How Does Shelley Use Allusions In Frankenstein

There are many allusions used to help develop traits of ambition, intelligence and vengeful for Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Victor as a young boy is interested in the natural philosophers such as Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. Agrippa first sparked his interest and even though his father told him that “it is sad trash.” (Shelley 24) he continued to research and read his books. Victor mainly ignored his father’s comment as his father just glanced at the book and made that remark, if he had explained his reasoning about why he thought it was a waste of time Victor would have listened. When the Frankensteins return from their trip from Thonon he immersed himself in Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus and spent all of

Both Frankenstein and Paradise lost introduce similar characters with comparing and contrasting motives, stories, and characteristics. Satan and Adam, In Paradise Lost, and the monster, in Frankenstein, are both created beings with a purposeful creation, yet Satan and the Creature both turn out to be outcasts to their creators and both become vengeful and angry towards their masters. Even Adam betrayed God by defying his command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God, in Paradise Lost, and Victor, in Frankenstein, also share similar stories and motives by which both were masters of a creation, but God looked on his creation with pleasance and gladness in contrast to Victor whom viewed his creation as horrifying and disturbing.

The use of Paradise Lost, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, allows for a complex development of the Creation’s understanding of his place in the unknown world. The Creation identifies, originally, with Adam as the view of himself as his master’s beloved creation, which alludes to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Through Paradise Lost, the Creation identifies more with Satan in the sense that he was cast away from his creator.

Shelley draws inspiration from Milton 's Paradise Lost not only for the vicious creator in the stories but also the creations. In Milton’s epic, God creates the father of humankind and the father of all demons. The characterization of Frankenstein 's monster highlights points of both Adam and Satan; even the monster recognizes this within Shelley’s work when he encounters Milton’s

Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" narrates a story about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his creation of a monster set apart from all worldly creatures. Frankenstein's creation parallels Milton's "Paradise Lost" and God's creation of man; Victor Frankenstein is symbolic of God and the monster is symbolic of Adam. The parallel emphasizes the moral limitations of mankind through Victor Frankenstein and the disjunction and correlation with "Paradise Lost". Shelly links the two stories together through Victor's creation of the monster and his "fall" from humanity which I will focus on initially. More importantly, the main divergence of the two works lies in the representation of God in "Paradise Lost" and Victor in "Frankenstein". Both the

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor and his creation are more similar than they realize. Both characters suffer from depression, have emotional instability, and an obsession with revenge. They reflect the evil in the other and represent each others mistakes.

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

Mary Shelley alludes to literary text, intellectual history, and her personal life in order to deliver the theme with literary style, to develop the characters’ background, and to emphasize the universality of the story. Literary texts such as Paradise Lost, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and the myth of Prometheus induces a sense of how commonplace the story of Frankenstein could be. Intellectual history adds to that effect by emphasizing the story with logic. Similarities to her personal life such as her childhood and marriage exemplifies her point. The external references in the novel serve to represent the Gothic and Romantic Movements and to encourage the readers to relate the situation to their own lives.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, illustrates an interesting story focusing in on many different themes, but what most readers may miss, is the similarities between Victor Frankenstein and the creature he created. As the story develops, one may pick up on these similarities more and more. This is portrayed through their feelings of isolation, thirst for revenge, their bold attempt to play god, and also their hunger to obtain knowledge. These are all displayed through a series of both the actions and the words of Frankenstein and his creature.

Though the conclusions arrived at here are of the same theoretical place as the philosophical minds had deliberated before, the explanations had by Burke and Shaw circumvented parallel processes of thought, to more rely upon their similar conclusions, both rooted in historical precedent. With Frankenstein, however, Shelley stays committed to its endgame in practicing metaphorical weight and symbolic meaning, not only for setting the classical arguments incorporated here, in definite terms. This isn’t even in creating some microcosm of a singularized case in which man had sought to defy the natural barriers, and replicate the things he saw, and experienced. Instead, interactions between characters and unfolding conflicts set upon them, are to represent both these spheres converging. They are depicted less as staunch absolutes, but more so met with being altered, and changing the perceptions drawn up all along. Conferred later in an accounted byproduct of a more recent mindset, this nonetheless stands for lessons at the underpinnings of how we have grown as a society in general, which Shelley would seem to remind us of. As opposed to some alleged “Modern Prometheus,” Victor’s pursuit comes up barely mythicized, and as Bate says, “is a healthy disorientation… to realize that the Western man may not after all be the master of all things” (Bate 480). Likewise, the creature takes on a role within the self-fulfilling prophecy, subject to the maltreatment of human benefactors, and,

Previously, the creature believed that he should be like Adam, but ended up like Satan because both Satan and the creature were damned by their creators from the beginning.However, he now believes that he has it worse than Satan because Satan still has companions in damnation while the creature has no one. Shelley reuses this allusion to emphasize the creature’s change from benevolent to fiendish as a result from his isolation and to be used as a comparison from when he first alluded to the novel to show how much the creature has changed since then. This passage also sheds light on the theme of isolation and Shelley’s thoughts and opinions about it.Through the creature’s character and belief that he has it worse than Satan, it can be inferred that Shelley believes that living in isolation is a fate worse than living in damnation. The significance of the statement is that during the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, being damned to eternal punishment in hell after you die was among the biggest fear people had and to think of something was worse like living in isolation was highly uncommon for the

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Shelley does not shy away from the use of allusions as a way for her readers to understand the connections, situations, and motives of the two main characters in her novel. In addition to playing into the reader's understanding, she also challenges her readers to be pensive about relationships, decisions, power, authority, ambition, and companionship throughout her gothic novel.

A reader can better understand these moments in Frankenstein when looking at the moments in chapters 10-16 that allude to Paradise Lost. In chapter ten after Victor has been climbing Mont Blanc for days he happens upon an area of glaciers. Upon finding this area he has his first real encounter with his creation. During this meeting the creation tells Victor, “‘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 87). This first parallel that is offered by the creation explains that he could have been great, an Adam, had his creator stayed by his side just as Milton’s Paradise Lost would have the reader believe.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are several parallels that can be drawn. One of the major parallels in the novel is the connection between Victor Frankenstein and the creature he creates; there is an interesting relationship between these two characters. Frankenstein and his creation are not blood related, however, their similarities bond the two. Despite their dislike for one another and their physical differences Frankenstein shares many characteristics with his creation, throughout the novel we see each of them find comfort in nature, become isolated from society, and seek revenge towards those who have wronged them. There is significance in these similarities; if Frankenstein’s creation had not been physically deformed they would

Within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, many elements and themes exist that make a comparison between Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus not only possible, but likely. The story follows the dynamic path of an obsessed scientist and his beastly creation, which in turn relays consequences for both the monster and Victor. In this story Victor takes on the role of Prometheus, betraying God in his own interest, and in turn, has to face the responsibility and punishment for the creature's actions. In Frankenstein, Victor parallels the mythic Prometheus, with whom he shares traits that consequently make them both creators of mankind.