...Imani Swinton ELA 1 / 2 Period Writing Prompt: Who was the real monster in Frankenstein? The real monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein wasn’t the “Wretched” creature. It was the creator of him. The man who thought he could play god. The man responsible for multiple deaths. This man is the one, and only, Victor Frankenstein.Woah, mind-blowing, right? How, though? Let me explain. If you are a Christian or a person with similar beliefs, then you know that in the beginning God made a man. That man’s name was Adam. He was the first man ever according to Genesis. What the bible doesn’t explain thoroughly is whether or not Adam was brought to the world as a baby like Jesus, or if he was just mad a man that woke up in the middle of the Garden...
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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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...ALLIIIIIVE!!!” Everyone knows the famous line from pop culture’s Frankenstein where, surrounded by fantastical science equipment, Dr. Frankenstein, aided by his hunched assistant, Igor, zaps life into a grotesque monster within medieval castle under the cover of a dark and stormy night. At the epicenter, a creature awakens while the mad scientist cackles maniacally. It would be equally shocking for most, however, to find that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the original, poses a quite different, almost anti-climatic, scene–void of any shouting, Igors, and with no clear depiction of the creature’s endowment of life-giving forces. In fact, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contrasts heavily to the pop culture Frankenstein in many aspects, namely,...
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...HUMN 303 Week 7 Assignment Sheri A. Green DeVry University Professor Gessford August 23, 2014 Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the need for a proper environment and education for a child’s moral development. When we explore the novel in depth, we can see that it exudes the true horror of childbirth felt by Shelley, and articulates the fears and anxieties she had regarding her reproductive and nurturing capabilities. Shelley’s life was marked by a series of pregnancies, miscarriages, childbirths, and deaths. Her firsthand experience of a bereavement started early in her life, when her mother died when she was eleven days old, because of a puerperal fever contacted because of childbirth. This marked her first encounter with pregnancy and related complications, but unfortunately, it was not the last...
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...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...
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...The Real Monster Science is a broad field which covers many aspects of everyday life and existence. Some areas of science include the study of the universe, the environment, dinosaurs, animals, and insects. Another popular science is the study of people and how they function. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an inspiring scientist that studies the dead. He wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being. He spends all of his time concentrating on this goal, and gives up his family and friends. When he finally accomplishes this, everything falls apart. So, Victor Frankenstein is to blame for the tragedy, not the monster he has created, because he is the mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is supposed to have everything under control, working properly as a good scientist should do. Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that follow the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being. This is obviously something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All...
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...to be harsh, as the deadly eruption led to political unrest and disease all across the globe. Because ecocriticism enjoys examining the effects of the state of the natural world on human stories, ecocritics like the story of Frankenstein because the bad weather from 1815-1817 helped to inspire the author towards all of the gloom in the novel. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written during one of the most productive periods in the history of English literature, the summer of 1816....
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...The True Monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein The True Monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Science reaches its long tangles tentacles into our everyday life and existence, area’s that reach into such studies as the universe, the environment, animals, insects, and even the prehistoric dinosaurs. Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, who unwittingly creates a “monster” that counteracts with man and god’s view and control over the human condition. Victor’s monster becomes a constant threat to his way of life, the woman and family he so dearly treasures. Created as an experiment, only to be thrown into the human world like a day old sandwich is discarded into the trash. Never being taught the difference between right and wrong; the same as a mother snake would lay and keep an egg warm, only to leave it once it has hatched. The question is can the “monster” that is never given a name really be held accountable for his actions, or should the blame fall to his creator. It seems that Shelly is trying to display through her writings that when science is followed merely on the bases of discovery without thought to the affect that the experimentation can have we risk endangering everything that we hold dear. Frankenstein becomes totally enveloped by a sinister passion that fuels his intense desire to create life; an innocent curiosity that leads him to discover what he feels is his life’s purpose. He is so over taken by his quest that...
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...role that the narrative/performance have in the questioning the true nature and real origin of the monstrous within the National Theatre’s 2011 production of Frankenstein. How? Dear’s narrative approach will be explored in relation to the problematizing and redefining of the monstrous; the shifting of the perspective to the created creature rather than that of the creator and the subsequent effects this has on an audience’s perception. The impact of the performance approach taken will also be considered: how the actors shared body of Frankenstein and his creature, the result of their alternating both roles, raises further questions creating various and yet carbon copies of the monstrous. The focus of this analysis...
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...-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. The salvation of a man’s soul through thick and thin is having a companion. Mary Shelley’s ideas regarding the importance of companionship to mankind have not changed much from when her novel, Frankenstein, was written with Victor having it all and being stripped of it, and his creation wanting companionship and being denied it. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor starts off with having companionship and throwing it away. This happens when he goes to...
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...Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Key facts full title · Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus author · Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley type of work · Novel genre · Gothic science fiction language · English time and place written · Switzerland, 1816, and London, 1816–1817 date of first publication · January 1, 1818 publisher · Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones narrator · The primary narrator is Robert Walton, who, in his letters, quotes Victor Frankenstein’s first-person narrative at length; Victor, in turn, quotes the monster’s first-person narrative; in addition, the lesser characters Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor. climax · The murder of Elizabeth Lavenza on the night of her wedding to Victor Frankenstein in Chapter 23 protagonist · Victor Frankenstein antagonist · Frankenstein’s monster setting (time) · Eighteenth century setting (place) · Geneva; the Swiss Alps; Ingolstadt; England and Scotland; the northern ice point of view · The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to Frankenstein’s monster, then back to Walton, with a few digressions in the form of letters from Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein. falling action · After the murder of Elizabeth Lavenza, when Victor Frankenstein chases the monster to the northern ice, is rescued by Robert Walton, narrates his story, and dies tense · Past foreshadowing · Ubiquitous—throughout...
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...Brett Jacobs March 24, 2014 Mrs. Zink English III Loving Frankenstein When reading most books today people are likely to compare what happens in the book to their real life experiences. Readers do this frequently in many different kinds of books from horror novels to love stories. While reading the novel Frankenstein, though it may not be the first thing on a readers mind, after being done with the novel people cant resist the urge to go back and understand the relationships between many of the main characters and why some of the characters did what they did. Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein is known for creating relationships in novels and either leaving them unexplained or making the reader question what she was trying to reveal about society and its shortcoming though a specific characters relationship. While reading Frankenstein this happened many times with multiple relationships such as the one between Elizabeth and Victor, Victor and the monseter or the monster and society. Almost every character revealed speaks to the most inner thoughts people have. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, the reader comes to understand the human condition in many ways. In this particular novel, many times loneliness comes into effect and changes how the character acts and reacts to each other and their surroundings. When Elizabeth is first introduced into the book she is portrayed as a lonely character. She is an orphan and seems to have a assortment of problems and never to...
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...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 .........................................................
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...Victor Frankenstein and his “Monster;” an inspiration to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde When reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, if one pays attention to the gaps and inconsistencies of Victor Frankenstein’s narration of the events, one may begin to question the existence of Frankenstein’s monster, and come to realize Victor Frankenstein is really the monster. This isn’t how most would interpret the events that transpired in the book, but the possibility of Victor Frankenstein being the monster he fears, is entirely plausible. This Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde comparison is not as farfetched as one would initially think; there is enough evidence, contradiction of events, gaps, and inconsistencies in Victor Frankenstein’s narrative for an astute reader to connect the dots to reach such a conclusion. Victor Frankenstein, who is relating his tale to Captain Walton after being rescued in the Arctic, is sure that the creature he created actually existed. However, it is plausible to conclude that Victor never actually brought life to his creature, but had gone mad whilst attempting it. How did Victor become the monster he feared? Perhaps the exposure to hallucinatory chemicals he used while attempting to bring life to his creation, or because of overbearing stress, or his failure to succeed in his experiments. These elements, likely combined with Victor’s own awkward social failings, led Victor to experience a mental breakdown, go mad, or develop a split personality. In this scenario...
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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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