dies she continues her dream about Victor and Elizabeth getting married and passes that on to Victor just before she dies. Victor then goes about leaving to his college and after spending his last days hanging out with his friends finally departs. In his first days there however he meets the teacher of Natural Philosophy at the school M. Krempe, who informs him that all that Frankenstein had learned from his 16th century hero's was rubbish and should be thrown out the window. Although saddened by this information he attends a lecture of chemistry and decides to become a scientist. Yet throughout these chapters we see the seeds of Victors downfall. His unwillingness to take others opinion and experience into account becomes evident when he call Mr. Krempe a "little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits." (...
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...comes God and Adam, the perfect beings and creator which are all that the monster is not. They are human, pure and unadulterated, while he is a mash of parts from nowhere, his humanity was lost when his creator cast him aside when he was horrified with what had happened. Sound familiar? Unfortunately for the Demon his actions in these scenes draw a line closer to the Satan side of the story.
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Frankenstein was born in the family of the most eminent citizens of Geneva. His father married the daughter of his friend Carolina Beaufort, and became the father "in his old age." Victor was their favorite and long-awaited first-born, but Carolina would like to have a daughter. One day relaxing on the shores of Lake Como, the woman went to the poor hut and saw a lovely blonde girl, is very different from the other kids, black-eyed and dark-haired. She was a child of the Italian patriot and Germans. Her mother died in childbirth, his father was sent to prison, and she remained in the family nurse. Frankenstein persuaded farmers to give them the girl and adopted her. In the future, Elizabeth was to become the wife of Victor.
Victor Frankenstein may be the leading character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but a hero he is not. He is self-centered and loveless, and there is nothing heroic about him. There is a scene in Chapter twenty-four where Captain Walton is confronted by his crew to turn southwards and return home should the ice break apart and allow them the way. Frankenstein rouses himself and finds the strength to argue to the Captain that they should continue northwards, or suffer returning home "with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows." He quite obviously has alterior motives and if he were not the eloquent, manipulative creature he so egotistically accuses his creature of being, he might not have moved the Captain and the men so much that they are blind to the true source of his passion. Unfortunately for Frankenstein, the crew, (however "moved") stand firm in their position. Yet the things he says in his motivational speech are prime examples of the extent to which Frankenstein is blind to his own faults and yet will jump at the chance to harangue others. He is so self-centered that his lack of interaction and love for others after his experiment has been completed, would barely qualify him as a person, if the difference between being human and being a person lies in the ability to have relationships with others.
In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells us a story about a man called Victor Frankenstein who creates a Creature which he later decides he does not like. The novel Frankenstein is written in an Epistolary form - a story which is written in a letter form - and the letters are written from an English explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert is on an expedition to the North Pole, whilst on the expedition; Robert is completely surrounded by ice and finds a man who is in very poor shape and taken on board: Victor Frankenstein. As soon as Victor’s health improves, he tells Robert his story of his life. Victor describes how he discovers the secret of bringing to life lifeless matter and, by assembling different body parts, creates a monster who guaranteed revenge on his creator after being unwanted from humanity.
Frankenstein: Contexts, nineteenth century responses, criticism. By Mary Shelley. Norton Critical Edition. New York: New York. 1996.
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.
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.
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...
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).
Society is a concept found in all aspects of life; it is a slant which is impossible to avoid. For instance; sadly in life society labels things or people as good or bad, poor or rich, ugly or pretty. The literary piece of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley clearly reflects this act of society in which they classify all things. The novel reflects how society labels everything; by being judgmental from the way the family is seen, how people view Frankenstein as a monster, and how the monster is affected, his conduct gets altered by all of society judgmental actions.
Works Cited for: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. a. a. a. a. a J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.
Although “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor and his monster, Walton is the most reliable narrator throughout the novel. However, like most narrator’s, even his retelling of Victor’s story is skewed by prejudice and favoritism of the scientist’s point of view. Yet this could be attributed to the only view points he ever gets to truly hear are from Victor himself and not the monster that he only gets to meet after he comes to mourn his fallen master.
Victor Frankenstein finds himself exploring the world of science against his fathers wishes but he has an impulse to go forward in his education through university. During this time any form of science was little in knowledge especially the chemistry which was Victors area if study. Victor pursues to go farther than the normal human limits of society. “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Chapter 4). He soon finds the answer he was looking for, the answer of life. He becomes obsessed with creating a human being. With his knowledge he believes it should be a perfe...
Burns, Alisa. “Frankenstein of the Future.” Frankenstein Commentary. N.p., Sept. 2002. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).