Life's Choices in William Shakespeare's Macbeth and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
The choices we make in life can change our lives forever. Throughout the play "Macbeth" written by William Shakespeare and the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley we learn how the choices made can change peoples lives forever. The main characters within the play "Macbeth" and the novel Frankenstein make choices to challenge the laws of nature that lead to unforeseen consequences, denial, and death. Some of these are shown within the stories through the loss of family members, the characters taking no responsibility for the consequences that have come from their actions, and the in the end the death of both
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These decisions soon lead to the death of his wife Lady Macbeth. "The queen my lord, is dead" (Shakespeare V, v, ll 16). The loss of his wife does not trouble Macbeth. Macbeth's choices to murder Duncan led to many more murders such as Banquo; this drew Lady Macbeth to insanity, which soon after caused her death. "She would have died hereafter;/ There would have been a time for such a word" (Shakespeare V, v, ll 17-18). The loss of family members throughout both Frankenstein and "Macbeth" cause both Victor and Macbeth to deny their actions that they have taken. Victor Frankenstein ignoring the beast and leading the beast to anger and Macbeth's choices to murder for power led to denial.
As time passes Victor and Macbeth choose not to admit to what they have done in either creating the beast or to the murder of Duncan. Victor, after the death of William, denies his creation of the beast. He does not take any responsibility for what he has done. "Nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer!" (Shelley 60). Frankenstein does not admit to the fact that he could have caused all of these murders to happen. "The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact" (Shelley 60). He did not want to think he was the cause. Macbeth was a character who took his knowledge, went against the laws of nature and caused his wife's insanity. Macbeth
In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly, there are three different narrators throughout the whole book. This is important because we get 3 different looks into the same story. The three perspectives allow us to form our own opinions about the story. Having three perspectives helps the reader understand everything a whole lot more because they get everyone’s story and side. Shelly also uses three different narrators for the reader to be able to step in each character’s shoes. Throughout the book, the reader is able to take sides with a certain character because the author used a unique writing style.
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a statement that alters one’s actions and evokes a behavior from a person/character which makes the originally false statement come true (Wisegeek). For example, one might say, “Today is going to be a great day!” Which will alter a persons actions in a way that will actually make this prediction come true. William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Macbeth, uses self-fulfilling prophecy in a subtle yet foreshadowing way to prepare and unfurl the thoughts and actions of his characters. This tragedy, written in the early 1600’s, was composed mainly to appeal new interests around London. It is a depiction of a noble, along with his wife, who brutally slaughters a King and his kinsman so that he may be the King
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there is a question as to whether or not Macbeth is driven by fate or free will. The three weird sisters approach Macbeth with prophecies that will all come true in the end. It would appear that Macbeth is just following destiny at first. However, Macbeth always had a choice throughout the play to choose his own fate. Macbeth journeyed to his murderous doom through his own free choice.
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.
Thesis Statement: In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature’s identity as a monster is due to societal rejection, isolation, and misinterpretation.
In Frankenstein, Shelly demonstrates how Ambition prevents people from seeing reality and knowing the consequences of their actions. The book presents the idea that when people become too ambitious, they seem to lose the concept of right and wrong. For instance in a series of letter to his sister, Walton describes his exploration to the north pole in hopes of chasing after the unpossessed knowledge, however his dreams are short lived as his ambition leads him to a life threatening situation. Walton himself agrees with the situation when he states," So strange an accident has happened to us ... we were nearly surrounded by ice, which closed in the ship on all sides, scarcely leaving her the sea-room in which she floated.
To what extent are the characters of Macbeth and Victor Frankenstein responsible for their own downfalls?
When monsters are thought of a very distinct picture comes to mind. An ugly creature that is out for blood, born into a life where causing misery is his driving force. Do these features really define what a monster is; works of literature like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Shakespeare’s Othello tell quite a different story. Monsters are not born but made just as people are not born evil but can sometimes end up there. Othello and the Monster start of as good men looking to be part of society but were pushed out because of what others perceived them to be. This caused them to mentally and physically isolate themselves from everyone allowing hatred to take over. Iago and Frankenstein also helped to instill thoughts
Power as a corrupting force has been present from the beginning of time and is often revealed in many works of literature. In the novel Frankenstein by Marry Shelly and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, corruption of power is well brought forth in the characters in both texts. In both stories, characters reveal power as a corrupting force through their thirst of knowledge. Characters also reveal power as a corrupting force through character change. In addition, the character’s action justify how corrupted they really are. Therefore, power corrupts the individuals because of character’s extreme ambition which leads to
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein it can be said that both protagonists come to an unfortunate end. What leads to Macbeth and Frankenstein’s premature demise? Victor Frankenstein and Macbeth both demonstrate that acquisition of knowledge is dangerous and to seek it for the purpose of power leads to destruction of life. Macbeth’s and Frankenstein’s knowledge leads to overwhelming ambition, to immoral decisions and the destruction of their reality.
The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley involves the complex issues with the creation of life through an inanimate life. Shelley uses these character archetypes to develop a deeper meaning of the characters intentions. Shelley does an excellent job at allowing the reader to have a peak at the characters inner thoughts and feelings. The archetypes presented in Frankenstein allow readers to identify with the character's role and purpose.
Over two centuries ago, Mary Shelley created a gruesome tale of the horrific ramifications that result when man over steps his bounds and manipulates nature. In her classic tale, Frankenstein, Shelley weaves together the terrifying implications of a young scientist playing God and creating life, only to be haunted for the duration of his life by the monster of his own sordid creation. Reading Shelley in the context of present technologically advanced times, her tale of monstrous creation provides a very gruesome caution. For today, it is not merely a human being the sciences are lusting blindly to bring to life, as was the deranged quest of Victor Frankenstein, but rather to
Everyone has a since of ambition built inside of them. Your inner self determines whether you keep it under the surface or let it all come out. In the play Macbeth ambition gets the best of the main character. This is also evident in the novel Frankenstein with its main character. Both of these characters were fallen victims of their own inner ambitious ways. Ambition in both of these books is key to the understanding of each character’s actions.
The creature's ambiguous humanity has long puzzled readers of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In this essay I will focus on how Frankenstein can be used to explore two philosophical topics, social contract theory, and gender roles, in light of ideas from Shelley's two philosophical parents, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
The above quote by Bloom is an explanation of the view that all the gothic novels are interpretation of psychological and social factors and this is especially true in the case of Mary Shelley. Shelley began her novel at the age of 18 when the most prominent materials in the consciousness and unconsciousness of Shelley were concerned with the conflicts stemming from the death of her mother. Frankenstein is the outcome of Shelley’s unresolved grief for the death of her mother which was the crisis she needed to work through to forget her own adult identity.