Grotesque In Winesburg, Ohio

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein puts the monster in a predicament that victimizes the monster. Victor creates the monster to be an “ugly wretch”(Shelley 141) therefore causing the monster grief for his entire life. The monster experiences severe loneliness for being an outcast. The monster is the greatest victim in this novel because of his creation, his loneliness, and everyone’s general fear or lack of concern for him.

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841 is considered to be the first true detective story ever written, and the influence for works such as Sherlock Holmes. The narrator and his friend C. Auguste Dupin, after finding out about an intriguing murder, find themselves trying to free an innocent man and find the real beast behind the murders in the rue morgue. Through Poe’s use of symbolism and vivid imagery, the theme of the story is revealed as the struggle between the analytical, emotional, and imaginative. The Murders in the Rue Morgue presents a recurring theme of the battle between the analytical, emotional, and imaginative. In the beginning of the story, Poe describes a chess battle in great detail,

Most people when asked to describe what the word grotesque means they might refer to the dictionary’s definition of the word, which according to The American Heritage Dictionary the meaning of grotesque is “characterized by ludicrous, repulsive, or incongruous distortion, as of appearance or manner.” Not only can one be grotesque with one’s appearance but also their behavior. Sherwood Anderson in his book Winesburg Ohio mentions that “the grotesques were not all horrible. Some were amusing, some almost beautiful”. Anderson lets the reader know that a grotesque is not so just because of their physical appearance but, “was the truths that made the people grotesque.” People in Andersons book “took one of these truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.” (Anderson 8). Elizabeth Willard by this definition is the “worst” grotesque in this book. She has been transformed by her beliefs into a sad, ugly & dangerous grotesque. Her appearance, beliefs, and actions are all contributing factors to her

Alienation is a product of society’s inherently discriminatory bias, catalyzed by our fear of the unknown in the realm of interpersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals who defy—voluntarily or involuntarily—conventional norms. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley personifies the tendency to alienate on the basis of physical deformity, thereby illustrating the role of the visual in the obfuscation of morality.

“Frankenstein” is a gothic/science fiction novel that keeps the reader at the edge of their seat. It is filled with scenes of love, power, tragedy, and much more. This novel, is packed to the rims with themes and lessons, most of them dealing with creation; however, I wanted to discuss a theme that is lying beneath the surface and is buried in the text. This paper explores how Frankenstein mistakes friendship for possession. This theme will be analyzed using gender, class, a tone of disgust, possession, and disappointment, imagery of beauty, and lastly, metaphor.

At the end of the story "Adventure," Anderson writes "began trying to force herself to face bravely the fact that many people must live and die alone, even in Winesburg (Anderson, Sherwood)." The themes of loneliness and isolation are expressed by describing the characters as grotesques. The grotesques are the people who have become obsessed with an idea or mannerism, such that, they have lost contact with their fellow Man. Anderson sets the course for the theme of isolation in the first three chapters, excluding "The Book of the Grotesque."

Victor Frankenstein’s personal accounts of loneliness and isolation show the effects involved with making an impulsive and passionate decision. Frankenstein predicts the loneliness he could experience if he were to create the monster as he observes, “When I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate in my joy” (Shelley 13). Frankenstein knows what kind of situation he is putting himself into prior to constructing the monster. He is passionate and carelessly rebellious against his own knowledge and his previous predictions in giving life to the creature. Frankenstein knows there will be “none to participate in [his] joy,” but he acts out of his own passion and desire to be “glowing” which in turn gives him extreme loneliness. This

To truly understand what adulthood means, grasping who we are as people, we all must first undergo a metamorphosis. This transformation from boy to man has overtime been a common theme amongst writers. Typically, the passage a young adult must make to enter adulthood is romantic or sexual, experiencing their first relationship, or purchasing their first condom. However, a severe, twisted and arguably more meaningful test into adulthood is understanding mortality, and one’s depth of humanity. Mercilessness of individuals and our world is often viewed as a theme amongst horror novels, creating an ideal platform for a coming of age adventure. In all forms of storytelling, character archetypes are expressed. How they react in various

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”- Flannery O’Connor. After reading a few of O’Connor’s stories, it is apparent that she creates very grotesque characters with very shocking conclusions. Without knowing of her style before hand, finishing one of her stories can be alarming and disturbing, but there is always a purpose and meaning to extend upon her themes. When talking about what people thought of this, O’Connor said, “when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.” For example, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find many people would see the misfit as the most disturbing when in actuality, O’Connor uses the Grandmother so make the biggest comment morals.

“Strawberry Spring” offers the reader an opportunity to “show that we are not afraid” of facing our fears (King, “Why We Crave” 1). After all, anyone who has heard of Stephen King will automatically know that reading one of his stories may result in a thrill. For example, near the beginning of the narrator’s encounter, “a junior named John Dancey” happened upon a “dead girl lying in a shadowy corner of the Animal Sciences parking lot” (King, “Strawberry Spring” 2). Accordingly, the explicitly specific imagery used to reveal the brutality of Gale Cerman’s death is quite unsettling! Most of us spend our entire lives avoiding our “hysterical fear” of death, and allowing us to read such a description is “daring [our] nightmares” (King, “Why We Crave” 1). “Strawberry Spring” fulfills Stephen King’s claim that one reason we watch and read horror is to show “that we are not afraid” (1).

A tormented existence can only result in one’s demise. Forming healthy relationships is a staple of human life. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature was fated to become a product of his environment. Perhaps one of the greatest influences in one’s life is how one is raised. The Creature is wrongly treated due to his frightening facade. In this novel, it can be made obvious that it is not what is on the inside that counts.

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.

Frankenstein and various other characters plagued the monster with the feeling of self-consciousness. This feeling never goes away and the creature acts out in rage as a result of this horrible feeling (Mellor Abandonment 77). Along with the feelings of self-consciousness, the creature also felt a great deal of loneliness,

Over the years, the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become universally portrayed in one way: a tall, green-skinned, dumb brute with no language or reasoning abilities. Society has turned the story of Frankenstein into a mere horror story, dehumanizing the monster more than was intended in Shelley’s novel. However, the message of Frankenstein is a far cry from the freak show displayed by the media. While many people may only see Frankenstein as a grotesque story meant to thrill its audience, its purpose goes much deeper as it advocates for the equal rights of women in society.

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein conceptualise how the confusion between central character’s appearances and the reality of their personality marginalise the capacity for independence from that character. The unique implementation of characterisation, setting, and symbolism are used by both authors in their respective texts to illuminate the complexity of human relationships both with each other and with themselves. Characterisation is used in both texts to explore how protagonists are unknowingly trapped in the preconceived ideas about their appearance held by society. Ibsen and Shelly use the social setting of both texts to explore how the independence of an individual can promote a change in societal views. Additionally, both authors utilise symbolism in their texts to communicate how the characters view their situation and to incorporate foreshadowing within the texts. Ibsen’s naturalistic modern tragedy and Shelley’s gothic novel both examine the relationships between the protagonists and the culture they were created in to explore how a society can marginalise a person by their appearance.