Critical Evaluation Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In Ellen Moers’ critical essay Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother (1974) on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, she argues that Mary Shelley’s story is greatly influenced by her experience of motherhood. This essay uses the historical approach, biographical, and formalist approach at point. Moers references the cultural context of the novel, Mary Shelley’s experience as a woman and mother and how that influenced her writing, and focuses on the genre of the novel quite a bit.

Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the

Henry Clerval- Victor’s childhood friend; seemingly the opposite of Victor; cares about humanity and morality; killed by the monster;

"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.

Every work is a product of its time. Indeed, we see that in Frankenstein, like in the world which produced its author, race, or the outward appearances on which that construct is based, determines much of the treatment received by those at all levels of its hierarchy. Within the work, Mary Shelley, its author, not only presents a racialized view of its characters, but further establishes and enforces the racial hierarchy present and known to her in her own world. For the few non-European characters, their appearance, and thus their standing in its related hierarchy, defines their entrances into the narrative. For the Creature, this occurs on the ices of the Artic, when, “atop a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile;” Walton and his men perceived, “a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature.” (Shelley 13) Shelley clarifies, even this early in her novel, the race of its principal Other as soon after the intrepid adventurers rescue its namesake, Victor Frankenstein, who, Shelley clarifies, “was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but an European.” (Shelley 14) Later, closer examination of the Creature reveals a visage and figure of near unimaginable disfigurement, with a “shrivelled complexion,” and yellow skin which “scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath.” (Shelley 35) This could be contrasted directly

Although Frankenstein is a fictional story, I think in many ways it is representative of Mary Shelley personal views in her everyday life. Mary Shelley was raised by her father after her mother passed and because of that they always had a rocky relationship even after her father remarried. Mary fell in love with one of her father’s political followers, Percy Shelley and they got married although her father did not approve of their relationship because of the age difference. Throughout their relationship, they faced many obstacles that made it hard for their relationship to work, but it did. This aspect of her relationship is show through Elizabeth in the novel because it shows how hard women will work to make a relationship work even when

The critically acclaimed novel written by Mary Shelley and published in 1818, delves into a multitude of universal themes throughout the text. One value that drives the plot forward, and leads to character development is the theme, human fulfillment of the pursuit of knowledge. It is Dr. Frankenstein 's unquenchable thirst for knowledge that leads to the future predicaments that ensue after the Creature is conceived and future moral dilemma. An example of Dr. Frankenstein 's disposition that lends itself to the validity of the stated theme, is as follows; “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or, in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world” (Shelley 30). The doctor 's preoccupation with his studies, that results in controversy over the suitable nature of such an unobtainable desire, is clearly exemplified in the quote, “If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind” (45).

A multitude of signs illustrates similarities between the Frankenstein’s creature and Mary Shelley. These indications show that the novel may be an autobiography. However, the novel shows a lot of the characteristics of science fiction. The novel can be a real description or fiction narrative, but not both. An informed opinion about this controversy requires the evaluation of relevant critics. Sherry Ginn uses “Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein: Science, Science Fiction, or Autobiography?” to adequately argue that the novel Frankenstein is based on Shelley’s experiences and fears, that it is not an autobiography, and that it has all the characteristics of a science fiction narrative.

     Romantic writer Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein does indeed do a lot more than simply tell story, and in this case, horrify and frighten the reader. Through her careful and deliberate construction of characters as representations of certain dominant beliefs, Shelley supports a value system and way of life that challenges those that prevailed in the late eighteenth century during the ‘Age of Reason’. Thus the novel can be said to be challenging prevailant ideologies, of which the dominant society was constructed, and endorsing many of the alternative views and thoughts of the society. Shelley can be said to be influenced by her mothers early feminist views, her father’s

Ginn also has taught at a community college, written / edited several science-fiction novels, and has had many other works published. Ginn’s critique of Mary Shelley’s most famous work, Frankenstein, is an uneven account. As an actual critique of Frankenstein, it

The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, was a piece written in 1817 during a time when women weren’t considered to be adequate authors. Shelley’s work is both intriguing as it is thought provoking. She brings to light the true nature of society and life altogether when tested. She factors in how the outside world can influence our choices in writing. George Levine from “The Ambiguous Heritage of Frankenstein” and Benjamin Truitt from “Frankenstein Critical Analysis and Literary Criticism” both share their opinions about Shelley’s piece of written work.

The horror classic novel Frankenstein has gathered a great deal of critical and commercial attention since first being introduced in 1818, and naturally there has been many academics who have analyzed many of the novel’s biggest themes, symbols, and motifs. This also includes in analyzing the author herself, Mary Shelley. Marcia Aldrich, who has her Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington, is one of the academics to underline the role of being a female writer in the 19th century and what importance this plays on the novel Frankenstein. In her article, co-written by Richard Isomaki, “The Woman Writer as Frankenstein” analyzes the significance of Mary Shelley being the daughter of a writer and how this contributed to her writing Frankenstein, which they speculate as her, Mary Shelley, envisioning herself as the Monster. Aldrich and Isomaki’s “The Woman Writer as Frankenstein” makes valid and persuasive points, which effectively argues that the novel is semi-autobiographical in the sense that Mary Shelley pictured her as the Frankenstein Monster, for many of the concerns that the authors bring up in their article highlight the insecurities, doubts, and inexorable frustrations of a young woman writing in the 19th century.

Mary Shelley’s own biography informs the novel Frankenstein in four important ways. Mary seems to reflect many of her own feelings and experiences throughout the novel. She does this through using the setting and the characters, while heavily influencing the text and storyline around her own biography. The first way that Mary Shelley’s biography informs the novel is through the setting.

From the moment of creation, creatures have rebelled against their creators spitting blasphemy toward the very hands that forged them. Mary Shelley, daughter of A Vindication on the Rights of Women author, Mary Woolstonecraft, and one of the first female novelists of her time, expresses this ideal through her novel, Frankenstein. The novel follows the story of a young doctor named Victor Frankenstein who harbors an insatiable desire for exploration and science. After much trial and error, the doctor ultimately manages to bring life to a conglomerate of stolen body parts and organs. The doctor is unable to bear the consequences of his actions and allows his creation to run lose, wreaking havoc on all that is dear to him. Arguably one of the greatest gothic novels to date, Frankenstein, was ironically brought into existence by a ghost story competition between Shelley and her friends. In stark contrast to the seemingly frivolous competition, Frankenstein pushed boundaries of its time period subliminally confronting arguments of creation, philosophy, theology, science, women, and society. The novel draws parallels between theology and the relationship between man and his maker through the interaction of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, showing the direct effects of what happens when man challenges the power of God. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the reader gets a binocular view, being God and Victor along with Victor and the monster, of the tension between creator and creation. In the novel, fueled by metaphysical arguments of theology in the Romantic period as well as her belief in creation as a privilege reserved for God, Mary

What do you think about the Frankenstein novel and movies? Frankenstein is a famous horror novel written by Mary Shelley. There are two versions of the book, the originally published in 1818 and then a revised version that was published in 1831. Mary Shelley depicts a man named Victor Frankenstein, who discover the secret of animating lifeless matter by a collection of dead body parts. He creates a creature, and he does not teach the creature anything. The creature is rejected by society. As the result of this is, the creature vows revenge on Victor Frankenstein. The novel shows that monster is intellect and speech. There are different film versions of the novel, but in many of them turns out the monster does not know how to speak. The films are considerably different than the Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein novel. The novel has involved more emotions than films. Mary Shelley provides the reader with a more complex relationship between Victor and the monster, but films just depicted simplified story line. I would use the James Whale 1931 film compare to the novel. Compare to the novel and film, the monster is depicted in different manners, leading the role of monster to be different interpreted. It considers much different than Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein novel.