Knowledge is a distinctively human virtue. After all, if not for the want of human
beings to learn of and master our habitat, would we not still be counted among the
beasts? For all of the good that knowledge brings to us, however, knowledge can just
as easily bring pain. We discover new types of medicine to extend our lives, but that is
balanced by our awareness of our mortality. We find new advances in technology with
which to bring convenience into our lives, but those advances are countered by the
resulting pollutions that are poisoning our world. These conflicting aspects of
knowledge and its consequences were first discussed thousands of years ago by the
ancient Greeks. The Titan Prometheus bestowed upon mankind the gift of knowledge,
but that gift came with a price. In Frankenstein: or, A Modern Prometheus, Mary
Shelley brings the ideas of Prometheus into the early 19th century by co-opting three of
the central themes of the Prometheus myth—the themes of knowledge with
consequence, the underlying sexism within the story of Pandora, and the use of
lightning as a means of representing knowledge.
A brief discussion of the myth of Prometheus is warranted. There are two major
myths involving Prometheus—those of Prometheus pyrophorus, who brings fire from
the lightning bolt of Zeus to benefit mankind, and that of Prometheus plasticator, who
creates man out of clay. These two major themes involving Prometheus at first seem
disparate but upon close examination fit together quite well. Prometheus is both the
creator and benefactor of man. Eventually, “[b]y about the second or third century A.D.,
the two elements where fused together, so that the fire stolen by Prometheus was also
the...
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Integrity. 8.3 (2006): 257-270. Academic Search Premire. Web. 17 Nov. 2008.
Shelley, Mary . Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein.
Ed. Johanna M. Smith. 2nd ed. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism.
Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s P, 2000. 19-189. Print.
Shattuck, Roger. Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography. New York:
St. Martin’s P, 1996. Print.
Smith, C.U.M. “A Strand of Vermicelli: Dr. Darwin’s Part in the Creation of
Frankenstein’s Monster.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 32.1 (2007): 45-53.
Academic Search Premire. Web. 17 Nov. 2008.
Smith, Johanna M. “’Cooped Up’ with ‘Sad Trash’: Domesticity and the Sciences in
Frankenstein.” Mary Shelley: Frankenstein. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. 2nd ed.
Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s P, 2000.
313-333. Print.
We are all born into this world with innocence, but due to our human nature and the ways of society we don’t stay this way. Some people let the world corrupt them and others manage to find peace. However, none of us are been as liars and killers. Victor Frankenstein’s monster is an example of such corruption and how someone so innocent can be manipulated based on how they’re viewed by others. In the monster’s early days he is shown to be innocent without knowledge of his appearance and the effect that it will have on people.When he first encounters humans he has faith in them and is confident that he will befriend them. Then, with each human encounter his faith is destroyed. The monster is young and doesn’t understand
Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, deals with the major dilemma of the creation of man. Rousseau deals with the topic of abandonment in Emile, which stemmed the thoughts of creation for Shelley in 1816 upon reading Rousseau's opinions. Rousseau blames the problems that children inhibit solely upon the parents shoulders (Mellor). Mary Shelley is able to relate to this statement on a personal level due to the parenting (or lack of) within her life. This in turn leads to a broader question concerning Shelley's Frankenstein; is the monster really the sole person to blame for his murderous actions? According to Rousseau's theory, the monster is not the sole problem. Victor Frankenstein is his creator or "father" figure thus giving him the responsibility of his monster.
In Marry Shelly’s book Frankenstein, she tells the story of a man named Victor Frankenstein. The character of Frankenstein contains traits that parallel Prometheus from Greek mythology. Through his actions and emotions Victor Frankenstein becomes the modern Prometheus by producing ill-fated actions that carry tragic consequences just as Prometheus’ did.
In the novel, Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley, implements a prevalent nineteenth century structure called epistolary within a frame narrative to introduce a sublime story. Through Robert Walton’s letters to his sister, Victor Frankenstein’s life story, and the monster’s interjection, the author provides multiple perspectives to the plot. By allowing each character to share their story that all contain differing point of views, it enables the readers to remain interested and informed. Through the three contrasting narrators, Shelley strengthens the roles of the characters as they respectively convey their emotions and input their personal thoughts.
Mythologies are traditionally stories that concern the early history of religion and people or the explanation of a natural or social phenomenon. Myths are often referenced by authors, as allusions, in their novels. The myth of Prometheus, the creator of man, is the story of a god who is sentenced to suffer for eternity for disobeying god. Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as a modern Prometheus in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through, the methods used for the creation of man, his desire to create man, and the punishment he receives from his creation and himself. As the novel progresses, so does the similarities between Frankenstein and Prometheus. Due to the various similarities between them, a conclusion that Frankenstein portrays Prometheus
and in this essay I will explore who the monster is in the novel. The
“Knowledge is power. Power to do evil...or power to do good. Power itself is not evil. So knowledge itself is not evil.” - Veronica Roth, Allegiant
Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster. & nbsp; Science is a broad field that covers many aspects of everyday life and existence. Some areas of science include the study of the universe, the environment, dinosaurs, animals, and insects. Another popular science is the study of people and how they function. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an inspiring scientist who studies the dead. He wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being. He spends all of his Frankenstein is to blame for the tragedy, not the monster he has created, because he is the mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is supposed to have everything under control, working properly as a good scientist should. & nbsp; Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that followed the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being.  something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and & nbsp; I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. (156) & nbsp; Victor is saying that he has isolated himself for two years and in the end, he is not at all happy because of the bad outcome. He also adds, "Winter, spring and summer passed.so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation" (156). By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, never going out, but mostly worrying about his success, he has got himself crazier. This has made him lose sight of his surroundings and judgment & nbsp; Moreover, the monster should not be held responsible for killing Victor's family members and friends as shown in the book and movie, because it is Victor who has brought a dead creature back to life. He expects the monster to know everything when he wakes up cool, calm, and collected. But when the monster is awakened, he does not know anything. He sees a world different from what he is used to, which makes him get nervous and scared, so he&nb has removed him from dead. With the dawning of life, the monster has to learn about his new environment. In the play of Frankenstein, the monster starts to gradually get used to things. The problems he encounters are with Victor's assistant, Peter Krempe, Victor's friend, Henry, and other family members, including Elizabeth, and these are reactions to how these people treat him. These reactions are clearly shown in the movie of Young Frankenstein, where Victor tries to teach the monster how to live like to show off the monster to an audience in a dance routine of sorts. But then people start to scream, panic and throw things at the monster, so he reacts by attacking them to defend himself. In this case, it is clear that Victor tries to push the monster too hard because he wants to be famous.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
The historical context and cultural background give clarity regarding Mary Shelley’s decision to write the novel of Frankenstein. In Anthony Badalamenti’s academic article, he points out that there is undeniable evidence to suggest that Shelley’s husband Percy, directly shaped the creation of one of Shelley’s main characters, Victor Frankenstein. Badalamenti, explains that “Victor experiments with science to discover the principle of life” which correlates with how Percy was “fascinated by the secrets of deaths and tombs” (Badalamenti). At the early age of 10, Percy had started to experiment with electrochemistry by drawing from the workings of Luigi Galvani, who was a renowned scientist in England for his experiments in 1802-1803 in which he tried to create life with electricity. Mary Shelley was aware of Galvani’s experiments and Percy’s obsession with creating life from inanimate objects because there were frequent scientists like Galvani visiting her home. Percy’s desire to test the boundaries of science and his fascination with life and death exemplify an incredible parallel to Prometheus. Much like Mary Shelley, Percy was also very intrigued by the myth of Prometheus and the themes that it presented. In 1820 Percy published a four act lyrical drama entitled Prometheus Unbound, which provides a first person narrative of Prometheus
Tragedy shows no discrimination and often strikes down on those undeserving of such turmoil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature more repulsive than one can imagine is brought to life by a young scientist. Although this creature is horrifying in sight, he is gentle by nature. Unfortunately, the softer side of the creature is repeatedly overlooked and the so called “monster” is driven to a breaking point. Even though the Creature committed many crimes, Mary Shelley’s Creature was the tragic hero of this story because of his efforts rescue the life of a young girl and helping destitute cottagers.
As shown in the Bible, Adam committed a huge sin by eating the apple from the forbidden tree and when he got caught by God his creator he tried to blame Eve for the evil actions that they committed although both of them were at fault. In the horror-science novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley writes a story of a man 's ambition to play the role of God and tries to create another human being instead he creates a monster that acts like a human that faces many human trials. Mary Shelley relates this to Frankenstein, and in real life, in that, you can not abandon and mistreat things because it does not turn out or look how you wanted to because that may lead to consequences that you were not expecting.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. The 1818 Text. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
The pursuit of knowledge can lead to a humans destruction and awareness. The pursuit of
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Walter James Miller, and Harold Bloom. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York: New American Library, 2000. Print.