Literary Elements In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s, gotchic novel, Frankenstein, is a story of a mans adventure out of self pity and disappointment in search for total control and ultimate power, as he wishes to escape from the realities of his past life. In this story, Victor Frankenstein’s use of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos creates many moods and repsonses from Victor, himself, and the Creature he has created, which conveys emotional repsonses, persuasive actions, and appeals to logic that created this twisted and wretchedly staggering novel. Victor Frankenstein uses Pathos to effectively create an emotional response. After being reprimanded by Victor, the creature expresses how he thought Victor would respond, because, “All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who

Quote: He stated “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe…..I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation–deep, dark, deathlike solitude.”(Page 88).

Every work is a product of its time. Indeed, we see that in Frankenstein, like in the world which produced its author, race, or the outward appearances on which that construct is based, determines much of the treatment received by those at all levels of its hierarchy. Within the work, Mary Shelley, its author, not only presents a racialized view of its characters, but further establishes and enforces the racial hierarchy present and known to her in her own world. For the few non-European characters, their appearance, and thus their standing in its related hierarchy, defines their entrances into the narrative. For the Creature, this occurs on the ices of the Artic, when, “atop a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile;” Walton and his men perceived, “a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature.” (Shelley 13) Shelley clarifies, even this early in her novel, the race of its principal Other as soon after the intrepid adventurers rescue its namesake, Victor Frankenstein, who, Shelley clarifies, “was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but an European.” (Shelley 14) Later, closer examination of the Creature reveals a visage and figure of near unimaginable disfigurement, with a “shrivelled complexion,” and yellow skin which “scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath.” (Shelley 35) This could be contrasted directly

Victor, the protagonist, is a Byronic hero who voluntarily isolates himself from society as his obsession of creating a new life-being becomes his main interest. He cuts himself off from all human contact and concentrates on his scientific experiment as he wishes his “thirst for knowledge” (Shelley 38) to be stilled. Additionally, he hides a dark secret inside him, namely the creation of the monster which he irresponsibly abandons and ultimately is forced to accept the consequences of death of his loved ones.

Shelley addresses romantic conventions in Victor to convey his loss of identity. Victor is impatient and restless when constructing the creation, so much, that he does not think about it’s future repercussions. One of the great paradoxes that Shelley’s novel depicts is giving the monster more human attributes than to it’s creator [p. 6 - Interpretations]. This is true as the monster seeks an emotional bond, but Victor is terrified of it’s existence. The monster later reveals, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurred at and kicked and trampled on [Shelley, p. 224].” Victor’s lack of compassion is rooted from the inability to cope with his reality. He distances himself from others and is induced with fainting spells [Shelley, p. 59]. From this, the nameless creature exemplifies Victor’s attempt to abandon his creation to escape his responsibilities. His creation is described as, ‘wretched devil’ and ‘abhorred monster,’ eliciting that the unobtainable, pitied identity [Shelley, p. 102]. The act of not naming the creature reveals Victor as hateful, and unnaturally disconnected to his own created victim.

In Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the creation, made from scraps of corpses, was built by Victor Frankenstein, a man fascinated and obsessed with the knowledge of life. Following the creation’s rouse, Victor immediately abandons him with no desire on keeping or teaching his new being. Because of his lack of nourishment and direction “growing up”, the creation goes through a process of self-deception. He endures a period of deceit by believing that he is a normal human being like everyone around him. But as time progresses, he learns to accept how he is alone in this world and disconnected with everyone. Because of the creation’s lack of guidance and isolation, he grows up feeling unwanted.

In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, she shows that good people can turn evil, but are not born this way. Humans being rude and isolating someone can make a person go insane and do things they are not proud of. Shelley shows this through the creature that Frankenstein creates and gives examples showing his evilness, but also shows that the creature tries to explain many times that he wants a friend and cannot find one because of his appearance and why he does things that are not of good character through the eyes of human beings.

John Locke is one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers and is famously known for asserting that all humans have natural rights. He also believed that humans are born with clean slates, and that the environment humans grow in, especially at a young age, has massive influences on aspects of their personalities, ideals, and motivations. Shelley was most definitely influenced by this claim when writing Frankenstein. As the reader, we can see the monster that Victor Frankenstein creates grow up alone, without guidance, and be formed by the experiences it is put through while trying to survive. Its emotions and beliefs throughout the book were merely a result of its experiences as it encounters the harsh reality of the world. Mary

Frankenstein thinks that everything is alright now, but Elizabeth has a premonition that the monster will return, and she warns her fiancé that she fears some harm is going to befall him. At the same time, during the entire village’s celebration, the father of the dead girl carries her lifeless body though the streets for all to see. The shock crowd stops its celebration, stunned and outraged over the death of Maria, and they demand justice from The Burgomaster (mayor) and local police. By nightfall, the angry mob has organized into torch carrying search parties to find the murderer. Frankenstein is determined to destroy the creature, and leads one of several groups looking for the monster, up the mountainous terrain.

Mary Shelley genially wrote Frankenstein. A book that has been re-told a countless number of times, a story that almost every child heard as they grew up, becoming almost an American tradition. Various aspects of the story even though fiction were reflections of Mary Shelley’s personal life. Shelley uses tragic and shocking events to develop her characters. The symbolism she uses is that of what happens in the world at all times, mirror images of our true society. Shelley’s writing was odd for her time period.

In novels, the evolution of a character adds to the depth of a story. The manner in which the characters are portrayed or perceived sets the tone for the entire book. The character is built and transformed through the events, interactions with and viewpoints of, others, giving the audience insight into who the character truly is. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, evolves throughout the novel and is portrayed in several different ways, by multiple characters in the book. There are three main vehicles Shelley uses to introduce the reader to the protagonist in Frankenstein. First, she shows us Victor's life prior to creating

Chapter three to me shows Victor’s soft side for when his mother dies but also his arrogant side of his obsession with science when Victor says “I had ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge... I longed to enter the world and take my station among other human beings.” When Victor uses “my station” this shows that Victor already thinks that he is meant to achieve greatness in his career. In chapter three Shelley uses foreshadowing"...an omen, as it were, of my future misey" this is when the author creates a negative feeling or hints that a problem will happen to the main character, this is foreshadowing because an omen is like a curse and Victor is saying that it's the start of his future misery.

Shelley illustrates Victor’s monstrous characteristics through the creation of the creature. When Victor attends university at Ingolstadt, he decides to pursue his studies in the Sciences. Fascinated by the creation of life, he begins to study human anatomy and decay. He seeks to be omnipotent, and therefore, creates “[a] new species

The three traits that I would use to describe Mary Shelley’s creature would probably be lonely, resentful, and miserable. The fact that the creature was lonely is proven when he tells Victor, “There was no one among them to pity or assist me…”, he was simply thrust into this new world with no knowledge of society or language at the time. His looks made sure that there was no one there to sympathize with or teach him. Due to this loneliness he became resentful toward humankind, the creature even states that he declared war against them and Victor while explaining why he killed William. In the final scene, the creature tells the ship captain of how he plans to set himself on fire even saying, “And farewell to you, Victor Frankenstein. Doomed as you were, my agony was still greater than yours.”. This final line of the creature’s shows how completely miserable he was just to be alive-even after taking his revenge on Victor.

Introduction: 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 Victor Frankenstein to his discovery of life: “...So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein-more, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation”[p.47]. He could not cope with this discovery and simply ignored it. The tragedy of Victor Frankenstein and the tragedy of his creature is the same – it is the tragedy of loneliness and confronting the world, trying to find a place in it and deserve someone’s love. The creature would have never become a monster if it got the love it strived for. Victor Frankenstein would have never converted his creature into a monster if he knew how to love and take responsibility for the ones we bring to this world.