Frankenstein Literary Analysis
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.
Robert Walton is the first character introduced that is lonely. “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.” (Shelley 10) Walton tries to mend his loneliness by writing letters to his sister, but it is just not enough. Communicating
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"It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half-frightened as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate" (Shelley 68) For the monster it is the constant rejection and its abandonment by Frankenstein at birth that leads it to loneliness and extreme anxiety. "In all probability, the creature was reaching out, as a small child does to their mother, but his ugly appearance only frightened Victor into running away" (Coulter) The main reason for its rejection is the monster’s outward appearance. The rejection by humans in general and specifically by its creator only increases the monsters feelings of loneliness, emotional abandonment, and, as a result, anger. The loneliness of the Creature leads it to unbelievable acts of violence, the first one being the killing of Frankenstein's youngest brother William. The monster describes its terrible act in detail: "I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph: clapping my hands, I exclaimed, 'I too can create desolation; my enemy is not impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him'" (Shelley 97). Shelley is trying to teach the world a lesson by illustrating that the monster is not just a scientific project, the monster is a living emotional being. Frankenstein even further rejects the
From the start of Mary Shelley's novel, the monster is identified as this psychotic murderer, abnormal. The gigantic, grotesquely horrid creation of Victor Frankenstein, like Frankenstein himself, had only positive intentions at first. He was a delicate, smart monster attempting to alter to human behavior and social skills. From beginning to end, Shelley made sure to target how the monster had to learn everything solo in order to live. As the creature's creator, Victor's role was to provide and teach the creature, taking responsibility instead of running away. The fact that the monster was left unattended in the world led to his raw actions. For instance, Shelley suggest the consequences of isolation when the monster says, "You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains -- revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery." (Shelley 153) The Monster is talking in rage after Victor Frankenstein rejects his proposal to create a mate for him. The Monster is so secluded that he, himself, had to ask for a friend. This, however, was not the end of this conversation. In counter play for being deserted, Shelley writes that the Monster went off
He is passionately committed to discovery and adventure. He wishes he had a friend with the same sensibilities and he says he is self-taught.
The Creature challenges Victor that he will take “revenge [of his] injuries; If [he] cannot inspire love,” then he “will cause fear, and chiefly towards [his] arch-enemy,” who is Victor Frankenstein and he also swears an “inextinguishable hatred” for his creator. (Shelley 177). Misery and hatred, caused by repeated rejection turns the Creature from his benevolent state of love to a state of hatred. According to Caldwell, “it is the creature’s ‘father’ himself who is primarily responsible for his life and well-being, and it is his ‘father’ who abandons him.” Victor is the source of his anger, and he only kills the friends and lovers whose deaths will bring Victor the most
to come to realization of what his creation might do and the consequences that Frankenstein, himself would have to deal with. With the murder of his brother weighing the guilt on his shoulders, Frankenstein know he had to do something. So he went looking for the monster. Upon their meeting each other, the monster confessed that when he found out that William as Victor’s brother he killed him. He then proceeded to tell him that he killed his brother due to the fact that he was trying to get back at his creator for bringing him to life and allowing him to be an out cast in society. This killing
Loneliness is a feeling, not physical nor visible but it's toll is immense… Curley’s wife, Candy, and Crook all suffer from Loneliness in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Curley’s wife is burdened by being avoided, Crook is racially slurred and also avoided, and Candy has no family or friends too be there for him.
Loneliness is portrayed mainly through three characters, which are Candy, Curley’s wife, and Crooks. The old swamper named Candy is an example of loneliness because of the way his disability affects his life. He said, “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they wont do nothing like that. I wont have no place to go.” (60, Steinbeck). Candy doesn’t have any family and now he doesn’t even have his dog to keep
The human brain while complex, initiating every impulse that controls the body, can be simplified. Simple things such as memories, beliefs, or passions can define the decisions that a person makes. The impulses of humanity may cloud a person’s logic, while each person’s logic, in turn, may affect the impulses of humanity. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is overflowing with emotionally based decisions. Her text can be further observed when looking through a psychoanalytic lense with a hint of New Criticism, and searching for the root of emotion in outside texts such as the book of Genesis and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Brackett
After Frankenstein’s abandonment, the Creature takes the opportunity to explore the outside world. Frankenstein abandoning him leaves a huge impact as he states, “..despair [has] not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure [destroy] the cottage and its inhabitants and have [glut] myself with their shrieks and misery” (97). Frankenstein’s abandonment causes the Creature to experience isolation and the desire to feel love. His actions caused the Creature to feel “rage” and “revenge”. Innocent people were hurt because of the Creature’s desire to seek revenge. This is also the first time the Creature experiences the real world. As his rage and desire for revenge escalates, more people are endangered. The impactful experience let the Creature aware of his full potential to create destruction. The Creature asks Frankenstein to create a companion for him, but ultimately, Frankenstein fails to do so. After discovering Frankenstein’s doings, the Creature is
Loneliness, a state of sadness due to no friends or company. Causing isolation, neglect, it results in lack of friends. All around the world there are people who suffer with loneliness, for they have no one to call theirs. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George, a very short yet sharp man and his companion Lennie, a very large, shapeless man with intellectual disabilities work from farm to farm in California during the time of the Great Depression. George and Lennie both dream of having a small ranch of their own, but Lennie always does something wrong which forces them to run away until . When they settle on one ranch specifically, no troubles occur until Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Because George wants Lennie to be at peace, he finds that he must kill him rather than make Lennie suffer with the guilt and consequences of what he did. In the story, many characters feel lonely. They are the outcasts of the ranch who want nothing more than company and someone that will talk to them. However, as hard as some try, none of them succeed.
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
Both Victor and the monster were lonely. Victor had few friends in his lifetime and his mother’s death made worsened things for him as she was his closest confidant (Shelley 25). Frankenstein had only one close friend in his lifetime and although he loved his family, he had no strong social bonds. The monster was also lonely as it was ugly was ugly and this made people run away from it. Although it was not harmful in the beginning, people kept running away from the monster because of its appearance and this made it very lonely and miserable.
Knowing nothing but rejection, the creation was left “a poor, helpless, miserable wretch... feeling pain invade... on all sides”, it “sat down and wept” (Shelley 103). Despite its outbursts, the creature learns to reason. It begins to show compassion regardless of the rejection of its creator, the De Lacey family, and many others who judged its outward appearance. This compassion that brewed within, led to its “heart yearning to be known and loved...”. It’s being “required kindness and sympathy...” that it firmly “did not believe itself utterly unworthy of” (Shelley 131). Once the creature decides to take a pivotal change in its perspective, it decides to produce unmeasurable misery for Frankenstein. Once the creature has enticed and angered Frankenstein enough to entice him to seek revenge, the creature hesitantly moves forward. Although he is finally receiving attention from his creator, the creature does not seek to actively physically harm Frankenstein. In fact, even though Frankenstein quite literally chased his creation to the grave, his creation found no joy in his death. “For while [it] destroyed his hopes, [it] did not satisfy [its] own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still [it] desired love and fellowship, and [it] was still spurned” (Shelley 221). What type of “monster”, let alone adversary, feels no joy in his enemy’s
Next, the creature tries to become friends with humans but fails. He says, “ 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…” (Shelley 16). To explain, the monster finds out that the human race judge him based on his looks, not his inside. This is when the creature starts to dislike humans. Last, Frankenstein tries to create a friend. To show proof, he says, “Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity.” (Shelley 16). Ultimately, the monster tries to make friends with the boy but fails. Therefore, in conclusion, the creature is a friend because he has traits similar to humans, and tries to be kind to
Frankenstein slowly transitions into a dysfunctional and vengeful monster, the neglect of his creator and his repulsive appearance causes him to lash out against Victor. When Victor creates him, Victor hides from this monster and the monster later finds a way to kill Victor’s loved ones. At first he wants people’s approval and someone to love him. “ I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching and endeavouring to discover the motives which influenced their actions” (12, 1). He discovers the kind affection that humans give to each other, and feels he can not experience any of these emotions, as many run away from him. The monster doesn’t completely understand what's going on as he, doesn’t understand the emotions but craves to have them. “I sickened as I read. 'Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (15, 8). He finds notes of his
Character Analysis: Give your ideas about the main characters(s). Include what you like and dislike about the characters and why they deserve praise or criticism. Does the author intend for you to like/dislike them? How do you know?