In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
Compare and Contrast the episodes of the creation of the monster and the creation of the second monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley finished her first edition of 'Frankenstein' in 1816, when she was nineteen years old. Since then her "monster" has become so popular in the twenty-first century that he appears in films, advertisements, comics and even computer games. So how is it that as such a young age she was able to write such a gripping novel, which has become more famous than any other work of 'Romantic' literature, and indeed, her own? It could have been a result of an intellectually stimulating childhood due to having free access to her fathers extensive library and literary connections; or it could have been a result of her being emotionally undernourished as a child. Whichever way, she has succeeded in writing a novel that 'speaks to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror' (p.8 - author's introduction), as she wanted; and she has included many personal ideas about politics and familial relations as well as moral, philosophical and scientific ideas on the creation and 'elixir of life' (p.42).
...l, Victors great need for knowledge and his rage toward the monster led to the death of all he loved, the being he devoted his life to, and himself.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein We are first introduced to the creature when Frankenstein, his creator, is describing him. First he is described as something beautiful "limbs were in proportion" and "features were beautiful". However, his ability to self-contradict becomes apparent very quickly when he finishes his sentence by saying: "â?¦These luxuriance's only form a more horrid contrast with his watery eyesâ? ¦" With words like "shrivelled complexion" and "straight black lips", this gives the impression to the reader that firstly the creature does not look a human being and, secondly, he is hideous in Frankenstein's eyes.
Frankenstein begins aboard a boat with a stranger named Victor Frankenstein telling his story to man named Walton. After the death of Victor’s mother, Victor goes to a university where he secretly learns the secret to making new life. He creates a new creature, but he is horrified by its appearance. The monster runs away. Victor finds out his brother was murdered and believes his monster is responsible. Later, Victor encounters his monster. The monster tells Victor his story. He tells how humans run from him in fear and how he became attached to a human family that he secretly watched, but the family rejected him. He tells how he decided to get revenge on the human race and Frankenstein’s family, so he killed Victor’s brother. He then asks Victor to make him a mate so that he is not lonely, and Victor agrees. When Victor decides he cannot make another creature, the monster kills a friend of Victor and kills Victor’s wife on his wedding day. Victor devotes the rest of his life to trying to kill the monster. The reader finds out that Victor dies aboard the ship, and Walton finds the monster crying over Victor. The monster says he too is ready to die now and leaves.
How can such disparate characters, that are even resentful towards one another, be so consubstantial? Though Victor and the monster do not share the same physical or social traits, they have many of the same personality traits. Victor and the monster are analogous with their desire for knowledge, relationships with nature, and with desires for family. The author uses complex diction, symbolism, and syntax to emphasize these similarities. Throughout the plot, these similarities become more apparent and as this occurs their relationship worsens.
to take over and play the role of god. In this essay I will be
We begin this tale with reading some letters of good fortune of a man, whose name eludes me right now, to his sister. He is on a journey in what appears to be somewhere in the arctic when one day him and his crew spot a giant on a dog sled. Followed by awes of civilization they find the another man who has been in some sort of accident with his dog sled stranded on a broken sheet of ice. After some persuasion the man boards the ship and begins to tell his tale of how he ended up at his present state.
Shelley’s Frankenstein does an excellent job at demonstrating the ideas and accomplishments of the enlightenment period. Shelly expresses these ideas and thoughts through the character of Victor Frankenstein who is an aspiring scientist seeking an intellectual challenge. Victor Frankenstein live s his hometown of Geneva and leaves in quest of a valued education in Ingolstadt. When Victor arrives at college he is lonely and finds himself in a new world in which he lives by himself. He than meets Mr. M. Waldman who is a chemistry professor. We can tell the Frankenstein is a representation of the Enlightenment and scientific period because he just like the earlier theorist Who is a Each character represents an important part of history such as the ideals of the scientific revolution, the embodiment of non- European ideals, and the scientific path that the Europeans would be taking in the future. The creation of Frankenstein itself is a symbolization of the progress of the enlightenment period. During this time the Europeans had just witnessed the scientific revolution where simple devices like the microscope and better telescopes were invented along with the advances of knowledge.
Frankenstien Many punishments for crimes are often given to innocent people. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, there are several instances in which the punishment is given to an innocent person. Justine, a maid at the Frankenstein residence, was killed for a crime she did not commit. Felix, a character the Monster encounters, was exiled from his country, for helping an innocent man escape from jail. Lastly, Victor himself was jailed for a murder, which he did not commit.
At the end of the book, Victor Frankenstein seeks to get revenge on his creation for killing his entire family. However, he dies before avenging his family. The monster visits his bedside, and the reader learns a lot from his speech. Through this quote, and the end of the book, the author shows the themes of sacrifice, compassion and forgiveness, and that the way living beings act is more important than its appearance. In this quotation, the monster says he will kill himself because of all the crimes that he has committed, and that he has nothing to live for now that his creator died. The audience sees that all the evil that the creature committed was very difficult and he hated doing them because he was compassionate, and was built to
The authors negative and self-centered diction when addressing the monster shows Victors true feelings and thoughts as a result of his obsession. “But now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (47)The use of the words “I” and “my” show that Victor never thought of the monsters feelings or thoughts but rather he thought only of his own. “horror” brings to mind utter fright and hate, which Victor felt towards the monster. Victor simply wanted to get away from the monster to selfishly preserve himself. The term “disgust” implies that Victor wants absolutely nothing to do with his obsession and that he cannot even stand the sight of his own creation. Specific details show that ambition can blind one from seeing the viewpoints of others. “...I would rather die than return shamefully-my purpose unfulfilled. Yet I fear such will be my fate; the men, unsupported by ideas of glory and honour, can never willingly continue to endure their present hardships.” (180)Robert Walton was not concerned that his own crewmates were dying but rather that he would have to return home a failure. Walton did not consider how they were feeling but rather insultingly compared their lack of honour to that of his own. The phrase “I would rather die…” implies that Walton is willing to die to achieve his goals and that he selfishly
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an attempt at connection—a narrative woven by its three principal narrators that attempts to share their legacies, dreams, and destructive secrets. The novel begins with the sea captain Walton writing to his sister about his longing for a companion, a wish paralleled by the other characters in the story: namely Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates. The whole narrative, therefore, is an effort to connect with others and alleviate loneliness and seclusion. It is fitting then, that this very notion of isolation is the greatest destructive force in the novel, as it facilitates and prompts monstrous behaviors. Emotional isolation from both family and society drives Frankenstein and his creation to dangerous
Frankenstein became racked with despair after the death of the monster’s first victim exclaiming that, “Anguish and despair had penetrated my heart; I bore a hell within me which nothing could extinguish” (Shelley 70). Frankenstein felt anguish, not only for the death of his loved one, but also for the guilt he felt being the one who caused it. This inner turmoil creates an undying anger in Frankenstein at the root of which is remorse. Additionally, this fiery despair leads Victor to a new ambition of revenge. Frankenstein devotes the rest of his life to killing the monster for he feels, “I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled and I may die” (189). Frankenstein’s ambition had changed course from the creation of the monster to the destruction of it; nonetheless, his life was taken in the pursuit. As a result of his ambition, Victor Frankenstein has created a monster causing him much remorse and untimely
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.