Karina Fajardo
English 101
November 7, 2017
Life is an amazing gift to have, breathing this air we breathe daily, filling our souls with joy, excitement, and love. The thought of love and life go together, but it may break you and turn you into a person you never thought you could be. We first learn to love ourselves then, we grow to love our family. But with life there comes death. And death takes a toll on simply anyone and everyone. In the book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley emphasizes on the topic of love. Love ties into multiple things. Such as pain, wanting more time with our loved ones, and by doing so Shelley’s life ties into the creations of Frankenstein. The scientist, Victor Frankenstein plays with the things we cannot change in
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Shelley’s emotions that were felt in her life are in her book, presenting herself as Victor and or as Frankenstein. Death, abandonment, and disaster are three words that sum up Shelley's life. Alone from birth, in the book Victor flees at first sight of his creature, and the first memories are painful. "I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept," he says (Shelley 92). Just like Shelley was alone, and abandoned from her family at her early age in life so was the monster, so helpless and feeling useless once being told those hurtful words. Another example of this is when the monster Frankenstein was brought into this world looking for love, but the first and only thing he received was rejection. Victor was scared of what he had created and ran away from his creature, leaving it alone and hurt. (Shelley, 57). Victor never saw the creature with emotions, or simply seeing him as humane. He saw the creature for what it was and not what it could be. The creature would have never been seen as a monster if Victor gave him the things he needs to feel humane. Love, appreciation, and the feeling of life. Indeed, the creature feels disgusted just by looking at himself. When he sees his reflection in a pool of water he is "filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification" (Shelly 102). Is this …show more content…
One of the brightest symbols of Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is the creature itself. This symbol represents the depth of the personal tragedy and the inability of human beings to take responsibility for their actions. The creator, Victor Frankenstein is not a monster but should be considered one in the first place. Victor’s ambitions and ego make him create a human form of life without even thinking about the consequences. The scientist was so caught up in his emotions he never thought of the one creature that would be filled with human emotions, life and resemble a heart that can be broken similar to ours. Victor was only thinking of his holes in his heart that he could replace. (Shelley 63). Frankenstein, the scientist was so easy to judge the creature from the outside yet never payed any attention to how the creature was reacting or feeling. “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then” (Shelley Chapter
The Creature was born capable of thing such as love and sympathy though he lost these capabilities as a result of how he was treated. The creature’s heart was ‘fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy’ but wrenched with misery to ‘vice and hatred’. On a cold night in November, Victor Frankenstein brought his creation to life. This creation has thin black lips, inhuman eyes, and
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is filled with death and sorrow. They occur in almost every aspect of the book. The four "squares" of the book, Walter, Victor, the monster, and the cottagers, all suffer from them at one time or another. Some perceive Frankenstein as a horror story; however, in actuality it is a book of tragedy and despair. Every page reveals more misery than the page before. Thus, death and sorrow are inevitable in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein In her novel, 'Frankenstein', Mary Shelley employs many innovative literary techniques to invoke feelings of sympathy for the monster. Sympathy is created by the author both by making the readers pity the monster’s loathsome existence and by leading them to understand his violent and cruel actions. We pity the creature because of the way he is treated by mankind and we can identify with his feelings and reactions and understand why he behaves as he does. Shelley uses different narrators throughout the novel and the reader sympathises with the views of these people to differing degrees.
Frankenstein is actually about the friendship of the soul. Without this basic need the body either withers away and dies or turns to another source, like murder or drink, to fill the hole. Both fatalities can be seen in the story, with Victor's friendship and the monster's anger. Neither one fills the gap in their soul, but eventually consumes them until they die.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “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” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
By the end of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wanted the reader to discover that it was not Frankenstein’s creature that was the monster, but Victor Frankenstein himself. She was able to accomplish this fully by highlighting the absence of a single trait in Frankenstein; he has no empathy. Empathy, the ability to feel with another creature, is an integral part of what makes us human, what separates us from inanimate objects and animals. It is possible for a person to register another creature’s emotions without truly being empathetic. True empathy requires an individual to merge identities and act upon both their own and the others’ emotions.
Not only did he feel contempt because of the way he was treated, but it was also compounded by the extreme feeling of isolation that he had. "Being lonely can produce hyper-reactivity to negative behaviors in other people,” says John Cacioppo, a psychologist who specifically studies the biological effects of loneliness, “so lonely people see those maltreatments as heavier” (Gammon). The monster was alone since the day he was created, so his mind and mental state were undoubtedly damaged, making him more prone to turning his negative feelings into something far worse, like murder. “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses,” laments the monster (Shelley). His lack of relationships made him socially inept, and made it hard for him to think rationally about how to react to negative comments. In the seventeenth chapter of Frankenstein, the monster returns to Victor after living alone in his cave for a while and asks Victor to create a female companion for him to ease his lonesomeness (Shelley). He begs Victor, using the argument that companionship will ease his pain and reduce the hatred he feels for humans: “If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy the cause of my crimes” (Shelley). According to John Cacioppo’s findings, the monster would be correct in
The creature’s moral ambiguity characteristic was a vile ingredient to the construction of this novel Frankenstein because it made the reader 's sympathies with him even after the audience knows he had committed murder because the readers had seen the truth this creature had to face. That he had tried everything within his power to peacefully live with them, to interact, communicate, and befriend them “these thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language”, that even though he was seen as a monster because of the looks he was created with, something he had no control over, he still had hope to be seen as equals, ”My organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration;” this hope of his was utterly crushed, and can only set him up for utter disappointment(12.18). Because in the end he only received hates, scorns, violence, and prejudice from his good will. So in the end of the story, Mary Shelley’s forces the readers to see within the creature’s heart and for
Frankenstein's parents were very loving and he states that “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself” but he was only able to love them after seeing “other families [he] distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate [his] lot was” (34). Frankenstein was loved by his family but he was emotionally unattached from them and was only able to feel gratitude towards his loving family. When Frankenstein knew his mother had passed he was not affected by her loss and thought that his family should “learn to think [themselves] fortunate” (41). The person that gave him life had passed but Frankenstein never developed an intimate connection to her and was more concerned about his desire for knowledge. Frankenstein also runs from the chance at having a father son relationship in favor of a God and creation relationship when he rejects the “one hand [that the creature] stretched out” (56). The possibility at having a relationship as intimate as a father and son had Frankenstein running from his creation and leaving it like god left humans on Earth. Frankenstein’s friendships were also lacking intimacy he “loved [his friend] with a mixture of affection and reverence that knew no bounds, yet [he] could never persuade [himself] to confide in” his friend (66). Frankenstein loved his friend in the way that god loves all people
Shelley provides numerical examples in which we see that the creature learns to hate Victor. Victor and the creature did not get along because Victor sees the creature as “the other” therefore the creature begins to view himself as such and begins to hate. The creature was born into the world and he was thankful for that and his creator. Victor sees the creature as an ugly monster. Therefore, the monster is the other in Victors eyes and feels superior to him.
In the 1818 text of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, various forms of human exploitation and oppression lead to the dehumanization of two major characters in the novel: the creature which Victor Frankenstein brings to life, and Victor himself. The creature is deemed an outcast just by his very existence. Victor oppresses his creation solely based on the creature’s grotesque features. Although the creature shares qualities, feelings, and emotions that categorize him as a human, Victor’s oppressive behavior and rejection of the his creation immediately lead to the creature’s dehumanization. Victor is driven by human exploitation, and treads on the laws of nature as he successfully attempts to cheat death and create an artificial being.
“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly explores the concept of the body, life, ‘the self’ and most of importantly humanity, which is repeatedly questioned throughout the novel. The definition of humanity is the quality of being humane or in other words someone that can feel or possess compassion. Despite all the facts against the “monster” in “Frankenstein” he is indeed what one would consider being human. Humanity isn’t just about ones physical appearance but also includes intellect and emotion. Some people argue that the “monster” is not a human for he was not a creature that was born from “God” or from a human body. That being said, the “monster” is not only able to speak different languages, he can also show empathy - one of many distinct traits that set humans apart from the animals. Both the “monster” and his creator, Victor, hold anger and feel a sense of suffering throughout the novel. Victor is a good person with good intentions just like most individuals, but makes the mistake of getting swept up into his passion of science and without thinking of the consequences he creates a “monster”. After completing his science project, he attempts to move forward with his life, however his past – i.e., the “monster” continues to follow and someone haunt him. While one shouldn’t fault or place blame on Frankenstein for his mistakes, you also can’t help but feel somewhat sympathetic for the creature. Frankenstein just wants to feel accepted and loved, he can’t help the way he treats people for he’s only mimicking how people have treated him, which in most cases solely based on his appearance. Unlike most of the monsters we are exposed to in films past and present, the character of the “monster” ...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Mary Shelley, with her brilliant tale of mankind's obsession with two opposing forces: creation and science, continues to draw readers with Frankenstein's many meanings and effect on society. Frankenstein has had a major influence across literature and pop culture and was one of the major contributors to a completely new genre of horror. Frankenstein is most famous for being arguably considered the first fully-realized science fiction novel. In Frankenstein, some of the main concepts behind the literary movement of Romanticism can be found. Mary Shelley was a colleague of many Romantic poets such as her husband Percy Shelley, and their friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, even though the themes within Frankenstein are darker than their brighter subjects and poems. Still, she was very influenced by Romantics and the Romantic Period, and readers can find many examples of Romanticism in this book. Some people actually argue that Frankenstein “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric”1, or is a more cultured novel than the writings of other Romantics. Shelley questions and interacts with the classic Romantic tropes, causing this rethink of a novel that goes deeper into societal history than it appears. For example, the introduction of Gothic ideas to Frankenstein challenges the typical stereotyped assumptions of Romanticism, giving new meaning and context to the novel. Mary Shelley challenges Romanticism by highlighting certain aspects of the movement while questioning and interacting with the Romantic movement through her writing.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we are introduced early in the story to one of the main characters Victor Frankenstein and subsequently to his creation referred to as the monster. The monster comes to life after being constructed by Victor using body parts from corpses. As gruesome as this sounds initially we are soon caught up in the tale of the living monster. Victor the creator becomes immediately remorseful of his decision to bring the monstrous creation to life and abandons the borne creature. Victor describes his emotions and physical description of his creation as follows: