Frankenstein First Rough Draft

Explore the idea of the double in Frankenstein with reference to the partner text.
I will be discussing the comparisons between Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde during this essay. The story of Frankenstein has many different aspects to it but the one in which I choose to examine was the idea of the double which is clearly shown in the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In 1816 Mary Shelley travelled to Switzerland this trip inspired Mary Shelley to write the story of Frankenstein she used a lot of her experiences to affect the story one example of this is the influence that poetry and nature has on a lot of the characters in the novel was highly influenced by the fact that her husband was a poet.
The book was first published in 1818; Mary Shelley created horror for people who read the book at this time in history as it was wrote as a non-fiction book. There are a lot of cultural differences from when the book was wrote to now, the book was first publish anonymously because at this time it was unusual for a woman to write a book, women were look upon as mothers and home makers this was a completely acceptable to think bad then but now it has become strange to think this way. Mary’s parents where radical political thinkers and so allowed Mary to grow up in an intellectually stimulating environment, this was not considered a traditional family at the time. The structure of the novel is a series of letter s telling Frankenstein’s and the monsters story through Walton being written to his sister. This structure questions the liability of Walton and Frankenstein as it is biased and from Frankenstein’s view and Walton’s just retelling it. The idea of the doppelganger first began in 1796 in a German novel by jean Paul. The book features an introduction to the practice and theory underlying the use of the Doppelganger The idea of the good verses the evil is very clear during this novel at the beginning we believe the monster is evil but as the novel goes on we begin to believe that it is actually victor. You get the idea that victor and Frankenstein play the good and bad part of one person from their similarities were in the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they are one person Frankenstein and the monster are two completely separate beings. We are lead to think the monster is the evil being as we only hear his voice through Frankenstein’s which brings up a lot of issues with biased as it is very likely that he would change things which were said to make himself look better to Walton and make him empathies with him. But this does not completely work as some of the story he tells brings the reader more sympathy for the monster. The monster and Frankenstein’s language is similar when we hear the monster speak through Walton after victor dies we gain greater proof of this which makes the monsters story more accurate. Another way in which both are similar is the way nature takes its effect on both of them for example, Victor takes sustenance from nature it becomes his personal therapy when he experiences stress. Although nursed by his closest friends, it is the breathing of the air that finally gives him strength: ‘we passed a fortnight in these perambulations: my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progresses’. The reason Mary uses ideas of the nature having a big impact on the lives of the main characters is because of the fact her husband was a poet. Poets focused on nature to create the mood in their poems in and to create romanticism in their poems. There is a power struggle between both the characters during the novel for most the story it is the monster chasing victor and being controlled by him but the roles are reversed at the end as the monster has the most power, tormenting victor. Victor becomes inhuman at this point as he is led by his pure hatred from the monster and the want to destroy him. Who is the real monster during the story? This is a question which is in the back of the readers mind. A monster is described a vicious, inhuman, evil being and then we have a creature which is describe as a natural, positive being Frankenstein’s creation could be called either and the reader changes what they call it because their perception changes. At the beginning we believe it is victor because of the way the monster is described at the first moment you meet him