All literature, no matter how dark, has some light.
In Mary Shelleys Frankenstien, she used the dark mood of the book in contrast with light elements of characters to exhibit the theme of appearance. She does this through the characters of Elizabeth, The Creature, and the Delacey Family by contrasting the good and the dark in each character. Elizabeth is one of the few characters in this book that is an outsider treated with compassion, because of her good looks. When Caroline first discovers her she is part of a poor family who took her in after her real parents died. Caroline decides to take her back to the house as a present to Victor, which shows the darkness in the seemingly good intentioned act. “‘I have a pretty present for my Victor-
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He is responsible for the death of multiple people, and drives victor to death while trying to hunt him down. He is judged throughout the book based on his appearance. When trying to save a drowning girl he is shot because they assume he is attacking her. “This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.” (169). In the darkness of the creatures life, being turned away multiple times before, at this point he still decides to try and do good by attempting to save the girl. This highlights the theme of appearance because he is shot because he looks like a monster, even though he is attempting to help the girl. The creature is never shown compassion or understanding by most of the characters in the book because of his appearance, and that unreasonable hatred towards the creature is what takes any light ideals out of him and turns him into a creature filled with hatred towards man and compelled to
The creature began to converse freely with the blind father who addressed him with kindness. However, when his two children returned, the daughter fainted and the son "dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick" forcing the creature to "quit the cottage and escape unperceived to my hovel" (115). These acts of cruelty emphasize how often humanity stereotypes individuals. Just because a creature looks monstrous does not mean his intentions match his appearance. After this heartbreaking event, the monster decides to stop seeking love and instead to seek revenge against his creator and attempt to force Victor to create a companion for him. The creature attempts to explain his cruel ways when he exclaims, "There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my
The creature still having a good heart and giving humans one more chance quickly saves the girl, but then is violently acquainted by her father. The father without any questions aims and fires at the creature leaving him wounded. The creature then ran off to the woods to seek shelter. The Creature cries, “This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of the wound which shattered the flesh and bone [. . .] I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley123). The creature has already withdrawn from participation and avoids all human contact, but he still suffers the consequence for aiding the young girl to safety. The creature already had enough obstacles but now to add more fuel to the fire, he will be seeking revenge from humans. He will now close any possible doors that may have opened for him, just because he is full of hatred. Society is also going to be hurt by this because he will never trust or save a human again in fact, he wants to kill them now. This act triggers the creature to seek revenge against all mankind and has tremendous consequences not only for society but the creature
After two innocent victims die in the hands of Victor because of the monster’s thirst for revenge, the monster confronts his creator insisting “Thy justice…is most due” . As he begs Victor to create another being, a female partner as hideous as he is, he admits the hurtful remorse he feels of his actions, promising “I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.” This reveals the monster understands right from wrong, justice from injustice, as he realizes he should stop his murder
As Victors brother was killed by the creature he created, the remourse victor and his father have towards his death show weakness. Men in society are conditioned to be brought up as brave and protective. While Victors father is letting the death of
The disappointment is not only irrational, but also shows his further jaded ideal of perfection in the fact that he considers ugliness a weakness. If that were true, ugliness would be the creature's only weakness, as the story goes on to tell of the selfless acts of kindness the creature administers. Victor describes his supposed miserable failure as a deformed monster when he says "His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only form a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips" (56; ch.5; vol.1). Later, Victor sees the creature after a long period of his aimless roaming, and he "trembled with rage and horror" (95; ch. 3; vol .2). Victor wished to engage in mortal combat because he had a faint premonition the creature might have possibly killed his son. The senseless idea was formed simply because of the creature's physical features, and that he may have been in the vicinity. Even though the monster was shunned, hated, labeled prematurely as a killer, and cursed by his very own maker, he sees the goodness of the human heart and desires to learn more about the human race. As the supposed monster journeys onward, he is delighted and allured by the moon and sun, and other peaceful,
As the novel goes on everyone Victor once cared for are decimated in the path of his creation. "I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head" (Shelley 103). Now, due to his unwavering lust for knowledge, all that was once good and innocent has been stripped from him. This has left him as a former shell of himself, to be compared with his own creation, solely driven by vengeance.
Victor tells the reader, “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures.” (NEED CITATION) Because of this overpowering guilt and depression, Victor even contemplates suicide; saying, “I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever.” (81). But throughout all of his suffering, Victor found hope and love in Elizabeth. In one of the letters he wrote to her, he proclaims, “I fear, my beloved girl, little happiness remains for us on earth; yet all that I may one day enjoy is centered in you.” (168). In this statement of love, Victor summarizes what he has to live for. His happiness does not remain in science, friendships, or family; but resides in his future with Elizabeth. He later talks about the last moments of his life during which he enjoyed the genuine feeling of happiness, his wedding. While alive, Elizabeth had been his greatest lover, encouraging him through all of his darkest valleys. And even in her passing, the vengeance of her death consumes Victor’s mind, dedicating his life to kill the horrific Monster which he had created.
Victor is not in a good state of mind at this point in the book. After the passing of his mother he is grieving so much that he combines his sorrow with his passion and isolates himself while trying to create life. He neglected family, friends, social life, school etc. which drove him to become mad.
Looking for the clue and action of the character, based on the proairetic code by Roland Barthes, which is applies to any action that implies a further narrative action of Victor in general, we may look the two bigest act of him : The first when he ran away after staring at the monster. Run here means that he tried to free up his regret feeling, hide his fearness. And the second ; when Victor decide to chase the monster, chasing here absolutely as the revenge, and retaliation for his sinful feeling.
The Creature was so innately pure when he first moved in near the De Lacey’s house that he could not possibly conceive man 's idea of doing evil. The Creature could not believe that man, as amazing as it is, could feel something as disgusting as revenge. He believed that there was no way that someone could be driven to such an extent that they would feel the need to kill someone else.
He lives in fear, running from one place to another looking for a place to hide. Even his acts of kindness are met with violence and hate on the humans’ side. For example, he kindly collets firewood for his neighbors every day and places it in front of their cottage door, yet when the son finds him at his cottage trying to become acquainted with his blind father, he drives him away. Also, after he saves a girl from drowning, the man accompanying her shoots him. The monster protests this social injustice by swearing to revenge himself against all humans.
The creature is aware of how much strength he possesses and often has moments of pure rage while contemplating the general destruction of all that surrounds him.
The creature once says, “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us” (Shelley 83). He wonders himself why, in all of his suffering, he has been created at all. He was not even granted the bride he was promised by Victor. This unfortunate existence led the creation to turn to anger and rage. Blind ambition drove his creator, who could not foresee the level of destruction he would give when the reality of his plans was finally realized.
He longs for a companion who will understand him and who will not mistreat him. The last moments of compassion dies within the creature when his creator destroys the companion he promised to create, and the revenge continues from there. Even though the creature commits awful crimes, he also commits acts of kindness.
A story of mystery, tragedy, and terror, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein continues to captivate millions. She writes the tale of mankind’s obsession of the unknown, pulling readers to Frankenstein’s many lessons. Mary Shelley affects literature with her seemingly paradoxical use of both Romanticism and Gothicism. Shelley takes elements of romanticism, such as heavy use of emotions, innocence, and characters achievements, while also using gothic aspects like death, violence, and dark weather. Weaving the two genres together, Mary Shelley creates a timeless science fiction novel containing characteristics of serenity with a sense of eeriness.