...uncontrollable rage” (Berman 58). Narcissus and Frankenstein are both disoriented by ostensible renditions of their own internal conflicts. The creature’s acts of violence are external representations of Victor Frankenstein’s internal rage. It is ironic that his own self-replication in the form of the creature brings him to his eventual demise. Another element that correlates with the Narcissus story pertains to the escapes and pursuits that are present in the novel. “Since Mary Shelley’s novel employs the element of flight (Walton to the pole, Victor from the Creature, the Creature in pursuit of Victor), Frankenstein embodies an additional element of the Narcissus complex” (Kestner 69-70). The grandiosity of his creation and pursuits end in a chase to eliminate any evidence of his mistakes. Jeffrey Berman summarizes all of these examples in comparison of narcissistic personality disorder: Victor exhibits, in fact, all the characteristics of the narcissistic personality disorder as defined in DSM-III: a grandi- sense of self-importance; preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success; exhibitionism; cool indifference or feelings of...
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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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...even if it is or isn’t justified by the reason. This is best shown in the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. In the book, Frankenstein’s creation shows how human emotions can be driven to believe that there is nothing to the world, but hatred and revenge. Showcasing the human emotion that drives our need for revenge is best shown in the book, Frankenstein. In it, Frankenstein’s creation goes through many dramatic events after being abandoned by his creator. Like after he enters someone's home and is found eating their food, he gets chased out of a village by the villagers for stealing. Another time he gets rejected is when saves a girl from drowning in a river. Instead of being reward as a savior, he is reward with a bullet to the shoulder and is seen as a villain. After this he “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all of mankind(101)”. He has been brought to this because he has found no love or kindness in the world due to his hideously, horrid figure that his creator choice to give life to....
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...Frankenstein and Golem Frankenstein’s theme that man made creations that are created by opposing the Laws of nature are destined to be not accepted and unwanted are stemmed from the many similarities of the Golem of Talmud. Frankenstein’s monster was made in order to provide proof that you could restore life to dead matter so that he could believe he could bring back his mother. The Golem was made in order to protect the Jewish Community from oppressors. However both Frankenstein and the Golem’s creation were seen as unnatural and were shunned. In the Talmud, Shortly after the animation of the Golem (called Adam by his creator) the creator realizes the fact that like Adam(the first human,created from mud.), all golems are created from mud by...
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...entanglement between a young and talented scientist, Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Victor Frankenstein rebuilds a human body and uses thunder to activate it. He is worried because of the creature’s ugly face that he abandons him. As soon as the creature realizes he is rejected by the society, he starts to revenge. Mary Shelly used Victor Frankenstein and his creation to reveal the monstrous spirit of human, including sexism, incest and abandonment. The creature tolerates all unfair treatments at first. He chooses to surrender until his fury reforms his personality. He says, “All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things” (Mary...
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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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...Doppelgangers can show how a person wants to be or not to be, but sometimes a person is not able to rid themself of their worst self. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (Topic) Victor has two doppelgängers, one being Clerval and the other being his creation (Argument) because the monster is an embodiment of his worse self who doesn't take responsibility and Clerval is his better self who lives without guilt, which is reflected in their relationship to nature, and view of self. (Reason) Victor Frankenstein...
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...Frankenstein the story and the film? About the novel (Frankenstein): This novel functions on symbolic many levels such as Frankenstein’s monster symbolize the coming of industrialization to Europe also the destruction and the death...
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...determines a person in a unstable situation looking for help. Analyzing an individuals isolation from society, having parents with poor parenting skills, and manipulation of character can all have an influence of who we pity. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein she allows us to make our own choices based on details she presents from various characters. Mary Shelley uses the motif of Isolation in exploring the idea of humanity. Both Victor Frankenstein and the Creature suffer from isolation physically and mentally. Shelley emphasizes what the Creature lacks when he says, “ I learned and applied the words, fire, milk, bread, and woods. I learned also the names of the cottagers themselves. The youth and his companion had each of them several names, but the old man has only one, which is father. The girl was called sister, or Agatha; and the youth Felix, brother, or son”. (112) Shelley purposefully uses those words because they are exactly the first words a baby would learn, showing that the Creature is similar to a helpless infant. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein is the primary cause of his creature to feel rejected, lonely, and determined to seek revenge. Shelley has the Creature realize the rejection he feels from society when he says, “ I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endowed with a...
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...Regret is portrayed throughout Victor Frankenstein’s life by creating a monster and regretting what he made. In chapter four, Victor wanted to begin creating human beings. Victor somehow ended up creating a monster instead of a human being. The monster that Victor created died when he was going to show Henry his creation. How could Victor bare to create a second human being or end up creating another monster? In chapters eleven through fourteen, Victor is relaxed on the production of human beings because he does not want to make the same mistake again of creating a monster. Mary Shelley went through many hardships....
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...themes in “Frankenstein”. One character that desired power throughout the novel was the monster. The monster first came into the world when Victor Frankenstein became obsessed with chemistry and anatomy and seeked to build a creature out of old body parts. He started working and ended the project with his ultimate goal: a self-made creature. This, however, seemed to be Victor’s most significant mistake of his life, as the action led to untimely consequences. From the time of his creation to the death of him, the monster made sure to draw attention in an effort to gain power. He also frees himself...
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...Many themes shown in the book “Frankenstein” are good representations of life lessons. One theme is, “the quest for knowledge can lead to a dangerous path to follow.” Victor uses his genus ability and his thirst for knowledge to create a monster that ultimately uses his power to destroy Victor’s life. The monster requests another creature’s creation of his kind, and when Victor refuses, the monster seeks vengeance on his creator. During this hunt for revenge that the monster partakes in, many deaths occur and Victor begins to realize he made a huge mistake. In chapter 5, Victor creates a monster because he is intrigued by the capability and knowledge of his learning abilities. Victor portrays a canny personality and one of the only desires...
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...wrote Frankenstein’s Failures to talk about the philosophical problems surrounding Victor Frankenstein and the creation of the daemon along with his failures. Throughout this paper, he brings up several important points such as Victor’s goals, Enhancement, Victor’s faults with the monster, the Midas Problem, and desirability. Daniel Kokotz’s First idea is about Victor’s two main goals involving the creation of the daemon and Enhancement. Victor’s two goals were to discover the secrets of creation along with discovering a new way to combat disease, and he wanted to use enhancement to improve the quality of life for humans because we are stupendously under-equipped to live in the harshness of nature due to our only evolutionary advantage being our brain. While most animals enhance their bodies to meet nature, we humans change the nature around us to meet our bodies. Kokotz says that we can beat our long time enemy, disease and death with technological enhancements to our bodies such as victor tried to do. Kokotz later says “Human nature, it...
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...The Moral Immoralities of Victor Frankenstein In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley portrays the limitations of man in his pursuit of scientific creativity. She illustrates Victor Frankenstein’s attempts and success at creating a human being in his laboratory as an immoral attempt to play the role of God. Shelley repeatedly shows the monster’s harmful effects on society and often places blame on Victor for the Monster’s detrimental actions. In order to emphasize the immorality and mistakes in Victor’s attempts to play God, Shelley constructs a recognizable parallel to the story of Genesis when God creates man and woman. In order to show her disapproval of such an endeavor, Shelley intentionally causes Victor to fail. This deviation from the parallel in Genesis demonstrates that man cannot exceed his natural limitations, or mimic the role of God. The story begins with Victor’s decision to create the Monster. Victor says that he “[s]ucceeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, [he] became capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 43). Immediately, a parallel is drawn to the creation of man in Genesis. This parallel continues when Victor discloses to the reader that he, “[c]ollected bones from charnel-houses and distrusted, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame” (Shelley 45). Shelley portrays the creation of Victor’s monster in a subtle but similar way that God created man. Her intention is for...
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...character known as Victor Frankenstein falls ill many times throughout the story. Though most do not take notice to this, but each time Victor falls ill it “coincidentally” happens to be after a tragic event has occurred. Knowing that Victor does not do well under stress, it is safe to assume that the illnesses are due to being over worked and severely stressed, causing a shut down in the immune system, leaving the body vulnerable to contracting serious illnesses. Not only does it show the impact of the stress but it allows for an excuse to not have to face society and daily issues. Many cases when viewed together demonstrate this terrible trend. In society, many people use illnesses...
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