Narrative Techniques In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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.

Frankenstein is a greatly male oriented novel, with woman as the side characters. The multiple woman in Frankenstein unknowingly shape the novel to what the world knows it today. The entire story would not exist without Margaret and the letters that she receives from her brother. Justine Moritz the one who took the fall for the monsters murder. Agatha and Safie who showed the creature kindness and educated it. Elizabeth, who greatly influenced Victor by just existing. The role women have in Frankenstein is more important than one may think.

One of the ways why cinematography made the film was the lighting. To get the feel, the lighting appeared to be fake shadows that were painted on the set. The fake shadows that were painted on the set gave the lighting appeared to be harsh and sharper to set the mood for the audience. If it weren’t for the painted shadows, the movie wouldn’t have been so successful in the horror genre. Since it was a silent movie, if it weren’t for the shadows, you wouldn’t of seen it as a horror film, but as an original film that was trying to be creative.

"A Hermit is simply a person to whom society has failed to adjust itself." (Will Cuppy). In the gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we follow the life of Victor Frankenstein in 18th century Germany. Shelley displays a recurring theme of isolation and how it drives once good people to do terrible things. If civilization does not adjust itself to a creature of any kind they will be forced into isolation and ultimately self destruction.

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.

Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein is a riveting story that not only succeeded in captivating the reader 's attention, but also comments on societal views on “Good” and “Evil”. The story draws a parallel between the main character Victor Frankenstein and his creation The Crauter. The novel undoubtedly contains evil and acts of evil yet it is not apparent who is the true “Monster”; the creator or the creation. Victor Frankenstein is a selfish man who, out of a surplus in ego, created something that should have never lived. That creation, the creature, went on to commit murder and bring a real sense of hell on Earth to those whom he surrounded himself with. So, the question is asked “who is more evil, Frankenstein or his creation?” The crux of

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.

Human Nature can be defined as “the ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are common to most people”. Many people are attracted to compassion and sympathy through the love of a person whom cares very deeply about them. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the three main characters Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein (The Monster) are shown throughout the story, longing and in search for a companion. Throughout the story, the characters struggle with the battle of wanting either sympathy or compassion from a person or both. Mary Shelley shows the true indication of Human Nature by showing the importance of sympathy and compassion through the main character’s desires and pain.

Beauty is often the most lethal poison. It intoxicates both the beholder and the beheld. Humans are raised into a society that instills certain standards of elegance and beauty. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the woes and misery of the monster is brought to the readers’ attention as humans constantly berate and abuse the creature for it’s hideous body. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein discusses the advantages and the detriments that an alluring versus unappealing body provides a person, and how that person is affected due to the pressures and assumptions of society placed upon their shoulders. Mary Shelley may have been amongst the first to examine the concept of beauty and the advantages it provides. She insinuates that the conformity of the ideals of beauty place shackles, and struggles upon those who do not fit into such standards.

Man changes all the time. His emotions, state in life, body figure and even peace of mind can change in a matter of moments. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the themes expressed repeatedly is the mutability of the state of man. Victor Frankenstein emotions and states of life change many times in this novel. Mary Shelley uses Victor Frankenstein to show the audience that the only thing that does not change is the fact that human beings are always changing. Some of these changes come by impulse other changes may come by changes in the surrounding environment.

Although Frankenstein is a fictional story, I think in many ways it is representative of Mary Shelley personal views in her everyday life. Mary Shelley was raised by her father after her mother passed and because of that they always had a rocky relationship even after her father remarried. Mary fell in love with one of her father’s political followers, Percy Shelley and they got married although her father did not approve of their relationship because of the age difference. Throughout their relationship, they faced many obstacles that made it hard for their relationship to work, but it did. This aspect of her relationship is show through Elizabeth in the novel because it shows how hard women will work to make a relationship work even when

This book is really hard to put down, I found myself reading the entire required reading in like 2 sittings. Each topic I will address will be in bold, with my thoughts followed. Narration: The narrative of Victor telling Robert, Robert telling Margaret and; later The Creature telling Victor(who tells Robert, who then tells Margaret) was an incredible choice by Mary. The reader gets the story the same way Margaret does, through the retelling of Robert. This style of narration is also key in playing on the fact that it is a ghost story, the type that would be narrated as such in a dark room from one friend to another.

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.

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortensen, is one of Hollywood’s most famed actresses and sex symbols (Biography.com Editors). Typically cast in the “dumb-blonde” roles, Monroe appeared “sensual and at ease” in front of cameras (Henrikson). With an "idiosyncratic sense of humor and sly wit", Monroe’s true personality was not reflected in the stereotypical characters she portrayed (Biography.com Editors). Despite her fame and popularity, Monroe faced numerous struggles throughout her life until her death, a drug overdose, in 1962. In this sense, she was actually quite similar to Frankenstein’s monster from the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. The monster is brought to life by Victor Frankenstein only to be abandoned moments after his

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.