Symbolism in Frankenstein

This novel reflects Shelley’s own childhood, which consisted of her feeling obligated to rebel against her own father’s wishes and his choice for her marriage. Frankenstein is a way for Shelley to tell her own experiences with parental conflict and how she feels she was affected by her demanding father and the environment she grew up in, by comparing herself to Victor’s monster. Shelley analyzed her own characteristics, and the characteristics of her father, and placed them within Victor and the

During the time period in which Mary Shelley wrote her debut novel, women were considered by Paracelsus and many other religious people as “...the field and the garden mound in which the child is sown and planted, then growing up to be a man” (Paracelsus, 202). Though women were held in the high position as life givers, they were also given the more subtle job as the caretakers of the home and of the children. These same attributes can be seen in Victor Frankenstein’s home. His mother, Caroline, had a desire to be the “guardian angel to the afflicted” (Shelley, 42) and one can argue that this attitude that Victor observed as a child contributed to his desire to protect those closest to him after he creates the monster. Because the monster’s creation was his doing, he had deliberately afflicted his family with

The word monster has a negative connotation to it and usually refers to something that is evil in nature. In chapters ten and eleven of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor is shown to be more monstrous that his creature.

The tragic figure in Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, is truly an instrument of suffering for his loved ones in his life. Frankenstein’s Creature horrifies Frankenstein and sets off a series of events that corrode his relationships and harm his family and friends; furthermore, Frankenstein’s actions cause the innocent characters to suffer the most, which contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has a simple origin, compared to other stories. While stories such as It by Stephen king started a several year process of creation, Frankenstein began simply as a campfire story Mary Shelley shared with her writer friends one evening. Although the origins of this novel are fairly simple, it provides an in depth psychological perspective on the darker side of human psyche through the shifting first person perspective. Usually these darker aspects are associated with the character’s personal struggles, but one specific theme in all the characters. The theme of obsession has been consistent and the central focus of the three main characters Victor, the creature, and Robert. With this central theme in mind the author, Mary Shelley shows that obsession leads to the characters suffering negative psychological and physical effects, as well as impair their decision making. This is depicted through the decline of physical and mental health through Victor’s struggles with his obsessions with knowledge and justice.

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

Playing God is a role that no man should ever take upon themselves. Many conflicts may arise and we may never know where to draw the line between the human world and scientific discoveries. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the main character decides to act as God and creates a being that serves as tragic figure and functions as an instrument of unintentional suffering to others. The novel is about a man's quest for acceptance and shows the potential destruction people may cause while trying to find their place in the world.

There is an animation on Youtube, “le ravissement de Frank N. Stein,” (Schwizgebel) in which you are in first person perspective, and wake to an abstract landscape before your eyes. You see flashes of death, then a laboratory. You walk through the door, to see another door, then another, and another, endlessly walking though barren rooms, until you descend the stairs to more rooms. You walk until the rooms begin to host abstract forms that slowly morph into human-like ones, and in the end, the forms become copies of Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride. And then you continue walking through these rooms flooded with them.

The emotional pain that Shelley endured throughout her childhood and later years is transparent in the novel. As well as the effects of Percy abusing his power in the relationship, the abandonment that Shelley feels from her parents drove much of the creation’s personality. “The eight foot monster complains that not only is he alone, he is also unique in the world and rejected by it. He accuses his maker of abandoning him, a feeling deep in Mary Shelley’s makeup, with likely references to… her mother and her father” (Anthony 6). These feelings of abandonment were the reason she was inspired to write Frankenstein in the first place, as well as the reflection of herself in the creation.

Another aspect of romanticism that is prevalent in Shelly’s novel is the way Frankenstein, and his creation, are controlled by their emotions. Frankenstein is continually ruled by his feelings of fear, guilt, and love throughout the novel. For instance, he works for nearly two years to accomplish his goal of creating life, only to immediately flee because of fear when his work comes to life. This was a major illustration for the reader that despite being an experienced scientist Frankenstein was still ruled by emotions. In a large portion of the novel Frankenstein seems to be completely motivated by his fear of the creature he created. When his brother died, he feared people discovering his secret so he let an innocent woman stand trial. When the monster requested a partner, his fear of the monster propelled him to try, only to have his fear of having two creatures alive stop him from completing the work. At the end of the story, Frankenstein’s anger over the death of his family members propelled him to chase the creature across the frozen waters, which lead to his death. Frankenstein was a brilliant thinker who was continually consumed and motivated by his emotions. Frankenstein’s creation was also very much controlled by his emotions. After he is created and Frankenstein flees from him, he searches across the land to find companions. The creature is repeatedly rejected because of his looks, and because of that he is self-conscience of the fact that he is

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the main theme and the reason why the novel was created is the concept of human rejection. For Mary Shelley, rejection was what made her into the person she was at the time and why she wrote Frankenstein. When she was born, her mother died and her father wanted nothing to do with her because he thought that her birth caused her death. Feeling the way he did, he abandoned her creating a feeling of rejection in Shelley for the rest of her life. Her pain of dealing with rejection, especially feeling the rejection of father after her mother died, is reflected in Frankenstein. In the novel, a little girl named Caroline appears early on and she does not have a mother. This example and the fact that all mothers die shows the relationship between them and Shelley’s mother dying. The feeling of rejection felt when her father rejected her is depicted in the monster that Victor Frankenstein creates

The lessons the monster learns from the De Lacey family play an important role in the monsters coming of age in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The De Lacey family is a poor family that the creature has been watching from the outside for some time now. Eventually, he wants to make an appearance to the family and show himself to get help. The perfect time is to knock at the door when nobody is home, except for the old man. All the monster wants is somebody who will accept him and care for him. As shown in Frankenstein, there is a strong symbolism in which the old man is blind and can’t see the monster. Yet, he accepts him for who he is, while the rest of the De Lacey family harm him and beat him. Symbolism is also shown with the De Lacey family and their cottage. It has a strong representation with the Garden of Eden as the cottage acts as the garden. The novel Frankenstein has many different symbolic elements to it while being connected to the De Lacey’s, including the symbolism of the blind man, the way the monster reacts as the humans react to his looks, and the comparison to the Garden of Eden.

Books are essential when considering the world and its natural state. Without the books, the monster would not be able to verbalize his wants and desires when he finally meets his maker. They give him knowledge to the life he has been given. Each individual book provides the monster with a new idea or feeling he can use to better his life into the one all wish to possess. With the help of the monster, the reader is also able to learn valuable lessons. This, of course, would not be possible without the existence of the works found inside the tote. Through the three publications, the monster can be used to symbolize several different topics throughout the novel. The literature found within assists in creating such a versatile symbol. The classic

HUMN 303 Week 7 Assignment Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the

In the gothic novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley offers an ominous tale of science gone terribly wrong using the theme of the father and son relationship that also goes terribly wrong. Though Victor Frankenstein does not give birth per se to the Monster, Frankenstein is for all intents and purposes the Monster's father as he brings him to life via his scientific knowledge. Once the Monster is alive he looks to Frankenstein to protect him as a father would, but Frankenstein who is mortified by his creation shuns him. The longer the Monster lives without Frankenstein's love and the more he discovers what he is missing, the angrier he gets and he sets out on a mission to destroy Victor Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Shelley's purpose is to reveal what happens to society at large when individuals fail in their duties as parents.