Reflection on Frankenstein
In short, large ideas with much discussion at the occasional hindrance of the plot. In long my opinion is this, I liked the ideas and their discussion throughout the book, and it’s probably these and the innovative use of science fiction and horror for the time is likely what contributed to it being considered a classic. However, the book is not flawless. There were long segments of the book I found to be unengaging. I feel as though the protagonist is not interesting enough to hold sections of the book on his own, and as above, the ideas of the book do not meld seamlessly with the plot and are at points quite jarring.
Now, these points break down into 2 different categories, the first and most unengaging being
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However, my opinions didn’t stay that way. Two-thirds of the way through the novel, Victor gets better. When challenge and after having suffered more and more, Frankenstein by consequence becomes of greater interest. The monster kills his wife and his best friend and he’s forced to undergo a change. No longer is the meandering, hesitant Victor, now he’s become but a sole purpose, kill the monster. And I know that this may not necessarily be the most interesting or novel, characteristic, it was streets ahead of whatever was going on before.
Then there are the second type category in the book, those points halting the pace because Mary Shelley wants to put forth a philosophical or scientific argument. Now I don’t know if this is a commonality between books published during the early 1800’s. However, for me personally, the long tangents revolving around the different strains of science, what life means, and morality all given time and fleshed out as text and not subtext, took me out of the book.
On the other hand, just because it took me out of the book, doesn’t mean I didn’t at parts appreciate it. Certain discussions of the sciences and the monsters discussions of Victor’s responsibility and place in the world were enthralling. M. Waldman’s speech about the ancient teachers and how they promised the world and delivered nothing, and the new teachers who promise little, but
Sometimes, in novels like Frankenstein, the motives of the author are unclear. It is clear however, that one of the many themes Mary Shelley presents is the humanity of Victor Frankenstein's creation. Although she presents evidence in both support and opposition to the creation's humanity, it is apparent that this being is indeed human. His humanity is not only witnessed in his physical being, but in his intellectual and emotional thoughts as well. His humanity is argued by the fact that being human does not mean coming from a specific genetic chain and having family to relate to, but to embrace many of the distinct traits that set humans apart from other animals in this
Frankenstein was a scientist who thought that the world was a secret, which he desired to discover in the scientific field. He worked to find out the relationship between humans and animals. He was attracted by the structure of the human body, any animal related with life, and the cause of life. One day, Victor Frankenstein made an experiment where he included many different human parts from different dead people. This resulted in a human being and a strange creature never seen before in life, which made Frankenstein very scared. This creature or monster was tall enough to scare people by his height and with muscles that were well proportioned.
Several fields have studied the relationship between creator and creation. The most significant aspect of this research considers the difference between nature and nurture. Sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and other professionals have tried to pin down the exact distinctions between these two types of upbringings. In literature, the same questions have been asked and studied using fictional characters, most famously in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in 1667, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in 1818. The complexity of the characters in these texts creates the theme of nature versus nurture before they diverge and arrive at differing conclusions.
Victor Frankenstein created life, a monster that was born into this world with no purpose, and no one to love. He did not even have a name, he was called a monster from the start. Just like a normal human baby, he came to life not knowing anything, and had to learn from his surroundings. Just like a person, he watched and learned from others, and tried to understand the world and the people in it. From that, the monster understood that he just wants to find a life for himself, and not be viewed as an evil monster, but there are many things that are preventing that. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the author portrays Frankenstein’s monster as a friend through details in his character and his outlook on life.
Friends will determine the direction and quality of your life. Loneliness is a battle that all people will once face at a certain point in their life; it is how they handle it that determines the outcome of that battle. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein loneliness is the most significant and prevailing theme throughout the entire novel. Shelley takes her readers on a wild journey that shows how loneliness can end in tragedy.
In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster is portrayed as a grotesque abomination. However, as Hopkins states in Contending Forces, the cultural and geographical situations, or lack thereof, in which one matures in play a crucial role in the proper development of one’s mind and brain. The monster is simply a product of circumstance. The lack of social interactions alongside geographical isolation propelled the daemon to be alienated from society, ultimately resulting in a lack of morals and an underdeveloped psyche. By being a culmination of his surroundings and experiences it is revealed that the true monstrous entities are the factors that leave the daemon predisposed to fail in a modern society. Arguably, Victor created a being, while the circumstances that said being was placed in “created” a monster. Shelley purposefully terrorizes the monster with such intensity to provoke and justify the overarching theme in this novel which states that people should not be judged on their physical appearance.
Page 1 of 2 Far away setting- “I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage” (letter 1 Walton) Far away unexplored areas like the Artic were very mysterious to people of the 1700’s. This setting creates a tense feeling for the reader because they don’t know much about where the characters are and what could be hiding there. Dark and gloomy places- “We saw many ruined castles standing on the edges of precipices,
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature, stronger and better than humans in every way except his looks. After Frankenstein abandons him, the Creature meets the De Lacey’s, a nice little family that indirectly teach him how to read and write. In truth, the Creature only becomes a monster after the hatred that Felix, one of the De Lacey’s, shows him. Before, he had done nothing wrong, but afterwards, all he did was fall down a slippery slope.
Critic Northrop Frye once commented that "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscapes" (Frye 1). Few characters illustrate this characteristic of a tragic hero better than that of Victors Frankenstein, the protagonist of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. His story is one of a brilliant man whose revolutionary ideas brought suffering to himself, his family and friends, and his creation. Victor is an instrument as well as a victim to this suffering throughout his story.
The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley involves the complex issues with the creation of life through an inanimate life. Shelley uses these character archetypes to develop a deeper meaning of the characters intentions. Shelley does an excellent job at allowing the reader to have a peak at the characters inner thoughts and feelings. The archetypes presented in Frankenstein allow readers to identify with the character's role and purpose.
The creature's ambiguous humanity has long puzzled readers of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In this essay I will focus on how Frankenstein can be used to explore two philosophical topics, social contract theory, and gender roles, in light of ideas from Shelley's two philosophical parents, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Gene mutations have become very helpful in todays time. If your child has a disorder when they are born then doctors can take that certin gene out and put a helathy one in its place. Every year smoking causes 150 new dna mutations. Each generation has roughly 140 mutations. Mary Shelly wrote a book called frankenstein and it is a warning to science. it is a warning to science because of the power of nature, forbidden knowledge, and the role of god shouldn’t be played by anyone except him.
The above quote by Bloom is an explanation of the view that all the gothic novels are interpretation of psychological and social factors and this is especially true in the case of Mary Shelley. Shelley began her novel at the age of 18 when the most prominent materials in the consciousness and unconsciousness of Shelley were concerned with the conflicts stemming from the death of her mother. Frankenstein is the outcome of Shelley’s unresolved grief for the death of her mother which was the crisis she needed to work through to forget her own adult identity.
Romanticism began to make a great influence on art and literature during the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. Frankenstein was first published in 1818 during that period and the novel is flooded with Mary Shelley’s feelings of extreme good and bad emotions. English literature during the romanticism period is believed to be the most expressive in style, subject, and content. The discrepancy and chaos concerning the essential principles and competing philosophies were believed to be fascinating for several famous novelists along with poets that cited the Romantics as being their most eminent motivational voices. Romanticism in literary context means a movement in art and literature that depicts an emotional matter within an imaginative
Amidst the 18th century, a subjective philosophy proliferated across Europe through the ideas of individual freedom and sublimity of the natural world. Ignited by various intellectuals, writers, and sculptors, Romanticism digressed from the normalcies of standard century conventions at that time. Mary Shelley exemplifies distinct characteristics of Romanticism in her novel, Frankenstein. Robert Walton, the primary narrator, recounts incidents of Victor Frankenstein who is driven by an obsessive desire of knowledge to animate lifeless matter by experimentation on body parts. Victor successfully created a horrific monster, which inflicted misery and suffering to its creator after being rejected from humanity.