The interpretation of the young girl’s ghastly nightmare, fashioned by her own imagination derived the novel “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus.” Mary Shelley began, putting pen to paper reveling her cautionary tale, a moral lesson hidden within a horrifying story that would awaken thrill and terror in her audience. Mary felt that if this was not accomplished, the novel would not live up to its title “The Modern Prometheus.” She relates to geographic elements that are subsequent the French Revolutionary era, with a strong connection to Greek mythology. In metaphor she illustrates how creature and creator are one in the same and with the symbolic use of sickness and nature creating the foreshadowing for events to come. Mary Shelley divulges though this novel her personal approach on humanity and life’s lessons; formulating the idea that ignorance is bliss and human injustice is wrong by taking in to account the sexiest views of the later eighteenth-century.
The most apparent theme divulged throughout the novel is the idea that ignorance is bliss. On Eric McMillan’s website, The Greatest Literature of All Time: the commentary on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows criticism. Though Eric states at the beginning, “that the novel only had three things going for it and that it was very poorly written” (McMillan). Furthermore, that it is, “unfortunately, the moral that readers and critics have taken from the story—and which Shelley clearly intends—is that expressed by Frankenstein: Knowledge is dangerous; ignorance is bliss” (McMillan). In the later eighteenth-century when humans began to challenge many traditional precept about the world, human creation, and man's relationship with his creator, through science and technology. In the ...
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...is grasp the knowledge will condemn him for that—ignorance is bliss.
Works Cited
McMillan, Eric. “Monstrously bad novel strikes a chord.” Greatest Literature of All Time: The Works. Editor Eric. 1999-2013. Web. 6 March 2014.
Moretti, Franco. Atlas of European Novel 1800-1900. Theoretical Interlude II. Geography of Plot. New York/London. Verso. 1998. 70. Print. 6 March 2014.
Randel, Fred V. "The Political Geography of Horror in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." ELH 70.2 (2003): 465. ProQuest. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. 1818. Introd. Maurice Hindel. London: Penguin Books. 1992. Print. 6 March 2014.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Shelley's 1821-1822 Huntington Notebook: A Facsimile of the Huntington MS. HM 2111s (Vol. 7).” Garland Publishing, New York / London. 1996. Print. 6 March 2014.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1996.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: the original 1818 text. 2nd ed. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Peterborough: Broadview, 1999.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited by: D.L. Macdonald & Kathleen Scherf. Broadview Editions. 3rd Edition. June 20, 2012
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited by: D.L. Macdonald & Kathleen Scherf. Broadview Editions. 3rd Edition. June 20, 2012
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 1999.
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818 during the Romanticism era. Romanticism describes the period of time from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. This period was seen as a response to the Enlightenment; overall there was an increase in the desire to understand the world in an objective matter (lecture). Though Romanticism is commonly viewed as a literary and artistic movement, Mary Shelley gives evidence on the development of Europe in a historical sense through her novel, Frankenstein. Through the motifs and personal experiences of her characters, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives insight on scientific development, emerging roles of women, and how the individual is viewed the
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. The 1818 Text. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
Mary Shelley discusses many important themes in her famous novel Frankenstein. She presents these themes through the characters and their actions, and many of them represent occurrences from her own life. Many of the themes present debateable issues, and Shelley's thoughts on them. Three of the most important themes in the novel are birth and creation; alienation; and the family and the domestic affections.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Maurice Hindle. Penguin books, 1992