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frankenstein mary shelley character analysis
analysis of mary shelley's
frankenstein mary shelley character analysis
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Where would we be without our families? Our Families shape us into the men and women of the future. What determines our morals, desires, happiness, faith, and our all encompassing lives. Mary Shelley’s family helped shape her into the woman that she had become. Having come from a family of great accomplished writers, she herself, set out to be a great writer. In the novel Frankenstein, written by her, there are several similarities between the monster and Shelley herself, all the while revealing to the reader the need for a complete family by the addition or loss of several family members in several different families in the novel, from Victor Frankenstein’s own family, to the De Lacey family, and the several other families that had small appearances in her novel. They all had one thing in common; they all needed an extra family member to complete their families to live happily. Victor Frankenstein shared this unfortunate circumstance and I believe that with the loss of his mother his subconscious mind consumed him and drove to create a being to fill the void that was missing in his family. But in turn created a void in his creature to want to be loved and wanted by another being.
This void to have family members and a complete family was a goal of Mary Shelley’s, albeit as a very underlying goal. This can be seen by the actual life that Mary Shelley led; it appeared to be that everyone that was in Shelley’s family passed away. From Shelley’s mom dying from complications during birth, to all of her children regrettably passing in one way or another and even on her fourth try to be complete she unfortunately had a miscarriage. This, furthermore, led to the passing of her husband as he drowned. All throughout Mary Shelley’s life, ...
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...ankenstein.” Simon and Schuster paperbacks April 2009.
Shoulson, Jeffrey S. “The Embrace of the Fig Tree: Sexuality and Creativity in Midrash and in Milton.” ELH 67.4 (2000): 873-903. Project MUSE 11 June 2010
Miller, Kathleen A. “The Remembrance Haunts Me Like a Crime”: Narrative Control, the Dramatic, and the Female Gothic in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Mathilda.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 27.2 (2008): 291-308. Project MUSE 11 June2010
Bentley, Colene. “Family, Humanity, Polity: Theorizing the Basis and Boundaries of Political Community in Frankenstein.” Criticism 47.3 (2005): 325-351. Project MUSE 11 June 2010 < http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/criticism/v047/47.3bentley.html>
(Nocks 3)” The second assumption is that “our natural impulse to continually recreate the universe quiet often ignores fundamental human needs: Besides depriving himself of health and companionship during the two years that lead to the reanimation experiment. (Nocks 3)” Nocks goes ahead to point out that some biographers have relate the relationship between Victor and the monster to that of Shelley and her father. Shelley’s father was said to have abandoned her after she eloped with her husband Percy Shelley, who was still married at the time. Another great observation by Nocks is that, Shelley’s mother, who died two weeks after she was born, also left her with feelings of abandonment; she was said to have spent many hours over the years at her gravesite. One can imagine the level of abandonment felt by a young motherless girl. Shelley must had thought about this fact in writing Frankenstein; it probably aided Victor’s acquiring the body parts for his monster. Shelley understood what true sadness abandonment meant; she it lived the life she wrote and Nock enlightens the reader of this in her
The classic theme of perversion of family is a major component in Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein comes from a good family but in his adult life he longs for a new companion this is mainly found in the Creature and Elizabeth. The development for the need for the Creature starts when he falls in love with knowledge and is furthered when he leaves to study. In his child hood he has “Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to stat those facts which led to my predilection for that science”(Shelley 36). This passion develops into his obsession in his adult life when he gains more accesses to knowledge and equipment. Then it climaxes with start of the creation of the Creature because his accesses to bodies and tools. (quote Intro) “I read with ardour those works, so full of genius and discrimination… it easily conceived that my progress was rapid”(48). His description of the creation makes it seem like he is mothering a child into birth. He distorts the sanity of child birth by creating a human in a lab. This also makes him the mother and father of the Creature. (quote intro) “When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it… my first success to permit me doubt of my ability to give live…”(51). This illustrates his power that he has that was never meant to be any humans. With the successful test my can create life, strengthens his bond with this impending birth of Creature, who embodies all of his scientific achievement. (quote Intro) “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to from?” (55). Frankenstein shuns his own creation, whom he should be the loving parents of. The culmination of all of Frankenstein’s education led to creation his own companionship; he can not bear to see his hideous creation.
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
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein pursues, with a passion lacking in other aspects of his life, his individual quest for knowledge and glory. He accepts the friendships and affections given him without reciprocating. The "creature," on the other hand, seems willing to return affections, bringing wood and clearing snow for the DeLaceys and desiring the love of others, but is unable to form human attachments. Neither the creature nor Victor fully understands the complex relationships between people and the expectations and responsibilities that accompany any relationship. The two "monsters" in this book, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, are the only characters without strong family ties; the creature because Frankenstein runs from him, and Victor because he runs from his family.
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
The Human Need for Love Exposed in Frankenstein Written in 1817 by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is a novel about the "modern Prometheus", the Roman Titian who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The story takes place in several European countries during the late 1700's. It is the recollection of Victor Frankenstein, a ship captain, about his life. Victor is a student of science and medicine who discovers a way to reanimate dead flesh. In a desire to create the perfect race he constructs a man more powerful than any normal human, but the creation is so deformed and hideous that Victor shuns it.
Throughout time man has been isolated from people and places. One prime example of isolation is Adam, "the man [formed] from the dust of the ground [by the Lord God]" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 2.7). After committing the first sin he secludes "from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 3.23). This isolation strips Adam from his protection and wealth the garden provides and also the non-existence of sin. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is able to relate to the story of Adam and the first sin to help her character, the Creature, associate with Adam. The Creature is able to relate because "[l]ike Adam, [he is] apparently united by no link to any other being in existence" (Shelley 124). In other ways the creator of the creature, Victor Frankenstein, also identifies with the tale of the first human, but with a different character, God. "God created man in his own image" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 1.27) and unlike Frankenstein "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 1.31). Frankenstein brought a life into the world but did not take the responsibility to lead and guide his creature to benefit himself or the created. Unlike God's creature who did in turn prosper. Instead of prosperity Frankenstein receives a life of loneliness and responsibility of many unnecessary deaths. The Creature, like his creator, lives his life in isolation from society. His only goal is to be loved and accepted by those around him. Through these circumstances the effects of isolation and loneliness are brought to life by the creature and the creator thought their pasts, social statuses, emotions, and dreams and fantasies.
Brachneos. “Frankenstein – a Literature Essay on Social Context Comments.” Writinghood . N.p., 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, depicts a patriarchal society in which men pursue their goals against hopeless odds. Victor Frankenstein is a major male character depicted in Shelley’s work. He is “portrayed as the patriarch who creates but cannot love and who fears sexual reproduction (Griswold 87). Frankenstein is a prime example of a man who pursued their goals against hopeless odds. He reflected back on his curious childhood. During childhood, he wanted to learn the hidden laws of nature and he desired to learn the secrets of the heaven and earth (Shelley 33). From the beginning of his life, Frankenstein had the goal to discover the existence of heaven and earth. He took this in to his own hands by trying to bring a monster to life. It is hard to fathom that an individual has the ability to create another human being. It is a hopeless odd that Frankenstein would have the ability to bring different body parts, unite them with electricity, and create a new form of life. Even though this is considered a hopeless odd,
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein reflects her real life; a life filled with loss. She lost her mother, and so did Victor Frankenstein. It would only make sense that the theme of the novel is human connection. Throughout the story, the monster searches for it, as well as Victor, and quite frankly everyone else.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Moers, Ellen. "Female Gothic: The Monster's Mother." Reprinted in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Norton Critical Edition. 1976; New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. 214-224.
During her lifetime, Mary Shelley lost her husband, all but one of her children, and had a very distant father. The losses suffered by Mary Shelley are paralleled in her book Frankenstein as shown by Victor and his creation losing their brides, Victor losing his brother, and Victor being distant from his creation.
Many women like those in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein suffer from inequality and oppression. Many women are treated like property and are deprived of rights that men have. The women are murdered and created in Shelley’s novel to represent how quickly women can be replaced. Women are clearly presented in the novel as classless individuals who are forced to comply as submissive beings living under the wing of man, the dominant leader in Frankenstein society.