Essay about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Nowadays, society is constantly focused on the conflict between good vs evil; movies, novels, and even everyday life are excellent examples of where this situation occurs. However, in a perfect world, the two qualities could never exist in one individual. But, civilization is not perfect, and the life of the two protagonists, Dorian Gray- in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde- and Victor Frankenstein- in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley- demonstrate both of these contradictory personalities. Even though Victor Frankenstein does have his faults, Dorian Gray represents the greater evil because his overall actions were uncontrollable.

Victor thought “for this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”(page). This quote demonstrates that once Victor had concluded his work of creating the monster, he realized that it may have been a huge mistake. He was not satisfied with his creation instead he was filled with terror. In result of his realization, he left the monster to fend for himself and suffer. Victor shows an evil side of himself by abandoning the monster and leaving him to be universally shunned by society. By Victor doing this one evil act, it causes the monster himself to go off and initiate evil acts of his own.

Before Victor goes off to college, his mother dies which leaves him distraught. Subsequently he became infatuated with death and the idea of bringing life back. He said, "To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death" ( Shelley Chtr 4). Slowly, he became a monster engulfed in his own subconscious with the help of his studies in science.

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.

This need of power led Victor to create what he believed would be a beautiful human being. But he failed to see that combining the most beautiful human features does not necessarily create a beautiful human being. He was inspired by scientists who ...acquired new and almost limitless powers... (Shelley, Frankenstein, P. 47). Victor sought this unlimited power to the extent of taking the role of God. He not only penetrated nature, but also he assumed power of reproduction in a maniacal desire to harness these modes of reproduction in order to become acknowledged, respected, and obeyed as a father. While bringing his creation into the world he was himself alienated from society, and isolated himself from the community. Isolation and parental neglect cause viciousness within man. Because of his upbringing, Victor had no sense of empathy, and therefore could not realize the potential harm he was creating towards himself and his creation. The sole purpose of his project was an attempt to gain power, but instead of power Victor realized that a morally irresponsible scientific development could release a monster that can destroy human civilization.

Mary W. Shelley’s brilliant gothic story, Frankenstein, is one that emits the prevalent theme of light versus dark, in which possesses obvious characteristics of a novel written during the romantic era. The novel tells the account of the overambitious Victor Frankenstein, who created a monster in hopes that he’d be known for crafting something human from the body parts of corpses with physical and mental advantages in society, basically playing the part of God on Earth, but through the auspices of science. Instead of creating a “normal” human, his creation ended up being a disfigured creature who he then neglects. Upon his abandonment, the monster seeks revenge on Victor after being cast away by society due to harsh physiognomy in which

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley is an author who wrote the novel of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley herself in her life, experienced many deaths of close friends and family. When she was first born her mother died, furthermore Mary had a baby, who died 12 days later and her husband Percy Shelly drowned. Maybe it was these experiences, which led Mary Shelley to write such a novel of great horror published in 1818. Frankenstein itself is called 'the modern Prometheus'.

The Enlightenment left a residue of creativity that gradually paved the way for another artistic revolution known as romanticism. The concept of romanticism (early 19th century) emphasizes on the inner emotions and imagination of the individual while at the same time expressing deep interest in nature and the supernatural. During the romantic movement, one major contribution was the birth of Gothic fiction. One author who strived under this literary genre was Mary Shelley. Ever since she was a child, Shelly spent her hours of leisure in creative writing.

Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley didn’t know when she began it that her “ghost story” would become an enduring part of classic literature. Frankenstein is an admirable work simply for its captivating plot. To the careful reader, however, Shelley’s tale offers complex insights into human experience. The reader identifies with all of the major characters and is left to heed or ignore the cautions that their situations provide. Shelley uses the second person narrative style, allusions both to Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and the legend of Prometheus, and the symbols of both light and fire to warn against the destructive thirst for forbidden knowledge.

The time period is a strong factor in the story of Frankenstein. As the story was written, it was involved in the passing of the Enlightenment Period and the beginning of the Romantic Period. The story from it’s time in the Romantic period however also had a Gothic theme. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows her writings in a new light, this new style stressed the emotion and the feelings of the characters in the novel. “And where does he now exist? Is this gentle and lovely being lost forever? Has this mind, so replete with ideas, imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a world, whose existence depended on the life of the creator; has this mind perished” (Shelley 115). As Frankenstein tries to travel around the world, his thoughts

Mary Shelley creates a sense of gloom, mystery, and suspense, in her novel Frankenstein. The book generates these perceptions though the setting and the terrible events that go on throughout the book. Gothic novels came from the English genre of fiction popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothics are defined by the mysterious and horrific atmosphere, similar to that of Mary Shelley’s writing. Frankenstein is a gothic novel because of the combined elements of extreme and sinister landscapes, horrifying events, supernatural elements, and a passionate, wilful villain.

Gothic literature flourished during the medieval period, and it extended off romanticism. "Gothic" has come to mean a number of things by this time. It could mean a particular style of art, in the form of novels, paintings, or architecture; it could mean "medieval”. It could even mean a type of music and its fans. What it originally meant is, relating to, or resembling the Goths, their civilization, or their language. “Gothic mood” is an expression in literature that is relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, morbid, and the mystery in a novel. It highlights the darkness and coldness to

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is a story about how important having a family is to some, but also judging someone based on their appearance. Victor Frankenstein starts the novel by describing his childhood with his loving and supportive family. Family is very important to him because he did not have many friends growing up. While Frankenstein is away at school he starts to become very depressed and you see his attitude towards his family and his life change. Being away at school, he creates a “monster” by using different pieces of corpses and that becomes the only thing that matters to him until he sees how hideous it is. He immediately hates his creation just because of how he looks. Frankenstein begins to abandon everyone and thing in his life because of his obsession with the idea of glory and science, causing the novel to go from Romanticism to Gothic. The “monster” finds a family living in a cottage, by watching all winter he learns how a family should love and accept others. By seeing this, Frankenstein’s creations understand what was taken from him, and will do whatever he has to do to have a family of his own.

The scene is set on a dreary night of November at one o'clock in the

During the time when he wrote the book, gothic was a very popular genre that had been very likely to be written in. This genre often attempts to unmask the horrific aspect of human nature. It pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil power that cannot be understood completely by human reason. Gothic is thus a world of doubt; doubt about the supernatural and the spiritual. It seeks to create in our minds the possibility that may be; there