Importance of Listening in Frankenstein
The monster says to Frankenstein.
"Listen to my tale: when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me. The guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defense before they are condemned."(The monster, pg. 69)
In Frankenstein, listening is an important theme that comes up numerous times. The novel is written in a framed narrative form, which allows for one central story to be relayed through other characters several times. The reader and Mrs. Saville are the first people who listen to Frankenstein's story through Walton's letters home. Walton listens to Victor's story from Victor, and Frankenstein listens to the monster's story. Each person has a message or warning that they need to relay to the other. They stress the importance that the other person listens as best as possible in order to understand the message they are trying to get across. Frankenstein emphasizes the importance of listening through a series of key characters.
Mrs. Saville and the rest of society read Walton's letters which tell Victor Frankenstein's story. This is the outermost layer of the framed narrative format of the novel. Mrs. Saville is Walton's sister. He begins writing her letters on his mission to the Artic to let her know that he's okay. Then he comes across Victor Frankenstein and he records Frankenstein's story in his letters home. Victor's story is supposed to communicate a warning to society. The warning is to not become so wrapped up in the pursuit of knowledge that contact with other people becomes unimportant. Isolating oneself from society due to science is a common theme in Frankenstein. Victor and Walton both do this to themselves and Victor learned the consequences the hard way. In order to prevent others from making the same mistakes he did, he tells Walton his story to get it out in the open.
Victor Frankenstein has been through a lot in his quest to create life. He was so wrapped up in his scientific studies that he isolated himself from his family and friends and society in general.
they get out of this island as it is surrounded by sea nor can they
In this essay I am going to answer ‘how and why does Mary Shelley make the reader sympathise with the character of the monster in her novel Frankenstein’.
¬¬World War One, called The Great War at the time, was a global war centered in Europe that began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. The war was fought between two major powers, the Allies and the Central powers. The Allied powers, based on the triple Entente, consisted of the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, France, Italy, Britain, and the United States, while the Central powers consisted of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. World War One was one of the bloodiest events in human history, with over sixteen million casualties and twenty million people wounded over the four years that it was fought. There are many underlying reasons for this bloodshed but some of the biggest, most significant ones include alliances, nationalism, and imperialism.
And the genre of the film is horror or thriller and it is about a great white shark that hunts in the seas of Amity Island. The film is set around the 4th of July in New Jersey. It may be set 4th of July because is their independence day or their freedom from Great Britain. It may be set on the 4th of July because this day is very important or significant for the whole of America. It is celebrated around the whole of America in various ways to celebrate the American tradition. This also creates tension because if people get killed on this day or maybe Christmas it has a greater effect because often people are unaware or not expecting something like this to happen on a day like that.
The purpose of this suddenly close relationship is to bring credibility to the narrative of Frankenstein and ultimately bring credibility to the narrative of the monster. This is done be enveloping Walton’s letters around both these narratives. These layers sustain the relationship through the novel and allow the reader to be outside of the story, physically in another location as Walton’s sister is, but to be close and credible.
In the novel, Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley, implements a prevalent nineteenth century structure called epistolary within a frame narrative to introduce a sublime story. Through Robert Walton’s letters to his sister, Victor Frankenstein’s life story, and the monster’s interjection, the author provides multiple perspectives to the plot. By allowing each character to share their story that all contain differing point of views, it enables the readers to remain interested and informed. Through the three contrasting narrators, Shelley strengthens the roles of the characters as they respectively convey their emotions and input their personal thoughts.
It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil. This impact of the change of narration gives us a better understanding of each person, and we see that the monster is not such a monster at all.
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.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there are many themes present. One prominent and reoccurring theme in the novel is isolation and the effect it has on the characters. Through the thoughts and feelings of both Victor and his monster, Frankenstein reveals the negative effects of isolation from society. The negative effects that Victor faces are becoming obsessed with building a monster and becoming sick. The monster faces effects such as confusion about life and his identity, wanting companionship, and wanting to seek revenge on Victor. Victor and the monster are both negatively affected by the isolation they face.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is book about the importance of human relationships and treating everyone with dignity and respect. The main character of the book is Victor Frankenstein who is a very intelligent man with a desire to create life in another being. After he completes his creation, he is horrified to find that what he has created is a monster. The monster is the ugliest, most disgusting creature that he has ever seen. Victor being sickened by his creation allows the monster to run off and become all alone in the world. Throughout Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the theme of human relationships to illustrate the bond that man has with other beings and the need for love and affection. The importance of human relationships is shown throughout the book in many ways. Victor’s mother says to him, “I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it”(18).Victor is very excited that he has such a precious gift that will always be his. They become very close and refer to each other as cousins. However, there is a deeper a relationship between the two, and Victor vows to always protect and take of the girl whose name is Elizabeth. Mary Shelley uses this quote to explain how special Elizabeth is to Victor and that she is gift sent to him. Victor’s mother reinforces this again when she says to Victor and Elizabeth, “My children, my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children. Alas! I regret that I am taken from you; and, happy and beloved as I have been, is it not hard to quit you all? But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign...
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’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
As I have shown through this analysis, the use of Walton's letters to begin and end Frankenstein is not a matter of chance. Shelley used the letters to provide more depth to the novel. With the parallels between characters, we can consider the different voices of the same story shedding different perspectives. Each perspective influences the telling of the story based on that of the respective characters. Walton's letters complete Victor's tale because the reader encounters every theme in the varying voices presented in the novel. In other words, Walton's letters are not a lost part of the story, but are integral to the structure of Frankenstein.
Victor Frankenstein's upbringing in a perfect society ultimately led to the destruction of his life which coincided with the lives of those emotionally close to him. Victor was raised in an atmosphere where beauty and physical appearance define one's quality of life. This superficial way of life results in a lost sense of morals and selfishness, which in turn produces a lost sense of personal identity. This can cause a feeling of failure and resentment in the later stages of life which, in Victor's case, can be externalized into a form of hatred directed toward himself.
Mary Shelley discusses many important themes in her famous novel Frankenstein. She presents these themes through the characters and their actions, and many of them represent occurrences from her own life. Many of the themes present debateable issues, and Shelley's thoughts on them. Three of the most important themes in the novel are birth and creation; alienation; and the family and the domestic affections.