Evaluating Themes Of The Novel 'Frankenstein' By Mary Shelley

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

Alienation is a product of society’s inherently discriminatory bias, catalyzed by our fear of the unknown in the realm of interpersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals who defy—voluntarily or involuntarily—conventional norms. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley personifies the tendency to alienate on the basis of physical deformity, thereby illustrating the role of the visual in the obfuscation of morality.

"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.

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.

A constant theme Frankenstein struggles with throughout the novel is when a person loves someone, they protect them from the pain, they do not become the cause of it. In the cause of his horrid creation of the Monster, he believes to have been

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

For Frankenstein there are a plethora of motifs that can ideally fit into every plot point of Frankenstein but most notably lost innocence. As fictional as Frankenstein can get, there is a lesson to be learned in terms of how Frankenstein was raised by the wild and by the sheer brutal upbringing of nature and being judged everywhere he goes. In chapter 12 there was an incident where The Creature runs into a small little cottage house and when he approaches it to check it out the owner sights the Creature and runs away in fear and although the monster is unaware of why, it all accumulates with people seeing him and running away and when The Creature finally sees himself it all hits him. (Shelley 48) As well as when he saw his

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.

     This brings us the theme of creation, which really contains smaller ‘sub-themes.’ There is the relationship between the creator and his creation as well as the question of whether or not the created owes his allegiance to society. What should the relationship between Victor and the monster have been? In Shelley’s criticism of all who were disgusted by his looks, Victor would be in the wrong for having shunned the monster. It was his fault the monster existed, so he should have taken it in and shown it compassion. As the creator, he owes his creation the basic means to a happy life. As for the monster, in turn for his creator’s gift of life and happiness, he would pledge loyalty. But because Frankenstein dropped his end of the contract from the start, all bets were off and the monster tried to be as diplomatic as possible about the whole affair. This goes back to the alienation theme starting with Victor’s abandoning of the monster.

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

The duty of the frankenstein book is that all the creators to creation wanted the duty to be the good person in the book. Trying to get power to rule everyone because they all wanted the role to rule over everyone. A parent to a child describes the responsibility to love and care for their children to make sure they don't get into trouble, teaching them that fighting not always the key to everything you do in life that there is other ways of dealing with the problems a different way. The monster show that no effect on after killing the an innocent kid. When victor left the monster with lonely existence the monster hated him and even vowed

in his ignorance, creates the monster, and again later on, when the monster kills his

The theme that stuck out to me in this novel Frankenstein is “seeking revenge leads to a tragic outcome”. This theme can be seen through the monster killing William. The monster then went on to kill Elizabeth on her and Victor's big wedding night to get back to Victor. The monster then leads Victor into a long chase that ends up with a tragic outcome at the end that no one would have expected to happen.

Though there are many themes throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, these 3 major themes are continuous in the novel from beginning to end. The first is the innumerable concept of Monstrosity. Once Victor Frankenstein sought out to create a monster from human body parts, the reader can observe that he accommodates insanity. After finishing his creation, he neglected it, what he created became him. Victor was lonely and cast out from society. Loneliness provoked the characters to partake in actions that were only to destruct and destroy. As a result, Frankenstein became dangerously lonely and neglected and searched for revenge no matter the consequence.

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.