Similarities Between Dulce Et Decorum Est And Frankenstein

A stylistic and thematic comparison of ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est.’ and ‘Frankenstein and His Creature

In this piece of work I hope to compare successfully Wilfred Owens ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ with Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’. I will compare the similarities and differences between the two texts in themes, styles and linguistic features. When first reading both pieces of writing you wouldn’t assume there are many similarities between the two authors, as they were written one hundred years apart and came from completely opposite social and historical backgrounds.

Mary Shelley was a young educated aristocrat, her father being a leading anarchist thinker and her mother a strong feminist; this enabled her to have a wealthy lifestyle. She was married

However this transformation isn’t so evident within Dulce the poem but in fact in Wilfred Owen the man. Throughout the war he experienced a personal change; he was raised with strong religious beliefs and before the war was considering whether to become a priest. During the war his experiences made him re – consider his beliefs, he had joint for the purpose of ‘helping the boys as best as we can’ and in doing so had become a trained killer. Some would see this as being a monster and seeing the real transition in character of Wilfred Owen.

When reading Frankenstein a transformation of Victor Frankenstein is evident, we can see clear similarities between the monster he had created and Frankenstein himself. Shelley opens with ‘Convulsive motion agitated its limbs’ to describe the movements of the creature. Later on similarly she says ‘every limb became convulsed’ using this describe victors movements, showing clear links between the creature and Victor which was the sole purpose of repeating the same words to describe them both to indicate how victor was changing alongside the creation of the creature some would say he became the