...Victor Frankenstein also proves that he is to blame for the Creature’s evil actions because, in the creation process, he never considers the thoughts and feelings of the Creature. The epigraph of Frankenstein which is from John Milton's work Paradise Lost perfectly describes the Creature’s feelings, stating that Did I request thee Maker from my clay, To mold me, Man, did I solicit thee, From the darkness to promote me (Shelley). John Milton’s Adam quote shows that Frankenstein never considers how the Monster will feel about being created so ugly, that he, in a sense, transforms the Creature into an evil monster. Just as Rousseau’s state of Nature Theory claims that as man gains power, he becomes corrupt. Victor gained the power to create another lifeform, that he forgot about consequences, thus leading to his downfall towards the end of the book. Along with this topic, Victor also never considers the fact that the Creature is partially human and therefore has human characteristics. The Creature demonstrates these characteristics when he asks Victor to make him a female companion because each character wants to have a partner to eliminate loneliness and misery. The Creature also displays several other human characteristics such as his sense of want towards the Delacey family when he explains his hopes that the family...
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... The constant attention and focus on physical appearances are apparent not only in our society but in Mary Shelly’s novel, Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein, a modern scientist unleashes a creature constructed of dead body parts. The creature’s social acceptance relies heavily on its hideous features, starting with his own creator, Victor Frankenstein. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s lack of ethics spurs problematic situations which are the consequences of his...
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...the human race during the creation of the universe was for the sake of humanity, Victor's creation of the creature was for his sole knowledge to only better his curiosity. Some may say Victor Frankenstein does not portray a modern Prometheus. Although he may not be a god, he is to the creature. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus. Victor seeks for enlightenment and power, in which, Prometheus does as well.Victor does something forbidden; creating human life. Prometheus also does something forbidden; giving fire to humans. Victor, in return, serves a torturous death, as does Prometheus, although Prometheus cannot die. For these reasons this novel, Frankenstein, shows how Victor is the modern Prometheus. Undoubtedly both Victor Frankenstein and Prometheus seek for enlightenment and power. In the beginning of this novel Victor starts his childhood yearning for knowledge and reading books of science. The quote, “...eager desire to learn,..., secrets of heaven and earth that i desired to learn,..., my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical,…, the physical secrets of the world” (Shelley, 23). It shows how ambitious Victor was to learn as a child and how the start of his seeking for enlightenment and power came to be. Victor also foreshadows how misfortune had tainted his mind, “...misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections…”(Shelley, 24). This quote shows...
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...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...
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...Feminism within the Novel and the Creation of Frankenstein In “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, one can undoubtedly see how the female characters have less importance than the male characters. The reason these sex differences in status occurred because of the period that she wrote the novel. Shelley, during the first half of the nineteenth century, was writing in a time in which a woman “was conditioned to think she needed a man’s help” (Smith 275). In “Frankenstein”, Mary Shelley devotes three male characters to narrate the story, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and Frankenstein’s creation. No woman throughout the entire novel speaks directly as the three narrators do. Mary Shelley also constructs the story to follow the main character,...
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...Nine English AEP Frankenstein/Science Fiction Essay (Reading and Writing Task) Topic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the Science Fiction text that allowed all other examples of the sub-genre to follow. Discuss this proposition with specific reference to the Drama Script and Film versions of the novel, along with any other relevant Science Fiction texts you have read or viewed. * Your essay should especially consider Shelley’s context and that of other writers you refer to, as well as your own context as a reader. * You should make specific reference to the texts you are discussing via both direct (quotations) and indirect (explanations) evidence. * Be sure to plan your response so that each paragraph has its own unified idea. A sample paragraph structure might look like the following: 1. Introduction – Thesis: e.g.: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the first text which uses scientific experimentation as the basis of its plot. In doing this, it paved the way for all Science Fiction which followed…” 2. Body P1 – Author context + sub-genre features – what changes have occurred over time as a result of context? Consider Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury 3. Body P2 – Discussion of Frankenstein 4. Body P3 – Discussion of other text e.g.: War of the Worlds (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) 5. Body P4 - Discussion of other text e.g.: There Will Come Soft Rains (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) 6. Body...
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...warnings? Two texts that have presented us with warnings are both Frankenstein and Blade Runner, concerns of their times in both Mary Shelly’s ‘Frankenstein’’ and Ridely scotts blade runner warned us of the consequences of overstepping our boundaries of man kinds moral code and the effect of technology advancement and lack of moral and virtuous conduct that is expected to human kind. These texts are critical of scientists who choose not to question the morality of their research and discoveries or to even consider the damaging consequences of humanity that may follow. Both texts even thought they are set in different times, explore similar themes concerning the disruption of natural order to create artificial life and show how both authors warn us many of the paths followed by over-reaching scientists irresponsible at best and evil at worst. Both texts give us warning to what the future may hold if science continues to strip away man kinds moral code. The time frame in which Frankenstein written was full of great changes and extraordinary discoveries such as electricity and the French revolution, which had bloody consequences which demonstrated how volatile the era was and how social order was being challenged. England was in a societal transformation. These are therefore reflected in Frankenstein such as the electrical experiment on Frankenstein, which was a warning against the expansion of modern humans. In contrast Blade runner was set 150 years after frankenstien durning...
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...Clarendon Press, 1987. Bernard E. Rollin. Frankenstein Syndrome: Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals. Cambridge University Press, 1995. Betty T. Bennett. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Bloom, Harold, ed.Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Caroline J.S. Picart. The Cinematic Rebirths of Frankenstein: Universal, Hammer and Beyond. Praeger, 2001. Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee. The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon. Henry Holt & Company, 1996. Forry, Steven Earl. Hideous Progenies: Dramatizations of Frankenstein from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. Frankenstein: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Contemporary Critics, 2nd ed. Johanna M. Smith, ed. St. Martin's Press, 2000. "Frankenstein." Literature.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. "Frankenstein Quotes." By Mary Shelley. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013. Goldberg, M. A. "Moral and Myth in Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein. In Keats-Shelley Journal, Vol. 8, 1959, pp. 27-38. John Williams. Mary Shelley: A Literary Life. St. Martin's Press, Inc., 2000. Jon Turney. Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture. Yale University Press, 1998. Kenan Malik. Man, Beast, and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us about Human Nature. Rutgers University Press, 2002...
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...“Greedily she engorged without 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...
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...from the darker side of the mind, 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...
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...Throughout the novel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein proposes the parallel between monster and man, and the raises the question as who is the real monster; Victor Frankenstein or the monster he created. In passage A, Mary Shelley conveys that man and monster are not entirely different and rather the real monster is essentially mankind. In this case, Shelley uses specific word choices, along with character development and parallels to demonstrate that man and monster are indistinguishable. In the following passage, Mary Shelley’s choice of words and characterization indicates that man and monster are along the same spectrum. Robert Walton writes, “My affection for my guest increases every day. He excites at once my admiration and my pity to an astonishing degree. How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant grief?” (Shelley 12-13). The idea that Walton addresses Victor Frankenstein as a “noble creature” is crucial in identifying as to what is considered to be human. He addresses Victor as a creature with understanding, and “gentle, yet so wise; his mind cultivated…” (Shelley 13). Mary Shelley associates man as creature; creature with intelligence, feelings, and innocence. This pinpoints to the idea that man is monster. In addition, the passage sets up the scene for the telling of Victor’s narrative. Mary Shelley uses Walton’s character as an introduction whose story parallels that of Frankenstein’s. In the second letter, Walton addresses...
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...Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein to have her readers on their toes and want to sleep with one eye open. Frankenstein is about a man named Victor Frankenstein that is fascinated by the mysteries of the natural world and decides that he wants to do the impossible. Victor’s mission was to construct an animate creature by collecting spare body parts. However, a series of tragic events occur after the creation comes to life. The Merriam-Webster dictionary states that a monster is, “something monstrous; especially: a person of unnatural or extreme ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty” (Merriam-Webster). Before reading the novel the reader would assume the creation is the monster, but Mary Shelley leaves that determination to the reader....
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...The role of science is the modernization of the world, thus possessing a lot of power. The outcome and use of scientific progression depends solely on the scientist’s intentions of its use. Humanity should fear the power of the creator or the creation’s behavior due to its social, physical, mental and environmental health effects, if it is not used for the better of the community. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly argues that the beast is dangerous because it symbolizes scientific technology; implying that the beast can impose threats to civilization. The author warns, that the beast can form independent consciousness and then turns upon society in an apocalyptic rage. Society becomes afraid of the monster and as a result, rejects it. This fear...
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...Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley and published in 1818. This novel contains notions about the roles of nature and nurture in the upbringing of living things. Is someone condemned by their DNA, or are they forced to reap the ideas their parents sowed in them when they were young? In Frankenstein, nurture, or lack of nurture plays a larger role than the nature of the creature; this idea can be seen by the relationship of Victor Frankenstein and his creation, and is also evident in the life of Mary Shelley and her child. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature who isn't human but resembles one; he is very large and an alarming sight to most people. After Victor creates this thing out of dead body parts, he brings it to...
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...“Chapter Four Is The Most Gothic Chapter of Frankenstein” How Do You Respond To This View? To try to judge the extent of a single chapter’s gothic values and then measure it outside of the context of the entire work is an absurd notion. One chapter cannot be more gothic than another. Yet, if forced to select a chapter that contains the most gothic elements, chapter 4 most definitely does, not only having all the major gothic elements of Frankenstein like horror, transgressive desires, extremes of emotions and other generic gothic features but also depth regarding these elements other chapters lack. This depth is shown in the common theme common to Frankenstein of transgressive desires, firstly legally transgressive. In order to create his ‘creature’ Victor had to use the body parts of corpses, this meant he had to dig them up, known in the time as bodysnatching and was illegal. Yet these actions are also socially and philosophically transgressive, Victor felt he ‘must observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body’. Contextually this was a current issue at the time Shelly wrote the novel but also the idea of watching bodies decay is unnatural as socially one should respect the dead and this subverts that completely. To Victor ‘a churchyard to [him] was merely a reciprocal of bodies’, this complete lack of any religious morals is contextually and contemporarily shocking and taboo. Not only does it imply the absence of God and actively disrespects his land...
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