...Growth Through Ambition Ambition is often viewed as a key to success a driving force as to which the human experience becomes lackluster without this idea is exemplified by the way that we act throughout life, from the lessons that we teach our children to our lifelong journey for excellence the idea of setting a goal and striving for it is central to the human experience because no matter what we want to succeed and this is where ambition is key the precognition to pursue what we want is an idea that is taught to us at a young age and defines our future. In Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” ambition is what leads one of our characters and the first facet of this frame story one Robert Walton to endeavor to make a harrowing journey to the north pole in the hopes of being inducted into the annals of history as a great adventurer this ambition is exhibited in his quote “Do you understand this feeling? This breeze, which has traveled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more fervent and vivid.(L1,9)” this quote shows that he has settled on this undertaking being his greatest ambition and while it can be argued that it is foolish but if he does not do it who will?, this is why ambitions are...
Words: 715 - Pages: 3
...In the opening chapters of the book, Victor is blinded by ambition, only thinking about if he could bring a body back from the dead and not thinking about the potential repercussions of his actions. An example of one of his unintended consequences would be the death of his brother William and the execution of Justine. When Victor brought the creature to life, he neglected it, causing the creature to murder William and frame Justine for the murder. Because Victor didn’t stop to think about the aftermath of his ambitious actions, he ended up indirectly causing the death of not only his younger brother, but death of Justine as well. Mary Shelley presents technology and the pursuit of knowledge as a somewhat dangerous and destructive act in...
Words: 366 - Pages: 2
...Two of the most common flaws that bring about the downfall of potentially great people are overzealous ambition and pride. These combined traits could lead to a lack of perspective that would lead to poor decisions. Victor Frankenstein is someone whose desire to be well-known and general attitude toward being able to achieve something greatly clouds his judgement about what it really means to create a new species. His initial lack of vision causes him to not be able to commit to what he has done, molding a monster out of the creature he has brought to life. This new creation stumbles into the world without guidance due to being abandoned by his creator. He tries to prove to Victor its suffering through killing those he loves. Despite Victor’s brilliance in science, his faulty judgement about the responsibilities of bringing life has caused him...
Words: 934 - Pages: 4
...Ambition is the match that sparks the flame of pursuit within everyone. Whether a person decides to put out that flame or feed into it will ultimately decide their fate. A person who puts out their flame will be left with nothing to drive them, and a person who feeds too much into their flame will become overtaken by the fire. In both the novel, “Frankenstein”, and the play, “Macbeth”, the title characters find themselves in the latter situation, eventually becoming too engulfed in their own fire to extinguish the blaze. In both books, Frankenstein and Macbeth feed too much into their ambition, leading them to pursue things with deadly consequences. While both books feature characters whose ultimate downfall is a result of their ambition,...
Words: 1127 - Pages: 5
...1818, by an “anonymous” author, Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus has inspired numerous adaptations, remakes and parodies across different literary genres. Reprinted again in 1831, this time with an introduction written by Mary Shelley acknowledging her authorship, Frankenstein through its discrediting of science and the omnipotence of nature, confirms ands challenges our own habitual understandings of the world around us. The habitual understanding I will be focusing on is western hegemonic rationalism and the dominance of science as the ruler and explainer of my universe in comparison to the earlier more romantic ideology of Shelley’s time. Frankenstein also carries a warning about ambition. In a society that believes ambition to be a good thing, Shelley attempts to revel catastrophic consequences for humans over come with the quest for glory and science’s obsessive and overly ambitious nature. Western hegemonic ideal is the cultural identity that has conditioned me, becoming habitual, normal and routine. However, Shelley was privileged as she was writing at the beginning of the scientific enlightenment era, and could therefore identify what would be lost if science and technology were to usurp the position of God, nature and fate. Art, emotions, passion, suffering, humility etc were to be restricted into liminal spaces, creating a world not unlike Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World. Romantic philosophies have been endorsed in Frankenstein through the downfall of Victor...
Words: 2067 - Pages: 9
...really ugly, and it so ugly to the point that you run away from her. That scenario is the same as when Victor abandoned his creation. His ambition is quite interesting because since his mother died of illness Victor was very sad so he trying to find a way to make a the dead a living one. That was his ambition is to find a way to reanimate the dead,so just in case his fiance Elizabeth died and he can just revive her by simple part....
Words: 509 - Pages: 3
...Frankenstein Biblical Allusions Essay Marco Ng Mrs. Hawes English 11 14 January 2016 To what extent does one’s collective intellect and diligence increase his/her capacity to achieve greatness? Is it feasible to believe that humanity—with adequate knowledge and wisdom— may be capable in imitating the abilities and power of God? These questions are flamboyantly revealed in the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly, as a result of numerous biblical allusions focusing on the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and the monster. Through the biblical allusions in Frankenstein, Victor and the monster are utilized to emphasize the terror of uncertain human boundaries and also portray the duality of the two questionable protagonists in the novel. The duality depicted serves to critique the dominant religious beliefs developed up to the time period of the novel and challenge the axioms formed due to religious faith towards the Bible. The primary biblical allusion illustrated in Frankenstein is the reflection of Victor and the monster as creator and creation. In other words, Victor represents God and the monster represents Adam. By forming this allusion, Shelley illustrates the uncertain boundaries of human capability and arouses fear towards the power of human achievement. This biblical allusion inducing fear in human achievement first appears in chapter four through implicative dialogues involving the reanimation of life. While Victor defines reanimation, he accentuates...
Words: 766 - Pages: 4
...playing into just how terrible a human is capable of being without the restraint of ethics, morals or true human compassion. The monster epitomizes the darkest sides of our nature in his simple lack of morality or concern for human life. Perhaps Frankenstein has remained so popular for the many pieces of human nature that it shows...
Words: 1476 - Pages: 6
...restraint/And knew not eating death” (Milton Book IX 790-791. This quote by poet John Milton perfectly describes Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, and his unbridled ambitions. Frankenstein sought to create a new species of superior beings by together bodies and imbuing them with life, but soon realized his mistakes which cost him the lives of friends and family. Prior to his first successful creation, Frankenstein set himself up as God, and later his creation found that it resembled Adam. In a tale about the genesis of a race, it is natural that it would be rife with religious allusions, and indeed Shelley brings up John Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the creation of...
Words: 891 - Pages: 4
...Reading Between the Lines: An analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus, using Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto as an example of male discourse about women Louise Othello Knudsen English Almen, 10th semester Master’s Thesis 31-07-2012 Tabel of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Historical Context .............................................................................................................................. 10 The View on Women and Their Expected Roles in the late 18th and 19th Century ....................... 11 - Mary Shelley disowns herself .................................................................................................. 11 - Mary Shelley’s Background .................................................................................................... 12 Women’s Role in Frankenstein ..................................................................................................... 13 Men’s Role in Frankenstein ........................................................................................................... 13 - Women in Society and Women as Writers .........................................................
Words: 30015 - Pages: 121
...novels than Frankenstein to read. Although Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s original intent was simply to participate in a horror story contest with her friends (which she rightfully won), she ended up crafting a well-known, full-length masterpiece. Frankenstein is famous not only for being spooky, but also for its commentary on the themes of dangers of knowledge and hubris, and monstrosity via playing God and losing innocence. “‘I imagine you may deduce an apt moral from my tale...nor can I doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed’” (19). Through Frankenstein’s voice Shelley describes the greatest moral she has to offer from the suffering depicted in her story: the dangers of discovery and knowledge, which is that sometimes, however well-meant and innocent the intent may be, the expected result of scientific pursuits can turn out completely different than expected. Shelley’s prime example of this is the Creature and all the destruction he brings in his wake. 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 (33). This is the epiphany that leads to the creation of the Creature, undoubtedly a somewhat naive and enthusiastic motivation, with no ill intent and no thought for the possible consequences of such ambitions. Yet, while...
Words: 1499 - Pages: 6
...our seamark, Mount Neriton’s leafy ridges shimmering in the wind.” (Homer 212). Through the acknowledgment of his own flaws and the value of his homeland, Odysseus embodies the theme of human vulnerability and resilience. In this moment of triumph, Odysseus breaks the stereotype of his mortal limitations and embraces his humanity, reaffirming the universal truth of the human condition and fulfilling his hamartia. Through Odysseus's journey, Homer offers a timeless reminder of the inherent vulnerability of human nature and the universal struggle to reconcile our aspirations with our mortality. Through the trials faced by the protagonist, the Epic of Gilgamesh explores the complexities of human vulnerability, the consequences of unchecked ambition, and the transformative power of redemption. During his tyrannical rule of Uruk, Gilgamesh is narrated to walk “around in the enclosure of Uruk, like a wild bull he makes himself mighty, head raised over others. There is no rival who can raise his weapon against him.”...
Words: 1637 - Pages: 7
...Khizer Awan AP LIT Frankenstein Literary Analysis I Must Know More Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a romantic era novel based on the theme of knowledge. The word “knowledge” reoccurred many times throughout Frankenstein and forced the reader to understand the definition of it. According to Webster’s Dictionary, knowledge is defined as “Knowledge: n. Understanding gained by actual experience; range of information; clear perception of truth; something learned and kept in the mind.” The word knowledge is very simple, but has different meanings to all of us. Knowledge is the tool we use in making proper judgement. Knowledge is an extremely powerful thing and it must be used wisely and properly. Carelessly using knowledge can cause terrible consequences. The novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a novel that has many comparisons of powers in life. It pertains to many themes in society today. Frankenstein contrasts science, technology, life and death, and most importantly knowledge and ignorance. It shows the consequences of knowledge in both negative and positive ways. In Frankenstein, three characters searched for one thing - knowledge. Unfortunately the results of their search differed from what they had anticipated. Walton, blinded by ambition, believed that search for knowledge on the route to the North Pole would bring fame to his name, but he quickly learned that he ended up only with the danger to the lives of his crew. Frankenstein, driven by passion...
Words: 2183 - Pages: 9
...How does Shelley present the creation of the creature in chapter 5 of Frankenstein? Shelley presents the creation of the creature in chapter 5 through the use of setting. There is a lack of light in chapter 5 ‘my candle was nearly burnt out’ this is important as light comes with the connotations of good and darkness comes with the association of something bad or sinister. The fact that Frankenstein is bringing the creature to life in darkness suggests that Frankenstein has transgressed against nature. His attempts to become a creator are against natural laws and therefore the setting is dark foreshadowing perhaps the darkness to come. Also words such as ‘extinguished’ suggest light going out perhaps in the sense of a lack of life or a hint at death. Shelley in chapter 5 uses contrasts to present the creation of the creature. Initially Frankenstein is seen crafting carefully the body parts of the creature his vision was of beauty ‘selected his features as beautiful’ which is why he specifically selected ‘ lustrous black and flowing’ ‘ teeth of a pearly whiteness,’. But the reality is a stark contrast to his vision ‘ugly … such a thing that even Dante couldn’t have conceived,”. The shocking contrast of Frankenstein’s vision and dreams opposed to reality show the reader this disappointment that he is feeling and the disheartening situation that he is in having put so much time and effort into it. ‘The beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart’...
Words: 576 - Pages: 3
...Frankenstein Science AO2 Unrestrained scientific desire: ‘they penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places’ • ‘they ascend into the heavens’ ‘new and almost unlimited powers’ ‘penetrate’ ‘command’ ‘mimic’ • ‘with fervour’ • ‘performed miracles’ • ‘unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation’ • ‘secret’ ‘hidden laws’ • How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge’ Power: ‘as if my soul were grappling with a powerful enemy’ • ‘like a hurricane’ ‘pour a torrent of light’ • ‘pursued’ ‘unremitting ardour’ ‘clung’ ‘dedicated myself’ ‘secret toil’ ‘tremble’ ‘tortured’ • ‘one pursuit’ • ‘tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man’ • ‘I preferred glory’ • ‘until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me- a light so brilliant and wondrous’ Lack of Morality: Transgression against God he mocks the power of the creator ‘torrents of light’ ‘a new species would bless me as its creator and source’ ‘many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me’ • ‘eyes insensible to the charms of nature’ • ‘Labours’ scientist in being able to mimic and usurp traditional creation methods; existence of an immortal soul? • Responsibility for creation image reinforced ‘inarticulate sounds’ Pursuit: ‘deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge’ • ‘Pursuit for discovery and wonder’ attracted to the tree of knowledge ‘eternal light’ back to biblical times, tree of knowledge...
Words: 2241 - Pages: 9
