Victor Frankenstein Lightning Analysis

This foreshadowing is important because it is what allows us to see the changes that Frankenstein went through as well as to give tension as to what will happen to him latter on as a result of what happened on that fateful day. "Thus ended a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny." (6)

It is Frankenstein's discovery of creating life that introduces the duality of science, of electricity, of even Victor Frankenstein himself. Scientific experiments are performed for a purpose, yet a reverse, commonly negative, affect is nearly always introduced. Just as science can end up creating dual reactions, electricity holds this same power. Electricity holds the power of magnetism -- the negative and positive forces pulling away from each other. This example of electricity's duality can be applied to many aspects of Frankenstein, including good versus evil, and even to Dr. Victor Frankenstein himself. He understands the power he possesses; yet he acts anyway. He has all the control and the knowledge in the beginning, but is left powerless in the end. Victor creates life because of his own greed, and the monster haunts him to the end because of it. The very monster to which he gives life strives to

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a story about a scientist who creates a monster. Early in the story power is mentioned not by Frankenstein himself, but it is said by Walton, “wondrous power which attracts the needle.” It foreshadows the upcoming events in the story and what will happen later. The monster is treated badly and considered not part of society. The monster then goes and kills the scientists family and people he knows. The scientist then is driven away and later dies. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows the illusion of power through the creation of the monster, the monsters turn to evil, and the monsters rage.

The reader can immediately see this because the Monster says, “I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?” (Shelley 124). He begins to murder members of Victor’s close friends and family. His first victim is William Frankenstein. The Monster has no intentions to kill William, but he says, “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” (Shelley 116). The Monster shows his frustration with Victor creating him in this way and for making him into an outcast. After Victor breaks his promise of creating a female monster, the Monster murders Henry Clerval. The Monster’s anger continues to build up over time and he believes the only way to face it is by taking the lives of those who have a close relationship with Victor. The Monster kills Elizabeth Lavenza on her wedding night. He takes the lives of the people who are in a close relationship with Victor due to the anger he feels toward him. The violence the Monster uses is his way to try and seek revenge on Victor because he feels that he set him up to fail, to be an outcast, and to be unacceptable to

Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .

At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.

Within the book, Dr. Victor Frankenstein expresses the way in which knowledge has blessed him in the beginning of the story but in turn ends up resulting in his downfall.

Many of Mary Shelley’s ideas came from nature. A storm similar to this one was seen by victor. She uses this storm to describe how Victor sees the creature. Victor thinks the creature is violent at times and beautiful at others. In addition, the creature causes destruction like an avalanche. Shelley writes,

Shelley’s uses of romantic and gothic elements also enhance the negative portrayal of science and its potential destruction. Her writing conveys gloomy settings of Frankenstein as well as the appreciation of nature. Dark ambiance is evident in the description of Frankenstein’s laboratory: “In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of my house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation...the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials”. This description invokes a repulsive reaction in the reader and therefore a tainted opinion of science. One of the important scenes that reflected Mary Shelley’s attitudes towards science is the portrayal of Frankenstein’s awe when he sees the lightening strike the tree, showing his curiosity towards science-“As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak...and no soon as the sizzling light vanished, the oak disappeared, and nothing was left but a blasted stump”. In this quote the power and beauty of nature is apparent and

As we look into the novel of frankenstein by author Mary Shelley we see a number of symbols, one in particular was the symbolism of fire. There are many things about fire that makes it very unique in the sense of this story making fire a symbol of destruction, doom and death. We are first introduced to fire later on in the story when the creature makes fire in the woods due to anger.

Victor was crying because inside he was falling apart, but at the same time the world around him was perfect. The descriptions and natural beauty of the world in Frankenstein help make the theme of appearances.The theme of appearance is most evident in the novel because of the monster’s struggle with his appearance. Throughout the novel the monster is tormented for his looks, but no one takes the time to get to know him as a person. The monster is so hideous even when he does good deeds he is still looked at as evil, “This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. But the agony of my wound overcame me; my pulses paused, and I fainted” (Shelley 103). The monster is just walking and notices a girl and she falls in the river, the monster jumps in and saves her and a man comes up and grabs the girl then shoots the monster. The guy that shot him judged the monster by his looks and automatically looked at him as evil. This is how his good deed is repaid. The monster meant no harm he just wanted to help. From this point on in the novel the monster is seeking revenge

The science of electricity and its uses played a role in giving life to the monster. During the time period in which Frankenstein was written the use of electricity is an ongoing phenomenon in the medical field. In Frankenstein electricity is the implement that allows Victor to give life which creates his creature. According to the author of “Frankenstein: The Man and the Monster”, Suzanne Storment, “Early medical experiments demonstrated this phenomenon as a dead frog leg jolted with the injection of electricity, serving as a bridge between electricity and biology and chemistry.” (Storment 1). This quote explains that electricity can give life to the non living and electricity inspired Victor that he can create life using electricity. According to what Victory says, "I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation up on lifeless matter.” (Shelley 31). Victor understands the power he has discovered in creating life. Thus, like God he can judge as to whether someone shall die or be given the gift of life by him. However, Victor’s creation would have a disastrous effect on him because it would be responsible for the deaths of his family and loved ones. This shows that when the ethics of science are broken and what has been done, while breaking these ethics, can be catastrophic when left

Throughout the novel, light imagery is used as metaphors for knowledge; an example of this would be the "thunder" that Frankenstein saw in the account of the oak tree, which symbolized the light of inspiration and the light of "utter ….destruction". A powerful cousin of light is "fire" who harms all who "penetrate" it, also fire is able to cause a "terrible destruction" to anything that it is "bestowed….upon", as seen in Frankenstein's account of how the oak tree, that can been seen as symbolizing himself, was "blasted to a stump" by the "stream of fire" "issued" by the "thunder". The association of light and "fire" then attaches a sense of harm to the light of "knowledge" and "discovery". One way of seeing the light the association of light imagery with fire is through the myth of

The first significant mention of the power of nature comes as Victor recalls seeing lightning strike a tree in his childhood. “On a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about 20 yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared” (Shelley 38). Shelley highlights the tree’s age specifically, immediately before revealing its destruction. By showing the ability of lightning to strike down something which has stood the tests of time, she shows the ability of nature to cause massive destruction which even rugged trees cannot withstand. Even Victor seems awed by the might of the storm, calling the lightning “dazzling”. In many ways, this event foreshadows Victor’s own demise. To bring his creature to life, he imbues it with energy similar to that of lightning—both, presumably, are electricity—and from that energy comes the monstrosity that is his creature. Even as the lightning is shown to destroy, Victor uses it to create, ultimately bringing into the world an unnatural creature. By juxtaposing the lightning’s destruction of the tree with Victor’s