Themes and Symbols is Mary Shelley´s Frankstien Essay

After the death of his brother William and servant Justine, victor begins to think he is guilty of the murders. He begins to think since the creature was his creation, he was responsible for the murders indirectly. However, he refuses to tell anyone of what he has done out of fear. He created the creature's life before thinking of the consequences of "playing God". He didn't even accept his creation and abandoned him for his hideous

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the tale of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Both Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s creation’s questionable actions lead them both to be considered morally ambiguous figures. Victor is ambitious with good intentions, but his ambition leads to bad results. The Creature is an innately kind and compassionate person who commits abominable actions due to how others treat him. Their moral ambiguity is significant, as it reveals that an obsession with ambition distorts one’s morals.

After seeing the kindness shown by the family, the monster starts to show signs of kindness himself. He previously would steal part of their food storage to eat at night, but upon realizing that it was hurting the family, he stopped. Also, when he learned that gathering wood took up a large portion of their days, he would take their tools and bring back enough wood in one night to last them for a few days. From then on, the monster sought love. When he approaches Frankenstein he does not punish him for abandoning him, but instead implores him to make him a mate so that he can live in happiness. Though Frankenstein is unsympathetic and unloving toward his creation, we can still see he seeks love in the fact that he created the monster at all. He confesses his

In Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein”, Victor Frankenstein’s monster is an unrealistic character. The monster is involved with the realistic elements of desire of control, alienation, and thoughtless ambition. It is revealed the overall theme of the novel, that the pursuit of knowledge, is dangerous.

From the start of Mary Shelley's novel, the monster is identified as this psychotic murderer, abnormal. The gigantic, grotesquely horrid creation of Victor Frankenstein, like Frankenstein himself, had only positive intentions at first. He was a delicate, smart monster attempting to alter to human behavior and social skills. From beginning to end, Shelley made sure to target how the monster had to learn everything solo in order to live. As the creature's creator, Victor's role was to provide and teach the creature, taking responsibility instead of running away. The fact that the monster was left unattended in the world led to his raw actions. For instance, Shelley suggest the consequences of isolation when the monster says, "You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains -- revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery." (Shelley 153) The Monster is talking in rage after Victor Frankenstein rejects his proposal to create a mate for him. The Monster is so secluded that he, himself, had to ask for a friend. This, however, was not the end of this conversation. In counter play for being deserted, Shelley writes that the Monster went off

After so much time and warning he gives Frankenstein to give him someone to love or for him to love him, the monster chooses to take revenge upon himself and kill all the important people in Frankensteins life. The monster gets fed up and shouts, “‘Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant,did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery” (Shelley, pg. 162) Humans reach their breaking point and it causes them to react in violent ways sometimes, this is exactly how the monster chose to deal with his feelings. He wants his creator to suffer just like he had been suffering since the moment he was created and left to fend for

This fear and rejection of the Creature is seen not only in the different people the Monster encounters throughout his travels, but also in his creator. Frankenstein is unable to stand the sight of the creature stating, “its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes” (Shelley 95). Frankenstein’s rejection causes the Creature to accuse Frankenstein of abandonment: “you had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind” (Shelley 141). The Creature says that he is Frankenstein’s obligation and it is Frankenstein’s responsibility to be his essential caretaker. Although Victor originally cowered in fear of the Creature, the Creature claims he was initially “good” and it his Victor’s rejection which drives him to violence. The monster repeatedly lectures Frankenstein on his responsibility, “I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the

After the creation of the creature, Frankenstein had abandoned him leaving him as ‘a poor, helpless, miserable wretch,’ (71) who was clueless about his sense and how to survive. When we found a farm he stayed there to gather food however ‘children shrieked, and one of the women fainted,’ upon seeing him in which some attacked him.(74) He later found a place to stay aside to the DeLacey family’s cottage, however he didn’t enter due to his last experience. He lived outside for months observing and learning. The creature learned knowledge of feelings. However this ‘increase of knowledge’ only made him discover ‘more clearly what a wretched outcast’ he was. (93) He was once again rejected which led his rage to increase towards his creator, Frankenstein, because he had created a monster who wasn’t accepted in society. (97) His first action was the killing of William because the creature had ‘sworn eternal revenge,’ upon Frankenstein.(102) This is significant because after learning what society consider ‘normal’ he started to have an inferiority complex leading to build rage towards his creator for his deformity . Seek of revenge is further emphasized when he asked Frankenstein for a woman companion and is denied of one.(121) Once Frankenstein had agree to create a companion he then rethinks about the negative effects which later causes him to destroy the female creature. This builds on the creature’s rage leading him to threatened Frankenstein indicating he will be there with him on his wedding-night. (139) On the day after of Frankenstein’s wedding he noticed that he held in his arms ‘had ceased to be the Elizabeth,’ who he had ‘loved and cherished.’ (145) She was killed by the creature as an act of revenge because Frankenstein had denied him to a female companion. In the end, the creature cried out ‘I shall die and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be

In the Gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley integrates the rhetorical devices figurative language, imagery, and tone to impart the concept that the desire to acquire knowledge and emulate God will ultimately result in chaos and havoc that exceeds the boundaries of human restraint.

Victor messes with the properties of life itself by creating ‘Creature’ in an unnatural way and was then forced to face the consequences. Victor recounts the time spent building Creature and he says that “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime. Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become” (Shelley, 55). By meddling with the natural way of things, Victor becomes very sick. This is before Creature was officially ‘born’ so the sickness and fever that he feels was a warning sign of the natural world that he should not go through with this unnatural process. Unfortunately, he did not listen to the signs that were given to him and because of his tinkering, his life turned to ruins. Victor describes his horrible life to Walton when he says “To you first entering on life, to whom care is new and agony unknown, how can you understand what I have felt and still feel? Cold, want and fatigue were the least pains which I was destined to endure; I was cursed by some devil and carried about with me my eternal hell” (194). Victor says that because Creature has killed everyone he cares about and he declared revenge, he is locked in an everlasting turmoil or as he calls in his “eternal hell”.

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.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley uncovers the dangers of knowledge through the creation of the monster and the downfall of Victor Frankenstein. Shelley portrays Frankenstein in a way that can be utilized to explain his decline. In Frankenstein, Victor’s impulsive, selfish, and vengeful character is revealed when compared to the creators in The Myth of Prometheus and the King James Version of Genesis. For example, Frankenstein’s impulsiveness is highlighted when compared to the well-thought out actions of Prometheus. Frankenstein’s impromptu plan to create the monster was driven by his curiosity and lacked any consideration of the consequences.

In the Gothic novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley integrates the rhetorical devices figurative language, imagery, and tone to impart the concept that the desire to acquire knowledge and emulate God will ultimately result in chaos and havoc that exceeds the boundaries of human restraint.

Frankenstein’s and society’s rejection of the monster, however, drove him to an uneven passionate pursuit for a companion. He forced Frankenstein to create a female monster, and he provided motivation by killing Frankenstein’s loved ones and threatening to kill more of them. The monster recalls in this final scene of Shelley’s novel how his desire drove him to evil. “. . . do you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse?--He . . . suffered not more in the consummation of the deed;--oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution. A frightful selfishness hurried me on. . . .” (153) At that point in the novel, the monster has changed from good in nature to evil in nature. His own desires are more important to him than the well-being of others and he is willing to commit murder in order ensure the fulfillment of his desire.

Frankenstein is a novel written by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein is about a man who had a strong urge to finish a scientific project and did not accept his consequences for his own mistakes. Mary Shelley’s work consists of Gothic elements and have great emotion that go along with them. Mary Shelley’s childhood may have affected her writing, she had a tough life growing up and her book shows this. Throughout the novel there are many Gothic elements that all contribute to the events in the book. Victor neglecting his own responsibility and disrupting the natural order of things ultimately leads to the death of the two major characters in the end of the novel.