What Is The Motif Of Light And Darkness In Frankenstein

Light: The light portrayed throughout the novel is representative of enlightenment. Walton, during his trip to the North Pole, is searching for the secrets of the universe, and refers to the location as “a country of eternal light” (140). Light is also apparent whenever Victor comes to a realization; when he first discovers natural philosophy, he calls it “a new light [that] seemed to dawn upon my mind” (25). Also, when Victor discovers the formula to life, he said it felt like “a sudden light broke upon [him]” (26).

While Creature is full of humanity and has a thirst for knowledge, his longing for acceptance in society is met with constant rejection. Through this rejection, it sparks anger into the Creature for his irresponsible creator, Victor Frankenstein. Creature’s anger leads to greater tragedies for Victor. The greater of the tragedies are the murdering of innocent people including Victor’s family that is seen to be the fault of Creature since he is the one who murdered them. If Victor did not abandon the Creature and had taught him murder was not morally correct, Creature would not have committed the heinous acts.When Creature was first theoretically born, he was introduced into the world in a very harsh way. Metaphorically, Creature starts out into the world as a newborn, needing a parent 's guidance and teachings. Victor abandons him immediately with no sense of direction. Creature, after his “birth”, approaches Victor with a hand of longing for compassion. “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they maybe called, were fixed on me...He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out” (Shelley 35). Victor instead of showing acceptance immediately runs away at the sight of him.

The magnification of Victor Frankenstein’s darkness in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be shown through his actions alone. But, with the addition of pure and monstrous characters, Frankenstein’s evil is brought to light through their actions as well. Though overcome with depression and suffering, light shines into Frankenstein’s world, ultimately amplifying his darkness. Elizabeth Lavenza magnifies Frankenstein’s darkness through her light because she loved him in spite of his evil, her love ultimately kept him alive, and the essence of her encouraged him to destroy the Monster in the end.

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.

may lead to a life of violent crime or murder. The Creature, as we see

Frankenstein is to be “sometimes considered one of the first science fiction novels” (Fox,stacy ”Romantic and Gothic Representation in Frankenstein”). Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley. In this novel the main characters where Victor Frankenstein, his creation the monster, Robert Walton, Elizabeth Lavenza, Alphonse Frankenstein, and Henry Clerval. Frankenstein starts out with a normal boy named Victor Frankenstein who discovers an early interest in science. Victor later goes off to college to study science and ends up creating a monster. Throughout the novel the monster is stereotyped by his looks and is traumatized and goes for revenge against his creator when Victor refuses to make him a

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the creation can be viewed as a morally ambiguous character. When the creature was given life he was benevolent and never wanted to inflict harm on anyone or anything. The actions of others shaped the creature to become an individual filled with so much hate towards his creator he wanted him dead. The creature was molded to be a depressed and angry person who wanted to bring pain to those who hurt him but mostly Victor. The creature’s actions show his kindness throughout the novel but he also kills multiple people and feels a strong sense of hate towards Victor, which leads us to believe that he is morally ambiguous. The story of the hopeful scientist Victor Frankenstein and his outcast creation reveals that individuals start

First of all, in the beginning of the book, the creature is abandoned by his creator, Victor Frankenstein. On page 68 it states “I saw the dull yellow eye of creature open,” this is when the creature first wakes up and meets Victor his creator. Then, on page 69 it states “...the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” In other words, this is how Victor felt when he first saw the creation and then because of his looks decides to abandon him. Being abandoned by his creator makes the creature want to take revenge. All the loneliness, confusing and sad feelings make him want to take revenge. Revenge would be considered something bad in this case and so it would create the bad side of the creature. But if the

Francis Bacon once said “in order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present”. Darkness is most certainly present in Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein,

Symbol: some of the symbolism in the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is, light. For example

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 they entail because of his grotesque and terrifying features. With no prior knowledge to the novel, many would simply overlook the comparison of the two main characters, Victor and his creation, and simply state the contrast between the two; Victor is the creator and the monster is simply a creation, the monster is merely a human while Victor happens to encase all of the components he’d hoped for in the monster, etc. While these comparisons and contrasts correlate to the book, a further glance into the novel shows the even deeper comparison they share as the book advances, and also displays the staggering contrast between the two antagonists.

Even the monster’s creator, Victor Frankenstein abandons the monster afraid of its appearance, “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 58). When the monster realizes that he is ugly, he begins to question why he was even given life in the first place. Why was he created only to be abandoned and shunned by humanity? How could his own creator be so deathly afraid of him? The monster like so many other outcasts in society grows a deep animosity towards his creator, “Cursed, cursed creator!

A “Monster” he is called, but he was not born that way. Ugly he was named, but born like that he was. Mary Shelley wrote the book of the Frankenstein to show us two key components of life, Nature and Nurture. Nature and Nurture are two very key components which make up a good life style within humanity. Nature is the thing that you cannot control or in other details, the innate characteristics which is inherited.

A romantic life full of pain and abandonment could only be given the monstrous form of "Frankenstein." Mary Shelley 's life gave birth to an imaginary victim full of misery and loneliness and placed him as the protagonist of one of her most famous and greatest works of art. As most people would assume, he is not just a fictional character, but in fact a creature who desperately demonstrates Shelley 's tragedies and losses during the age of the Romantic Era. Since Mary Shelley 's birth there have been numerous losses in her life. One extremely dominating event in Shelley 's life was the death of her mother. Soon after, her father remarried and Shelley entered a battle as the victim of a fight for love. In her

“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs [...] that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 48).