More handpicked essays just for you.
Compare the characters of Victor Frankenstein and the monster
Frankenstein paradise lost comparisons
Quotes from macbeth and frankenstein to use in a comparative essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has the misfortune of losing his beloved mother, which provokes him to create life. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is a highly regarded warrior, who is brave and loyal to his king, but is corrupted by supernatural forces and driven to murder for what he wants. Adversity and hunger for power are not the only traits Frankenstein and Macbeth have in common; they both have a strong ambition, are lonely characters, and are tragic heroes. Victor and Macbeth are blinded by their ambition. Victor desires to create life in the form of a science experiment which became the …show more content…
Moreover, Macbeth becomes distant with Lady Macbeth, after he kills Banquo, one of those people closest to him. When Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth has no one to go to with his ideas or concerns. Even his servants are afraid of him. At the end of the play, even Macbeth’s normally faithful soldiers desert him because of their fear of him. Macbeth understands this as he says, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time.” Time drags on for him, and there is nothing left for him to live for. The arrogance displayed by Macbeth and Victor eventually drove away all those around them, causing both of them sorrow and …show more content…
Victor’s downfall is that he wants to know too much, and he tries to compete with forces beyond his capabilities. He is curious how to stop death and bring back those that have died. Victor is so driven by passion and ambition, that he even refers to himself in the third person when he says, “So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein-more, far more, I will achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” He is naive, as he continues his pursuit of knowledge without thinking of the consequences. Macbeth’s tragic flaw is he is greedy for power. He believes in the witches prophecies and even tries to rationalize murdering King Duncan, but realizes there is no real justification for the crime when he says, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on th’other,” and Macbeth sees no motivation for this murder, other than an intense desire for power when he talks about “vaulting ambition.” He is driven by his own madness, or his belief in his own ability to make his destiny. Macbeth’s lust for power and his obsessiveness all contribute to his demise, just as
Lady Macbeth has just died and Macbeth himself is realizing a fair amount of truths. “She should have died hereafter; / There would have been a time for such a world. / Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day … Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury” (ln 17-27). Macbeth had mocked time and attempted to outrace it, which ends up slowing him down. He has become fully aware that his life is worthless, and now he has lost his wife. Macbeth also recognizes that it would have been better if Lady Macbeth had died at some other time because her death made everything worse. This time motif is the height of Macbeth’s realization of where his life has gone. Duncan, Banquo, and now his wife are dead. He believed that taking the throne was all he needed, but it left him with the opposite. This motif is effective because even though Macbeth is still living in some alternate reality of time, he is slowly coming out of that after the death of his wife. Macbeth is now numb and feels
Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis and King of Scotland is dead by the end of the play, thanks to his mental deterioration. Macbeth’s mental deterioration is easily traced throughout the the play, starting with Macbeth imagining the floating dagger, then continuing to deteriorate threw the killing of Banquo, and finally ending with seeing Banquo’s ghost at the banquet. As clearly seen Lady Macbeth isn’t the only insane one. Macbeth was doomed from the beginning of the play. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were a couple that just couldn’t get a grip on reality. As they say curiosity killed the
His life begins to revolve around power and keeping his authority, and he isolates himself from everything that made him happy. Macbeth initially believes that by seizing the highest authority he will gain immeasurable amounts of happiness, however this is not the case. Macbeth not only gains nothing, but loses everything that made him happy; society's respect, his wife, his peace of mind, and relatively moral values. After Lady Macbeth's death, this reality dawns on him and he broods on how meaningless his life was; "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Shakespeare's use of metaphor in this short soliloquy reveals that Macbeth was a puppet, and although he had immense power, he was not the one pulling the strings. He realizes that he has been manipulated by the witches, by his wife and by his own desires. He let his own ambition and want for power blind him from the horrific deeds that he was carrying out, and realises that his life's purpose had become retaining his position as King of Scotland, and he had lost everything he hoped for in life in the process. Macbeth had let his mind become so corrupt, that he lost sight of morality, and let his ambition and desire for power control him. Although there were many
To begin, the negative consequences of Macbeth and Victor Frankenstein’s ambitions lead both down a road of unforgivable acts and ultimately an overwhelming sense of guilt. Frankenstein, causing the conviction of innocent Justine Moritz and the death of his very own
An evil lives, buried deeply or just below the surface, within us all, just waiting to emerge. In the books Frankenstein and Macbeth, the two main characters commence and conclude the story as two comprehensively disparate people, entirely transformed by their actions and encompassing environments. Ignorance and knowledge, two recurring themes in the book Frankenstein and the play Macbeth, are polar opposites, yet work effortlessly together when comparing and contrasting the two readings. The epitome of their downfall throughout the storylines, both characters suffer from either an abundance, or lack thereof, of knowledge. Both characters are monstrous in their own ways, while at the same time being far from similar in the respects of their
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a prophecy foretells that Macbeth will one day be king. But instead of leaving it to fate, Lady Macbeth cunningly manipulates him into killing the king. However, killing King Duncan creates more problems than it resolves. Macbeth’s mind deteriorates after this murder, and he finds himself killing for no reason because life is now meaningless to him. This continuation of his failing sanity also presents itself during and following the later murder scenes of Banquo, his friend, and Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth, however, is able to conceal the inner turmoil she is feeling, and initially appears unaffected by the crimes. But as the play progresses, Lady Macbeth feels distressed that MacBeth continues to kill,
She knows that he will be the “serpent” (I, v, 57) in the king's “Garden of Eden”. This taints Macbeth's loyalty, respect, and honour into desire and passion. Macbeth’s passion is to make the woman he loves as joyful as can be, no matter the cost. Macbeth loses sight of his passion, after the throne is achieved; because he feels the need to preserve it. Being so distracted in what he believes needs to be done, Macbeth forgets why he is doing it. Macbeth’s passion, and love for his wife fade in the shadow of what he has become. Arrogance leading his sword; Macbeth murders Banquo, and Macduff's family without further guilt as he is already so far “in blood”(III, iv, 146). Lady Macbeth’s passion and desire corrupted a once honourable, respectable man to the point her death is but fuel toward his hubris and toward his war for power. The Macbeth of Act one would have cried over his dead wife, but he has lost sight of his passion. More so Macbeth says “Life’s but a walking shadow” (V, v, 26) and that everyone is bound to die, so he did not cry. Hubris of a man believed to be invincible is to blame for his unexpected reaction to his wife's death. Unconsciously Macbeth pursued his passion for his wife, which negatively affected his character by desensitizing his morals; changing Macbeth into a bloodthirsty
Macbeth’s provocative or violent actions on the challenges placed before him cause him to build an effect of downfall and dismay throughout the play. Originally, Macbeth handles his challenges in different ways and manners and is constantly changing his procedure. From handling situations carefully to not caring, Macbeth and his violence resulted in guilt and selfishness which he had to overcome. By the end of the play, Macbeth had become a selfish, greedy king and the challenges as well as experiences he encountered shaped him into who he is. He was shaped by the guilt of killing Banquo and Duncan, just to become powerful and a king. For example, in Act 3 Scene 4, Macbeth faces adversity when his mind creates a ghost of Banquo, who he just found out was killed. In Macbeth, the uprising of adversity was often handled in various manners. By dealing with his own challenges, Macbeth transforms his handling of adversity from being cautious to thoughtless, which reflected his character and the transformation he portrayed throughout the
To begin with, ambition consumes the thoughts of Macbeth and Frankenstein, harming themselves physically and mentally. Macbeth’s ambition drives him to commit murder, overshadowing his ideas of right and wrong and causing damage to his health.
Lady Macbeth becomes engulfed by guilt and the powerful person she used to be, falls to the consequences of her own actions. Her constant reminder of her actions cause her to sleepwalk and she says “Here’s the smell of blood still: all / the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little / hand”(5.1.50-52). Lady Macbeth knows that she will never be able to undo the things that she has done and that her life will never go back to normal which all in all, sums up a sense of a wasted life. In addition, Macbeth also realizes that he has nothing good in life and that all the people he used to call friends have turned to enemies, proving the complete isolation of his life. Before the big battle, Macbeth reflects on his life by saying “I have liv’d long enough: my way of life / Is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf, / And that which should accompany old age, / As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead / Curses”(5.3.22-27). There is basically no one left in the world that will ever like Macbeth and he realizes that it is fine if this is his end because he really has nothing to lose anymore. Macbeth has gone from being the most praised person to the most hated person because of the way he forced himself to live his life. Moreover, when Macbeth hears the news of Lady Macbeth's death, he merely dismisses it because he recognizes that their current lives were terrible anyways. After the news is delivered, Macbeth goes on to say “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, / To the last syllable of recorded time”(5.5.19-21). Although all the terrible deeds that Macbeth has done, it is still disappointing to see Macbeth giving up on life because of the potential that he initially had, where he was a noble man
Macbeth and his wife realise their actions have built up momentum and they are repeatedly committing criminal acts to keep up. To start, Lady Macbeth first suffers from trauma and dies. Going in depth, Lady Macbeth reveals prior to killing Duncan that “which hath made them drunk that / make me bold” (2.2.1-2). Lady Macbeth reveals that despite being the one to organise the murder and is drunk, she understands and feels the burden of killing Duncan. Next, Macbeth states, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears” (5.5.10), claiming that he is now tolerant to most fears after being surrounded by it as a consequence of his actions. However, upon the attack of the English soldiers and death of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth learns that reflecting his evil
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein exposes some of the harsh natures of human characteristics in this gothic novel through a genius, Frankenstein, and his hideous creation, Frankenstein’s monster. These two most important characters of the novel try to obtain power over one another and power is one of those harsh natures and is one of the strongest drives of human desire. Doctor Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster have altering positions of power as the novel progresses and their power is measured through knowledge, hostility, threats, and even death.
Despite the influences that In Shakespeare’s shortest but most gruesome tragedy “Macbeth”, no one plays more of a substantial role in the tragic hero’s untimely demise than the man himself. Macbeth, a reputable Scottish general and the Thane of Cawdor heedlessly sabotages his future and many others’ in the process. Firstly, Macbeth succumbs to his vaulting ambition as a result of this he begins making rash decisions, Secondly, Macbeth is too trusting of the three witches and their prophecies pertaining to Macbeth’s future success. Lastly, Macbeth begins to gradually isolate himself from those closest to him such as Lady Macbeth and Banquo. To put it briefly: Macbeth is the most culpable for his premature death.
In the play Othello and the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the main characters in both plays as warriors. Both characters in each of their plays, had constant outside voices seeping into their minds which ultimately contributed to the fate of both Othello and Macbeth. The witches in the play Macbeth had more of an effect of Macbeth’s actions then Iago had on Othello’s actions in the play Othello. Each character had a lot of pressure on them throughout the play however the witches influence on Macbeth resulted in more destruction than Iago’s influence on Othello.
Ambition is a valuable quality to possess but when used for the wrong reason it can be detrimental. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, an inspired scientist, uses his ambition to fuel his creative work. Macbeth, the brave soldier in the play Macbeth, displays a great need for power. With his ambition thriving, he will do anything to be in charge. Victor Frankenstein and Macbeth, both aggressive men, display an extreme sense of ambition leading them to ultimately go insane. The urgency for recognition both becomes and obsession over time and negatively influences the decisions they make.