Frankenstein Textual Analysis

Literary Analysis Outline Topic: The real nature and character of the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Thesis: Even though the monster acts malicious and kills many people, it is not innately evil.

Scanning my mind and listening. The creature could be a vagabond, an upright being without wings? Two arms, two legs, incomparable to any other animal. Why was it not speaking English ? Was it trying to convey something? What kind of reaction was it looking for? What circumstances could this encounter lead up to? Was the encounter premeditated, meant to be chaotic? Incomprehensible? But in actually, it is a reality. Did the creature have wings? When the creature came closer it was becoming determined to have our attention, it's not disputed. Yet it draws suspicion, specifically the creature did not impart itself completely, but stays on the inner edge of darkness hiding his corporeal self, simoustanly encroaching himself on us. However,

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.

Mary Shelley makes us question who really the “monster” is. Is it the creature or Victor? While the creature does commit murder, he does not understand the consequences of his actions. He is like an infant who is unfortunately left to learn about the workings of society, and his place in it, on his own. He has no companions and feels a great sense of loneliness and abandonment. The creature voices his frustration and anger and seems to try to project his feelings of guilt onto Victor, as if to show him that he is the ultimate cause of the creature’s misery while he is simply the victim of Victor’s manic impulse. Shelley utilizes words, phrases, and specific tones when the creature vents his misery to Victor and this evokes, amongst the

Humans are known for bestowing their judgment irrationally and based on the “book cover” of a person, they may degrade their fellow human into the worst positions of the social ladder. Mary Shelley, in her novel Frankenstein, expands on this perspective by using mood and tone to parallel with the circumstances of an event occurring in her novel with shifts throughout the context of the book, symbolized by the changes in nature and seasons. This shift is made frequently between the agonized, desperate, frightful, maybe even suicidal mood and tone with the occurrence of dreadful acts of murder and execution, to the more calming, soothing, optimistic and life-full during a physical and spiritual recovery.

The monster is forced to develop a neolithic mindset as opposed to modern day ideals after its maturation occurs in the wilderness. His savagery can be seen when he “silenced” Frankenstein’s son after realizing he “[belonged] to the enemy” (102). The daemon also “discovers” a fire for the first time, drawing a parallel to cavemen (72). Unfortunately, due to the lack of contact with the outside human world, the monster is unable to

As the creator and father of the monster, it was Frankenstein's duty to teach it right from wrong, to care and nurture it like you would a child, because that is what the monster was inside- an unknowing child. As soon as he was created, the monster had a need for love; it reaches an outstretched hand towards Frankenstein showing a want for recognition and love. ' A grin wrinkled his cheeks' The monster even tries to communicate but it can only utter 'inarticulate sounds' as it was yet to be taught how to speak, which should have been the task of Frankenstein.

The monster acknowledges that his environment directly affected his behavior and personality. Growing and learning around the cottagers caused him to develop into a kind, caring, and helpful being. In contrast, the monster expresses that if he had learned to behave and act around someone such as a soldier, he wouldn't be the same. Upon the disappointed encounter with Felix, Agatha, and Safie, the monster no longer behaves the same. He expresses this when he says, “There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and… sent me forth to this insupportable misery,” (Shelley 124). He is now hateful, rather than the trusting creature he once was. His environment and experiences have led him to alter his personality and perspective to suit the increasingly disappointment nature of his life.

The monster has such a gruesome and horrifying appearance, that Frankenstein is automatically scared based on the monster’s looks and therefore flees from his creation. The creature then goes out into a world that he knows absolutely nothing about and has to provide for himself without any knowledge of how to do that. When the creature scares the humans in the village and the farmer he is only trying to find food and never once thought of harming them. The monster shows many acts of kindness in his early stages of life. For example, when he is observing the family, he realizes that they are poor and he has been stealing their food. Once he understands that he is hurting them, he stops stealing. He cuts up firewood and leaves it for them in hopes of making their life easier. These actions show us that the monster does not start out doing bad things only things that might benefit the family. The creature has a desire to learn like a child does, he is fascinated in everything the family does and says. “I shall relate the events that impressed me with feelings which, from what I was, have made me what I am”(Shelley 135), this quote

After seeing the kindness shown by the family, the monster starts to show signs of kindness himself. He previously would steal part of their food storage to eat at night, but upon realizing that it was hurting the family, he stopped. Also, when he learned that gathering wood took up a large portion of their days, he would take their tools and bring back enough wood in one night to last them for a few days. From then on, the monster sought love. When he approaches Frankenstein he does not punish him for abandoning him, but instead implores him to make him a mate so that he can live in happiness. Though Frankenstein is unsympathetic and unloving toward his creation, we can still see he seeks love in the fact that he created the monster at all. He confesses his

The monster notices that humans are afraid of him because of his appearance, he feels embarrassed of himself, as humans do when they don’t seem to be accepted. He admires the De Lacey Family that lives in the cottage, he also learns from them, and hopes to have companion as they do. The monster is like humans, as mentioned, in the way that he wants someone to listen and care about him. He is discovering the world and his capacities, he seeks knowledge and understand plenty aspects of life by learning how to speak and read. “The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 47). The monster developed feelings and emotions as humans. The creature is different from humans also, since he never got to grow up as a normal human, and

In addition to being rejected by his creator, Frankenstein’s monster is also treated very violently by humans, leaving him alone and feeling like he did something wrong, even though their reactions are based solely on his appearance. The monster does not want to be thought of as a monster at first, but as he comes to realize from human interactions, no matter what his actions are, people will always judge him by what he cannot control. The monster explains the first interaction he had ever had with

At this point the monster had absolutely no reason to be afraid of a village. He had no experiences with villages or the people living in them, either positive or negative. When it came to villages and villagers, the monster was a blank slate. The people in the village were something new, individuals that he wanted to meet and get to know. After watching them, he was intrigued by everything they did.

Fictionally, the greatest-written villains in history possess attributes that give them cause for their behavior, with the most universal and essential of these core traits being a deep, personal backstory behind their acts. For instance, in classic stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Monster presents thorough reason to its Creator in terms of why it has turned to wickedness. The Monster does not kill purely for the sake of being evil, its actions are resulted from its desire to be loved by man, yet failing at every attempt to achieve it. Motivation behind monstrous acts is necessary in works of fiction because non-fictionally, people labeled as monsters by society possesses motivation behind their actions as well, whether it be

To fully understand how society impacts the creatures in each story the reader must look at their actions before they were defined as monsters. Frankenstein’s creature wanted affection, love and attention from none other than his own creator