Tamara Rosendall
Mr. VanderKolk
AP Literature
19 April 2013
Who is God: The Creator or the Created? Many find the popular TV show, Toddlers in Tiaras, to be entertaining. Some like the show for the drama while some like watching it to see all the little girls dressed up in frilly dresses and costumes. However, when analyzing the content of the show, one may see that the parents aren’t really the ones in charge—their prima donna daughter is. The reversed order of authority also plays a part in the gothic novel Frankenstein. Mary Shelley uses the characters of Victor Frankenstein and the monster to display a contradiction to the creation story in the Bible through her novel Frankenstein. Their relationship inverts the account of
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(Shelley, p. 92)
The monster reveals that he knows the duty that a creator has towards his creation, and that Frankenstein has not fulfilled any duty towards his creature. He continues to rebuke his creator and reminds the latter of their duties to one another. He proposes, “I am thy creature, and I will be even mild a docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt perform thy part, the which thou owest me…Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed,” (Shelley, p. 69). He offers a chance to fix their relationship, but he also reprimands Frankenstein for denying him at first. Again, the monster refers back to the book he found to compare to and argue that Victor has a duty to provide for him. He recalls the past few years of his life that he lived alone and criticizes,
No Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his
Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him…I am an unfortunate and deserted creature; I look around, and I have no relation or friend upon earth…I am an outcast in the world forever.” (Shelley, p. 94, 95)
Frankenstein has also denied him the companionship that God gave to Adam in the garden. At the end of
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
In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the character Victor Frankenstein illustrates betrayal in the way he abandons his creation, with no hesitation he leaves him behind. With the feeling of abandonment ,the creature feels anger towards Victor which leads the “monster” to become a villain. Love and family are all the monster wants, but it is something that Victor could not give due to his own internal battles. As result, the monster begins to take Victor’s loved ones such as: little William and his wife Elizabeth. The monster kills
Victor Frankenstein played the role of God in hopes of getting rid of death and disease so no one else would know the suffering that he felt after the death of his mother. He is a learned man and became fixated on acquiring the ‘secret of life’. Finally he finds the secret, but is unhappy with his results, a foul mangled monster. As a result, Victor is enraged, guilt ridden and consumed with the lust of destroying his creation. As a result of Victors remorse and anger the monster is ridden with suffering and sadness. Henceforth the monster and Victor make a deal for the monster to obtain a companion. Be that as it may, Victor goes back on his part of the deal and the monster is enraged and wishes to make Victor feel
I had just left my father’s funeral. I was wondering where my brother Victor was. He was not at the funeral; could he just have been at home? Why would he miss our father’s funeral. So I got in my carriage and rode home. Victor was not at home. So I went to ask the people in Geneva. One woman told me that victor had left for the Arctic. I asked myself: Why would Victor leave for the Arctic? I realized that I had no family member left, I was all alone. All the money and property was supposed to go to victor because he was the oldest son. But now since he is not here to inherit it, the money was all mine. I being a teenager thought that throwing a party would be fun. But then I thought let me get settled and used to this empty home. I
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.
In the story of “Frankenstein”, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature. When the creature awakens Victor is so disgusted in his creation, he runs away and becomes severely depressed.. The creature searches for Victor, but ends up finding a little boy who turns out to be Victor's little brother, William. The creature kills William, and Victor comes home for the funeral. This is how the creature finds him. While reading the book you notice that all the Creature ever wanted was for Victor to love him. He kind of saw him as a god, and as his creator he must have to love him. The Creature soon realizes that Victor despises him. So he proposes a deal, Victor creates a wife for him and he’ll leave. In the process of creating his wife victor stops, he tears all the pieces apart. The creature slowly ruins Victor's life. When Victor is on his deathbed the Creature comes to him and cries. The Creature ends up killing himself shortly after. Throughout the book we learn to understand why the creature did what he did. He hurt Victor because Victor hurt him. He just wanted to be accepted by Victor, above anything else. We see the story through Victors and The creatures perspectives. Victor hated that he created the creature and he thought that he was his biggest mistake, and the creature just wanted to be
Another aspect of romanticism that is prevalent in Shelly’s novel is the way Frankenstein, and his creation, are controlled by their emotions. Frankenstein is continually ruled by his feelings of fear, guilt, and love throughout the novel. For instance, he works for nearly two years to accomplish his goal of creating life, only to immediately flee because of fear when his work comes to life. This was a major illustration for the reader that despite being an experienced scientist Frankenstein was still ruled by emotions. In a large portion of the novel Frankenstein seems to be completely motivated by his fear of the creature he created. When his brother died, he feared people discovering his secret so he let an innocent woman stand trial. When the monster requested a partner, his fear of the monster propelled him to try, only to have his fear of having two creatures alive stop him from completing the work. At the end of the story, Frankenstein’s anger over the death of his family members propelled him to chase the creature across the frozen waters, which lead to his death. Frankenstein was a brilliant thinker who was continually consumed and motivated by his emotions. Frankenstein’s creation was also very much controlled by his emotions. After he is created and Frankenstein flees from him, he searches across the land to find companions. The creature is repeatedly rejected because of his looks, and because of that he is self-conscience of the fact that he is
This fear and rejection of the Creature is seen not only in the different people the Monster encounters throughout his travels, but also in his creator. Frankenstein is unable to stand the sight of the creature stating, “its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes” (Shelley 95). Frankenstein’s rejection causes the Creature to accuse Frankenstein of abandonment: “you had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind” (Shelley 141). The Creature says that he is Frankenstein’s obligation and it is Frankenstein’s responsibility to be his essential caretaker. Although Victor originally cowered in fear of the Creature, the Creature claims he was initially “good” and it his Victor’s rejection which drives him to violence. The monster repeatedly lectures Frankenstein on his responsibility, “I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the
Another feeling that comes into play is his feeling of love and possession toward his creature. Frankenstein sees that the creature is good natured and means no harm, but he is still reluctant to accept him because of the consequences of that would follow from his fellow men due to their fear of him. When the creature forces Frankenstein to listen to his story, Frankenstein feels pity and feels conflicted because he created the creature only to have him live like an outcast. This contributes to the overall tones of confusion and betrayal in the book. The readers expect Frankenstein to love and care for his creature, but his desire to conform interferes and results in his betrayal and abandonment of the creature, which in turn results in the creature betraying and killing people. It shows readers that the desire for love and acceptance is dominant over loyalty and a sense of duty to
Tragic hero’s can come in all shapes and sizes. They may appear as a villain in multiple works of literature. In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the tragic hero is the creature. He is a main character whose faults led to his overall downfall. Often, the creature is misinterpreted by people to be named Frankenstein because he is such a prominent character. While the creature is able to identify the faults in mankind it is only after extreme suffering on his own part.
Throughout Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein, the characters of the novel parallel to biblical allusions. Victor takes on the role of God, as he works to “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (33), thus displaying a God-like power. The power Victor holds allows him to create a being solely from his own imagination, therefore giving him similar characteristics to God in the “Story of Creation”. However, Victor differs from God as Victor does not allow the Monster to stay in his life, as Adam and Eve stayed in the Garden of Eden, but abandons the monster directly following its animation. The abandonment significantly affects the
It is vital that you know who the real monster in the Frankenstein book, Victor Frankenstein is the number one contender for this position. He creates a monster, but who knows if the actual monster he created is the true monster in this story. In later chapters the true monster is revealed, Victor Frankenstein takes fault for the deaths of Justine, William, and Henry even though he wasn’t the actual cause of their death. Although the monster was created by Victor, he is still horrid and disgusted by how his monsters look and abandons his creation because of his unpleasant demeanor. Victor didn’t accept the monster and decided to avoid coming into contact with the monster, woefully the monster later commits an evil act and kills Justine
Frankenstein was a story written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley while she was on her vacation in Switzerland with her husband. The story got published in 1818 without letting the public about the author. It was in 1831 when the novel revised edition was out and Mary Shelley name mentioned as an author. The novel focused on social, cultural and political facet of the societies during Mary’s lifetime. The fictional character in the novel clearly shows the battle against the pre-established people’s attitude during that time. Religion and science always create a controversy in the society with religion always differencing from any scientific principles and experiments. Shelley’s tried to addresses the above controversy and showed how science and modern technology is sometimes wrong. She tried to show how scientists and inventors are sometimes selfish only care for achieving their plan without evaluating the end result.
In these lines is presented the passion that drove Frankenstein to create a new species that it will praise him, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (Shelley, 43), but he ends up being frightened by his creation and abandons it. The monster learns how to survive on his own and he also gains some knowledge. However, he feels rejected by his creator and by people. One day, he kills Frankenstein’s brother to revenge Victor. Later on he finds his creator and asks him to create a partner for him. Victor is convinced but later he