Analysis Of Mary Shelley 's ' Frankenstein '

Mary Shelley’s, gotchic novel, Frankenstein, is a story of a mans adventure out of self pity and disappointment in search for total control and ultimate power, as he wishes to escape from the realities of his past life. In this story, Victor Frankenstein’s use of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos creates many moods and repsonses from Victor, himself, and the Creature he has created, which conveys emotional repsonses, persuasive actions, and appeals to logic that created this twisted and wretchedly staggering novel. Victor Frankenstein uses Pathos to effectively create an emotional response. After being reprimanded by Victor, the creature expresses how he thought Victor would respond, because, “All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who

"A Hermit is simply a person to whom society has failed to adjust itself." (Will Cuppy). In the gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we follow the life of Victor Frankenstein in 18th century Germany. Shelley displays a recurring theme of isolation and how it drives once good people to do terrible things. If civilization does not adjust itself to a creature of any kind they will be forced into isolation and ultimately self destruction.

   Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, sheds light on the importance of appearance through the tale of an unwanted creation that is never given a chance by society. Ironically, the supposed beast was initially much more compassionate and thoughtful than his creator, until his romantic and innocent view of the human race was diminished by the cruelty and injustice he unduly bore. Not only does the creature suffer the prejudice of an appearance-based society, but other situations and characters in the novel force the reader to reflect their own hasty judgment. The semi- gothic novel includes several instances of societal prejudice that include the isolation and outcast of Frankenstein's creation,

Shelley addresses romantic conventions in Victor to convey his loss of identity. Victor is impatient and restless when constructing the creation, so much, that he does not think about it’s future repercussions. One of the great paradoxes that Shelley’s novel depicts is giving the monster more human attributes than to it’s creator [p. 6 - Interpretations]. This is true as the monster seeks an emotional bond, but Victor is terrified of it’s existence. The monster later reveals, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurred at and kicked and trampled on [Shelley, p. 224].” Victor’s lack of compassion is rooted from the inability to cope with his reality. He distances himself from others and is induced with fainting spells [Shelley, p. 59]. From this, the nameless creature exemplifies Victor’s attempt to abandon his creation to escape his responsibilities. His creation is described as, ‘wretched devil’ and ‘abhorred monster,’ eliciting that the unobtainable, pitied identity [Shelley, p. 102]. The act of not naming the creature reveals Victor as hateful, and unnaturally disconnected to his own created victim.

John Locke is one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and is famously known for asserting that all humans have natural rights. He also believed that humans are born with clean slates, and that the environment humans grow in, especially at a young age, has massive influences on aspects of their personalities, ideals, and motivations. Shelley was most definitely influenced by this claim when writing Frankenstein. As the reader, we can see the monster that Victor Frankenstein creates grow up alone, without guidance, and be formed by the experiences it is put through while trying to survive. Its emotions and beliefs throughout the book were merely a result of its experiences as it encounters the harsh reality of the world. Mary

It accentuates the completely emotionally removed and hurtful rejection of one person by the rest of society, giving insight into human nature, which shows the deep gap produced after the experience of isolation and emphasizes the importance of compassion, inclusivity, and empathy in our social interactions and society as a whole. The creature's evolution from babyhood to a wake of anger shows how such attachments to empathy and compassion can shape a human, proving that it is not just something that makes somebody wicked. The novel "Frankenstein" not only examines this question but also throws the borders of human ambition that usually must concern playing the role of the god without the decisive risk of moral consequence. As the novel illustrates, Victor Frankenstein's ubiquitous desire for knowledge and power, without taking forethought or humility, will end as a warning sign about the dangers of unconstrained quests (Shelley,

A key characteristic of humanity is its ability to empathize for others; especially when a person is struggling. In the gothic novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the reader’s natural inclination towards sympathy to garner pity for Victor. Shelley understands that it is human nature to have sympathy for people who cannot care for themself, and that is why she depicts Victor as weak and emaciated at points in the novel. Another reason the reader pities Victor is because his humanity is contrasted with the creatures evil. However, Shelley also emphasizes the fact that the reader should also sympathize with the creature by depicting Victor’s cruelty towards it. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, she influences the reader to have some sympathy for Victor by depicting him as weak, and by contrasting him with the creature’s evil; however Shelley diminishes this sympathy when she shows Victor mistreating the creature.

Woven throughout Mary Shelley’s renowned novel Frankenstein, are threads of regret, lonesomeness, and rejection. Throughout the story, similarities and diversities are exemplified between Frankenstein and his creature. Both Victor and his creature suffered greatly, but their responses to their suffering is where the differences lie. Victor rejected his creature. The creature had to cope with the rejection. Rejection, demands, similarities, and differences are all portrayed throughout the book.

Frankenstein is a novel that is practically devoid of any female presence, yet author Mary Shelley pens a story that is lush with portrayals of feminine ideology. Throughout the course of this novel, the audience is introduced to three different female characters. The first is Elizabeth Lavenza— Victor Frankenstein’s wife. She is presented as a passive and weak woman who embodies the traditional role of women in the 19th century. Caroline Beaufort is present in the novel, but her role is limited to the ways in which she influences Victor, as she dies early in his childhood. The one strong female voice in this novel is that of Justine Moritz. Justine lives in the Frankenstein household, and she possesses a womanly voice that she can

In Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the creation, made from scraps of corpses, was built by Victor Frankenstein, a man fascinated and obsessed with the knowledge of life. Following the creation’s rouse, Victor immediately abandons him with no desire on keeping or teaching his new being. Because of his lack of nourishment and direction “growing up”, the creation goes through a process of self-deception. He endures a period of deceit by believing that he is a normal human being like everyone around him. But as time progresses, he learns to accept how he is alone in this world and disconnected with everyone. Because of the creation’s lack of guidance and isolation, he grows up feeling unwanted.

In the novel Frankenstein Mary Shelley writes about Frankenstein creating the creature and later abandoning the creature. After abandoning the creature Frankenstein lives a life of misery due to his actions. The creature states “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” This question reveals two themes which one has to be abandonment and then leading to the second theme of revenge.

In the nineteenth century gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses numerous allusions within her novel that can easily be interpreted by the reader. These allusions make it easier for readers to understand the characters and compare their circumstances throughout the story. The most significant and most used was from John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. “…Paradise Lost stands alone in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries atop the literary hierarchy, and Milton’s epic is clearly rooted in the history of Puritanism and in the bourgeois ideal of the individual, the ‘concept of the person as a relatively autonomous self-contained and distinctive universe’” (Lamb 305). This book has numerous parallels that readers can easily interpret to Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein and his monster can both be identified with several characters from Paradise Lost. Among these characters are Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. Paradise Lost is even mentioned in chapter 15 after the monster that Victor creates reads the epic as if it was a history book. The Creature explains to Frankenstein, “But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting” (Shelley 116). He is able to relate himself and the situations that he goes through in his life to this epic. Shelley’s use of

The perspective, from which a story is told, causes an influential response from readers to certain issues, characters and conflicts that are found in literary texts. Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, was published in 1818 and tells the story of a scientist known as Victor Frankenstein who reanimates life in an unethical science experiment. In this novel Walton, Victor and the creature tell their side of the story, through which Mary Shelley uses the effect of a frame narrative so that it provides readers with extensive information about characters such as their intentions, emotions, and thoughts, which allows for each reader to create a unique and individual response to the novel.

In today’s technological society, one is constantly being judged based on one’s features, character, actions, and words. We are constantly bombarded with visuals and soundbites whether on social media or TV, causing many to pass judgement based on what we hear and see. When exposed, those assessments can leave one feeling negative, depressed, and angry. This may lead to violent behavior or the isolation of the person being criticized. Furthermore, one’s drive for personal success can get in the way of making good decisions. Hubris takes over and the need for both public and personal gratification usurps one’s morals, further isolating one from humanity. Although not in the technological age, the characters in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, experience isolation due to bad choices or the opinions of society. Yet, the true evil in Frankenstein is not the characters, but isolation itself.

Introduction: Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is a book with a deep message that touches to the very heart. This message implies that the reader will not see the story only from the perspective of the narrator but also reveal numerous hidden opinions and form a personal interpretation of the novel. One of its primary statements is that no one is born a monster and a “monster” is created throughout socialization, and the process of socialization starts from the contact with the “creator”. It is Victor Frankenstein that could not take the responsibility for his creature and was not able to take care of his “child”. Pride and vanity were the qualities that directed Victor Frankenstein to his discovery of life: “...So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein-more, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation”[p.47]. He could not cope with this discovery and simply ignored it. The tragedy of Victor Frankenstein and the tragedy of his creature is the same – it is the tragedy of loneliness and confronting the world, trying to find a place in it and deserve someone’s love. The creature would have never become a monster if it got the love it strived for. Victor Frankenstein would have never converted his creature into a monster if he knew how to love and take responsibility for the ones we bring to this world.