Mary Shelley's Frankenstein The characterization of Victor’s creature, the monster, in the movie although somewhat dramatically different from Mary Shelley’s portrayal in the novel Frankenstein also had its similarities. Shelley’s views of the monster were to make him seem like a human being, while the movie made the monster out to be a hideous creation. The creature’s appearance and personality are two aspects that differ between the novel and movie while his intellectual and tender sides were portrayed the same. From the novel the creature’s physical appearance is left up to each reader’s imagination. Shelley wrote: His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips (p.56). Although I imagined the creature a human being with somewhat distorted features, another reader might view his appearance as a grotesque monster. On the other hand, the movie has shown him as a hideous monster created by a mad scientist. The monster’s appearance was focused on creating life out of dead body parts, sewing the pieces together that left horrid physical scars, and activating him with electricity. The creature’s personality, or actions toward society, was displayed as being very calm and compassionate in the novel. He made many attempts to converse with society, but society feared and mistreated... ... middle of paper ... ...survive the cold season. The creature also requested a companion of the opposite sex, so he too could feel love from another instead of total rejection. At the very end of the novel and movie the creature was caught grieving over the death of his creator. Even though we are made to think that the creature was cold and destructive, in the end his human emotions prevailed. The Frankenstein movie focused on outward action scenes rather than emotional themes to make it more popular and entertaining. It also portrayed Victor as a mad scientist engrossed in his desire to create human life. I was very impressed that the movie did keep some of the good qualities that came from the novel. I enjoyed the novel more, because it gave me the opportunity to put my imagination to work instead of having to accept someone else’s interpretation of Mary Shelley’s literary novel.
Most importantly, the creature wrestles with the nature of his identity by asking “who was I?” . Being able to consider such human questions concerning identity and existence, the creature shows an intellectual capability unique to human beings. In the same respect of reflection, the creature acknowledges and respects his creator as exclaims “I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.” (Shelley 84).
In Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein, The Creature's sad fate is a representation of what it means to be different. Because of this unfortunate destiny, The Creature remains hidden and secluded. He feels the isolation forced upon him and wicked appearance.
...r and companion. “I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct” (Shelley 166). The burning guilt and remorse the monster experiences here show that he is as human as any of the characters in the novel, perhaps the most human of all.
Mary Shelley was a big fan of Romanticism. So the creature is evident of Gods work. A monster is not characterized only by its physical appearance but by its actions and attitude. That’s the reason that Frankenstein’s creation is not the true monster in this novel. Even though it may express many monstrous qualities throughout the story it has many more human ones. The creature’s humane characteristics greatly outnumber the monstrous ones and should be recognized by the reader. It is truly amazing how a creature with so much hatred and despair can have so many humane qualities.
As the creature explores the teaching form the history book and the story and communication of the De Lacey family he insists, “I ought not to make the attempt until I had first become master of their language; which knowledge might enable me to make them overlook the deformity of my figure” (Shelley 95). Because the humans run away with fear in response to the creatures looks, he believes that the best way for him to relinquish their fear is by learning how to speak their language. Not only does he want to learn how to communicate with them, but he wants to become the “master of their language” so that his words overshadow the effects of his features. As many humans do, they judge the creature immediately without giving him an opportunity to explain his story. The creature is similar to humans in the way he responds to the judgment by others.
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).
First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness
Frankenstein is a book about the creature and the creator’s adventure and how they both experienced misery in a different, yet similar ways. An isolated creature wishing to have a female companion and a creator with a satisfying and pleasant childhood. Yet, they both possessed something that connects them together. Although people may argue that Victor Frankenstein is different from the creature, he is ultimately very similar to the creature because they are both romantic, played god, and sought revenge by the end of the book.
...h him, because we do not truly know how he felt. We know that he felt unloved and that he cannot even face to love himself, whereas we have always received love from our parents and the creature never received this. He was always alone, he never even had a companion of his own species which had ‘the same defects’ .The creature does not want to be alive any more, as he does not love the world he lives in any more, and this is the world we live in.
The creature is born as a product of Victor Frankenstein’s insatiable thirst for knowledge. Victor yearns to elicit life out of nothing, and the monster that results from his experimentation represents the dangers of such ambition. The creature is both ugly and terrifying, and
The creature becomes hesitant to interact with the De Lacey family, inhabitants of the cottage, because of his experience at the previous village. Thus, the creature observes the cottagers from afar, without revealing himself. Through his numerous observations, the creature becomes to admire their kindness and the affection they give each other. Shelley shows the compassionate side of the creature where he sympathizes with the De Lacey family’s problems. The creature stops consuming the De Lacey family’s food, once he realizes that they are often left hungry. Also, the creature secretly starts to help the family by borrowing their tools to cut them wood, doing the heavier chores for the family. He begins to become hopeful that the De Lacey family would look past his appearance and longs for their acceptance. Unfortunately, his hopes were crushed. As he asks the old man, Felix’s father, for protection and shelter, he was struck by Felix with a stick, who believed that the creature was at the cottage to hurt his father. Mary Shelley shows that even the most virtuous humane people have a prejudice. Felix’s first instinct was to strike the creature rather than to listen to the creature. Even as the creature is being beaten by Felix, the creature refrains from striking back, showing his benevolence. “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere
These parallels between the creature and a developing child help to explain many of the mysteries of the book. As we see, the creature goes on a terrible killing spree. There are two reasons for this. First, the creature desires revenge for its isolation. But it seems that the creature is also not aware of its own strength - it is easy for the creature to accidentally commit a murder. What two-year-old would not dream of this power? The creature's identification with mythological figures has some fantastic aspects - children fantasize incessantly. This makes sense. The creature, being new to the living world, is chronologically a child - physically strange as it might be, we can only expect it to act its age.
In the book Gris Grimly's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein develops a creature with his bare hands who in my opinion even though has a non-human look is, in fact, a human. The two main reasons why I feel this way is because of the human-like emotions he conveys and show. As well as being able to speak English in a clear manner and the ability to learn like a human being. However, before I explain these two reasons more in depth I would like to give a bit of background information, as to the things the creature has done throughout the book and why he was created. First of all, the reason the creature was created was for Victor to test if it was possible to bring the dead back to life in order to bring his mother back to life after her death.
Monsters can come in various physical forms, but all monsters share the same evil mentality. A Monster is a being that harms and puts fear within people. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of how appearance does not determine whether a creature is a monster or not. In the story, Victor Frankenstein tries to change nature by creating a super human being. The being appears to be a monster. Victor becomes so obsessed with his creation and then rejects it. Victor is the real monster because of his desire for power, lack of respect for nature, and his stubbornness.
A monster is usually viewed to be a supernatural creature that humans judge based on looks and not necessarily on personality. In the novel, Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the monster is a creature Victor creates but abandons immediately because he is horrified by his own creation. Due to the monster’s appearance, society does not give the creature a chance to show his true self. Therefore, the monster faces an external conflict because of Frankenstein’s and society's rejection, making it difficult for him to blend into his new life. Victor creates the monster because of his unusual compulsion of aspiring to be like God. However, Victor does not know how to treat or be responsible for his creature. Victor Frankenstein is the true monster