Elder Scrolls III:Morrowind
In the video game Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Bethesda Softworks 2002), you control a character that initially has no identity. You fill out a questionnaire that decides your character’s class; thus, you are responsible for creating the foundation for your character’s role in the game. As you maneuver your character through this world, you continue to shape his/her identity through new experiences. Your actions and interactions with other characters in this virtual world influence and are influenced by your character’s role. There are repercussions for negative behavior. Your game play—the narrative possibilities available to you, and the ones you actually take—changes and evolves depending on how your
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James Whale’s Frankenstein
“If you take the position that all things are possible, you will be astounded at what you can create.”
--Taurus Horoscope for December 11, 2003, from the Page-A-Day Calendar (Workman Publishing 2003)
In James Whale’s Frankenstein, Henry Frankenstein creates a new character out of the pieces of former lives: “I created it with my own hands with the bodies I took from graves, gallows, anywhere,” he explains. The creature is an amalgam of hot spots to other people’s pasts; he is a collage of textual bodies and discontinued narrative possibilities. Frankenstein blurs boundaries (such as between life and death) and juxtaposes dissimilar features. In this way, his creation is like a hypertextual medium (Landow 151, 158) with limitless connections. The use of dead parts in the creation of this hypertext, however, foreshadow the possibility that these connections are all dead-ends.
The creature’s physical nature reflects Frankenstein’s belief that “all things are possible.” As Frankenstein tells Waldman, “Where would we be if nobody tried to find out what lies beyond? Have you never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars….” Frankenstein imbues his creation with a desire to see beyond one’s own worldview, to inhabit other roles, to play out infinite stories, and through this, to ultimately “discover eternity.”
Frankenstein’s creature seems to be born of multiple possibilities and numerous
Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the nameless creature in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, displays countless characteristics of physical monstrosity; he is described as “ugly”, “demonical” and a “hideous… wretch” (Shelley 36). However, the creature expresses that his only desires are acceptance and love, but he is seen as a monster regardless of his true intentions. When the creature is abandoned by Frankenstein, he is forced to find acceptance on his own and eventually comes across a cottage in the woods. As an attempt to gain approval, he waits to approach the home until the only character home is a blind man, to whom he explains his desire for friendship. The creature says that he is afraid to become “an
Victor Frankenstein, engulfed in the obsession of creating life out of death, resurrects a body composed of multiple parts from different origins. Victor “had worked for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this [he] had deprived [him]self of rest and health;” this madness is Victor’s desire to become a creator that people envied (Shelley 57). Victor creates a monster, one that is the “outcome or product of curiosity … pushed to an extreme” (Brooks 387). Resembling an infant perceiving its surroundings through its parents, the monster’s entire perception of the world is centered around Victor Frankenstein due to . The monster tries learning about his creator
From beginning to end Frankenstein’s Monster is shown as a wicked creature from the people; however, he possesses many human characteristics. The monster was originally an idea of Frankenstein that will soon come to life. Created from many different parts, the monster was never given a chance to be seen as anything other than a science project. From the outside looking in,
In Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein, Shelley introduces a Creature who represents many symbols throughout the story. Such as the war between passion and responsibility, the effects of a corrupt society, and the Creature is a symbol of nature vs. nurture . through this Creature we see mainly the effects of society on an abandoned, innocent being and how it matures in the story fending for itself against society as a whole.
The Creature’s words and final testament set aside the view of him as a monster and fully embrace sympathy and compassion for his misery. His final words before declaring his death, call out the bias in Frankenstein’s telling as he begins to affirm the benevolence in him: “Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal when all human kind sinned against me?” (214). The Creature pleas for understanding and compassion for his own misery caused by humans, he presents his experiences as being no less of an injustice than his deeds against Frankenstein. His words present a view of him that was previously missing of his monstrosity as a reaction to the misery placed on him by his creator and other humans. Hatch notes the fact that the Creature’s “last words [are] addressed to his dead creator” and thus “the monster's solitude is complete” (7). Without any further suffering or misery, the Creature decides to kill himself, and even after the creature leaves the scene, his disappearance is described as “lost in darkness and distance” as a reminder and final call for compassion for the Creature and his
“In Frankenstein, the narratives seem to grow organically from one another: it is impossible to extricate the narratives from one another, as they are so closely linked and interwoven.”
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, illustrates an interesting story focusing in on many different themes, but what most readers may miss, is the similarities between Victor Frankenstein and the creature he created. As the story develops, one may pick up on these similarities more and more. This is portrayed through their feelings of isolation, thirst for revenge, their bold attempt to play god, and also their hunger to obtain knowledge. These are all displayed through a series of both the actions and the words of Frankenstein and his creature.
creature received from Frankenstein and the other people around him. I often wonder how things
Just as Eve is told that she will be a god if she partakes of the fruit of knowledge, Frankenstein works to create a being to worship him as a god. He says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (55). The creation of the monster draws some parallels between Frankenstein and God in Paradise Lost. Frankenstein’s act of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter”
Frankenstein’s creature was a large body that was comprised of many different human parts, in order to create a whole. The product of Victor Frankenstein’s experiment was this hideous creature that had been brought to life. The creature did not know of anything prior to his life, so he needed someone to help him understand. After Frankenstein had fled from his creation there was no one left for the monster to go to. He learned of some sensations and ideas, through experience in the beginning of his life; there was still much he had to learn from others. All of his attempts to speak with normal humans resulted in them seeing his unfortunate appearance, followed by either running from him or attacking him. All of this calamity might
Who is the real monster?” acts as the dominant question throughout the novel “Frankenstein” written by Mary Shelly as the reader explores the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and his nameless creation. As the novel progresses, the reader notices how the relationship between the two characters goes far beyond a neglectful creature and resentful creation, for the two influence the thoughts, actions and emotions of each other. Furthermore, the creature’s physical appearance acts as his purpose throughout the novel as well as a mirror of Victor Frankenstein’s true identity. Additionally, the creature’s lack of identity begins to initiate Frankenstein’s shame towards his own identity, revealing the flawed character of Frankenstein and determining the resolution to the question “Who is the true monster? Who is the true catalyst of destruction?” During the novel, the reader is able to identify the creature as the most effective foil for Victor Frankenstein because the creature causes: Frankenstein to view the action of the creature as his own work, the shift between pride and shame in Frankenstein, and his physical appearance demonstrates his purpose to reveal the true character of Victor Frankenstein.
Throughout the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the creature is subjected to countless acts of violence and rejection. For a monster to develop, one must have been formerly exploited either by an individual or their society. The creature is not only a physical product of science, but his atrocious behavior is also an explicit result of Victor’s actions toward him. The creature was not born a monster, but slowly morphed into one as he experiences violence and rejection from his society.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are several parallels that can be drawn. One of the major parallels in the novel is the connection between Victor Frankenstein and the creature he creates; there is an interesting relationship between these two characters. Frankenstein and his creation are not blood related, however, their similarities bond the two. Despite their dislike for one another and their physical differences Frankenstein shares many characteristics with his creation, throughout the novel we see each of them find comfort in nature, become isolated from society, and seek revenge towards those who have wronged them. There is significance in these similarities; if Frankenstein’s creation had not been physically deformed they would
In most people’s minds as of today, there is no question to who the monster is in Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein. It is the creature that Viktor Frankenstein created, that murders innocent people. However, when looking beyond the appearance of the creature, it is evident that he did not begin as a monster. Mary Shelley analyzes fundamental and crucial issues in her novel in terms of being able to use science and knowledge for the good of people and not for the satisfaction of personal ambitions without even being able to take responsibility for that. It is also the novel of social rejection based on external looks and inability to accept. It was the extreme misconceptions of humans that resulted in the extreme isolation of Frankenstein’s