INTRODUCTION
It has been commonly accepted that John Milton is acquainted with Dante Alighieri who has a great influence on Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. The significance of The Divine Comedy for Milton lies especially in Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio. Scholars1 have quoted plentiful echoes of Dante throughout Milton’s works, and have compared these two great poets for centuries. In the 19th century Mary Shelley employed a cluster of images and ideas from Milton’s Paradise Lost (especially from Book Ten) in Frankenstein -- the work that establishes the fame of Mary -- to forge her novelistic world of desire, deterioration, and desperation. Therefore, this novel has been studied many times for Miltonic echoes and influences. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley defines the relationship between man and nature arisen from the scientific and technological progress with an epic theme of man’s lust, limitation, and punishment. Overall the motif of this novel is an archetypal journey driven by man’s forbidden fire of desire.
Since Dante does have such great influence on Milton from whose work Mary borrows and utilizes as her source of reference, there should be some connection between Dante and Mary. When Victor first sees the monster alive, he describes that
No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endured with animation could not be so hideous aas that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.2 (51)
Here manifests the first direct reference of Dante in this fiction. This ugliness also explains why the creature’s fire for love is forbidden and impossible. In additi...
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...id, Dante’s Commedia, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.” Comparative Literature Studies 43.1 (2006): 134-152. Web. 23 Jul. 2009
Hustis, Harriet. “Responsible Creativity and the Modernity of Mary Shelley’s Prometheus.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 43.4 (2003): 845-858. Web. JSTOR. 15 May. 2009
Lamb, John B. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Milton’s Monstrous Myth.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 47.3 (1992): 303-319. Web. JSTOR. 29 Dec. 2013
Punday, Daniel. “Narrative Performance in the Contemporary Monster Story.” The Modern Language Review 97.4 (2002): 803-820. Web. JSTOR. 29 Dec. 2013
Sharp, Michele Turner. “If It Be a Monster Birth: Reading and Literary Property in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” South Atlantic Review 66.4 (2001): 70-93. Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. London: Everyman’s Library, 1992. Print.
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, illustrates the Romantic idea of the sublime naturalworld as an emotional experience for the characters of the novel. Within the text, Shelleyutilizes an allusion to the John Milton’s biblical story, Paradise Lost, to make a parallel betweenthe characters. Within the passage, the monster compares himself, as well as his creator, Victor,to the characters Adam and Satan. He comes to realize that he is more similar to Satan;ultimately, leading him to his reign of terror and the revenge he wishes to impose on Victor. Themonster realizes that he is similar to Adam in Paradise Lost in that they both do not want to bealone. The monster also realizes that there is good in the world that is deeply contrasted with
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, has captured people’s attention since it was first written. People often wonder how much of Mary Shelley’s life is documented in her novel. From the theme of parental abandonment, to the theme of life and death in the novel, literary scholars have been able to find similarities between Frankenstein and Shelley’s life. The Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and the Modern Psychoanalysis discuss the different connections between Shelley’s life and Frankenstein. Badalamenti, the author of “ Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein?” in the Journal of Religion and Health, primarily discusses the connection between Victor
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
Dante, an Italian poet during the late middle ages, successfully parallels courtly love with Platonic love in both the La Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy. Though following the common characteristics of a courtly love, Dante attempts to promote love by elevating it through the lenses of difference levels. Through his love affair with Beatrice, although Beatrice has died, he remains his love and prompts a state of godly love in Paradiso. Dante, aiming to promote the most ideal type of love, criticizes common lust while praises the godly love by comparing his state of mind before and after Beatrice’s death. PJ Klemp essay “Layers of love in Dante’s Vita Nuova” explains the origins of Dante’s love in Plato and Aristotle themes that designate
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" narrates a story about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his creation of a monster set apart from all worldly creatures. Frankenstein's creation parallels Milton's "Paradise Lost" and God's creation of man; Victor Frankenstein is symbolic of God and the monster is symbolic of Adam. The parallel emphasizes the moral limitations of mankind through Victor Frankenstein and the disjunction and correlation with "Paradise Lost". Shelly links the two stories together through Victor's creation of the monster and his "fall" from humanity which I will focus on initially. More importantly, the main divergence of the two works lies in the representation of God in "Paradise Lost" and Victor in "Frankenstein". Both the correlations and disjunctions prove three human moral limitations: omnipotence, ambition, and (in relating to Christianity) human imperfection. Furthermore, each limitation relates to the author's warning to humanity of our progression as a society.
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
In examination of Dante’s Inferno, I have found that all of these major monsters fulfill their vital role and function perfectly, and there are two substantial viewpoints concerning the involvement of the seven monsters. One viewpoint shows the monsters in their role of the custodians and tormentors of Hell which is a tool to create terrifying atmospheres of Hell. In other words, the narrator Dante presents the monsters as scary creatures for the character Dante, for he considers that this technique is significantly important for the development of the story. Another viewpoint shows the monsters as symbols which reinforce the narrator Dante’s narration, for these monsters directly reflect the human’s sins as they represent the concept of God’s retribution for classification of sins.
Turner Sharp, Michele. If It Be a Monster Birth: Reading and Literary Property in Mary
Mary Shelley’s world renowned book, “Frankenstein”, is a narrative of how Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant chemist, succeeds in creating a living being. Although Frankenstein’s creation is benevolent to begin with, he soon turns murderous after being mistreated by humans. His anger turns towards Frankenstein, as he was the one who brought him into the world that shuns him. The Monster then spends the rest of the story trying to make his creator’s life as miserable as his own. This novel is an excellent example of the Gothic Romantic style of literature, as it features some core Gothic Romantic elements such as remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress.
The Inferno is the first section of Dante's three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. Throughout Dante's epic journey into the depths of Inferno he encounters thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures. The most significant of these monsters are of central importance to his journey and to the narrative, as they not only challenge Dante's presence in Inferno, but are custodians of Hell, keeping in order or guarding the "perduta gente". In this essay I am concentrating on these prominent beasts, namely Minos, Cerberus, Plutus and Geryon, establishing why they feature in Dante's eschatological vision and discussing the sources which influenced his inclusion of these particular creatures. These four monsters all fulfil important functions as well as representing important themes in Inferno, establishing them as symbols which reinforce Dante's allegory.
...people did to be placed in that circle of hell but it does not show a progression of evil, if there was one, or how they got to that point. As for Milton’s Satan, the choices that he makes that ultimately transform him into this radically evil being are described. Milton definitely uses some of Dante’s ideas when it comes to describing the landscape of hell or the transformation into serpents or even the gigantomachy and perhaps repeated themes in Paradise Lost that follow a cyclic pattern similar to that of the cyclic pattern of Hell in the Inferno but I think that Milton created his own ideas when it comes to the major idea of evil and the character of Satan because those are drastically different. So when it comes to the idea of evil and Satan, Dante’s influence is minimal and almost contrasting to what happens in with the idea of evil and Satan and the Inferno.
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
... Moreover, such belief in human reason signifies Dante's hope towards a bright society and the pursuit of God’s love as the other part of self-reflection. In conclusion, a great deal of tension and contrast between “dark” and “light” in The Inferno helps us to explore Dante’s self portrait—he fears dangerous desires and sinful darkness, but shows much courage and hope towards life since he nevertheless follows his guide Virgil to dive into horrible Hell. As shown in Canto I, such emotional reaction to dark and light symbols lays a great foundation for developing Dante’s broad and universal traits as his journey progresses.
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.