The Most Monstrous Being In Mary Shelley's Novel, Frankenstein
Introduction
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Mary Shelly was born in 1797 and died in 1851; she was the second wife
of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famous English poet. Her novel
"Frankenstein" was written when she was only 19 years of age and she
wrote it as a response to a challenge that Lord Byron set her.
Frankenstein is considered by some to be a modern Prometheus, an
ancient Greek myth about the creation of man.
Section 1
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Frankenstein wanted to be able to create life and defeat death:
Frankenstein -"I might in the process of time…renew life where death
had apparently devoted the body to corruption."
Frankenstein dreams of a world where death is not an object and he
hopes that one day death would only mean having to be brought back to
life. At this point Frankenstein does not seem at all monstrous.
Although in the beginning Frankenstein's intentions are good but, the
way he goes about realising his dream is not:
Frankenstein - "I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave."
Mary Shelly uses the word "dabbled" to describe the way Frankenstein
looks for body parts in graves. These could have been from people who
had families or other loved ones, but Frankenstein treats them as
pieces of meat, materials for his experiment, and this makes the
reader disgusted at Frankenstein. This is the first sign that
Frankenstein is immoral. Despite this, might be forgiven as his
judgement is affected by his desire to create rather than destroy
life. Although this could shock a modern reader, it does not compare
to the reaction of a Victorian audie...
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...ross two points when she
wrote the novel. The first and more obvious is that when she was
writing Frankenstein, there were radical scientific developments going
on at the time. Scientists were starting to think that they could
bring dead organisms back to life. Mary Shelly thought this was wrong
as more people were starting to believe in science rather than go. I
think Mary Shelly's tale of woe is a warning to people. This is what
can happen when you rebel against god. The second point is that like
her mother, Mary is a feminist. When the novel was written, men would
have made all the vital decisions at the time; Mary didn't agree with
this. In Frankenstein it is men (Frankenstein and the monster) who
make all the vital decisions and consequently it is, bar
Frankenstein's friend Clerval, all women and children who die.
Joseph Rowlandson died in 1691 at the age of forty-seven. It was said that Mary died shortly after her husband’s death but come to find out just nine months after the death of her husband, Mary married Connecticut leader, Capt. Samuel Talcott. There were no more known details of her life except for a court testimony in 1707. Mary White Rowlandson Talcott died at the age of seventy-three on January 5, 1711.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California at 9:00 p.m - a time significant to her because it told her she would always have a bit of catching up to do if she wanted to be on time for dinner (Black 5). As the youngest child and only girl in her family of five, she was her mother’s pride and joy. She had two supportive parents, Gertrude and George, and two older brothers, Jack and George Junior. Gertrude Temple was a stay-at-home mom while George went to work as a bank teller, which played in Shirley’s favor when she needed someone to manage her money later in life (Blashfield 55). Gertrude Temple has been called the first stage mother (Blashfield 22) for good reason. Shirley Temple was acting before she could read, so her mother helped her memorize her lines. Temple’s mother served as her private costume designer, and never failed to make the young star’s performance her best yet, by encouraging her to “Sparkle, Shirley Sparkle!” (David 2).
...She died as one of the most respected women in American history on May 21, 1935. She never married and apparently never had a romantic relationship with a man. Today, modern scholars debate whether or not Addams ever had an intimate relationship with Mary Rozet Smith or other women at Hull House, but the question has never been definitively resolved.
Her husband died in 1882 and she never got remarried. After her husband died, her and her children moved back to Saint Louis. In 1885, her mother died. She
The creature was created with the intention of goodness and purity but because of this, he wasn’t equipped to deal with the rejection of his creator. After Victor Frankenstein’s death, Robert Walton walks in to see the creature standing over his friend’s lifeless body.
Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley. Her Life, her Fiction, her Monsters. Methuen. New York, London, 1988.
What is a monster, really? Is it really a Creature that has three eyes instead of two, with pus seeping out of every crevice in his face and an abnormally large form? Or is it someone with a mind so corrupt it rivals that of Satan? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story within a story that centers on the tale of a man with an immense thirst of knowledge and a fetish to imitate the Creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a lot like the Greek mythological tale of the Greek God, Prometheus, and his brother, Epimetheus, who were assigned the task of creating man. The story captivates the theme of monstrosity. Mary Shelley wrote the novel in a form so the reader’s opinions never stray far from sympathy for the monster and apathy for Victor Frankenstein. The novel looks at “Monstrosity” and “Humanity” in a deeply analytical way.
In many works of literature we are faced with good characters and bad characters. Sometimes we are faced with morally ambiguous characters. As readers we can not decide whether or not to distinguish them as good characters or bad characters.These characters are significant to the piece of work. In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, we are faced with the morally ambiguous character, Victor Frankenstein, his character trait is significant as a whole because of his feelings,and his actions.
In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creature's only need is for a female companion, which he asks Victor Frankenstein his maker to create. Shelley shows the argument between the creature and Frankenstein. The creature says: "I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself " (Shelley 139). Shelley shows what the creature wants from Frankenstein and what his needs are. Shelley gives us an idea of the sympathy that Frankenstein might feel for the creature even though he neglects him. The creature confronts Victor demanding his attention and expressing his needs. I feel a lot of sympathy for the creature based on him being able to forgive Victor for abandoning him and being able to communicate with him.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
after the death of Mrs. Greenfield in 1845. In 1851 Elizabeth gave her first public concert
When we are created into this world it’s not by the choice of our own. However, we are created most times out of love from our creator. Like a baby just newly born into this world needs to feel its mothers touch, scent, and security. The bonding makes you feel a connection to your maker of the world and without it a person may feel lost, abandoned, and unloved. From the beginning we hope to build our self-esteem through the love of our creator. Sadly, most people are not loved or accepted by their creator. This leads to a person lashing out in a number of ways that society views unconventional due to the lack of understanding that person suffers through abandonment alone. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley illustrates the theme of monstrosity
Imagine an eight-foot-tall, misshapen human child. You might complain that this is contradictory - but do it anyway. Imagine some sort of humanoid being with the mind of a human child in an eight-foot body, green with a nail in its head if you want. This is what Frankenstein's creature is. Frankenstein's creature is mentally a child, and we see its evolution through traditional child development in the course of its narrative. But the creature is the only member of its species, and therefore its narrative can be taken to represent the history of an entire species - the creature's first experiences can be viewed as an amalgam of creation myths.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the motif of monstrosity to convey the theme that a person’s outward appearance is not what makes them a monster but rather their actions or inactions that classify true monstrosity. Despite the fact that the monster Victor Frankenstein creates is a literal example of monstrosity in the novel there are many parts that give meaning to monstrosity within character’s actions. Although Victor appears normal, since he is human his ambitions, secrets, selfishness, and inaction makes him a monster himself. Along with monstrous characters the pursuit of knowledge that is seen in Victor, his monster, and Walton in Frankenstein prove that knowledge can be a monstrosity. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is created using the life stories of different characters in the novel. The novel itself could be seen as a monster created similarly to Victor’s monster.