Readers may surmise that Victor’s tale would be the key to making Walton see Victor in a new and more reasonable light, but they would be wrong. In Walton’s final letters, dated only one more week after Victor began telling his story, he continues to describe Victor in peculiar ways. He calls Victor’s eyes “fine and lovely” (178) and says that “his eloquence is forcible and touching” (179). Although “forcible” could connote something negative, it seems more likely that Walton means it positively as in “powerful” or “convincing” (OED). On the same page he tells Margaret that his mind and “every feeling of [his] soul” were “drunk up” by Victor’s “elevated and gentle” manner and storytelling. Much like his contradictory discussion of his experience…
For many people, seeing someone who is different may be hard to accept. In Frankenstein, a plethora of characters mentioned were unable to accept that the monster was, for want of a better word, a person. There is an innumerable amount of traits that make a us human and the monster appeared to have many of them. The qualities that make us human include the ability to care, intense emotions, the ability to tell right from wrong, and competence. Examples of the monster portraying these traits are spread out through the book.…
In many novels throughout literature, enemies often share striking similarities. They push and pull at each other to the point where they lead to the each others undoing, yet they share tremendous likeness. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly Victor Frankenstein and his creature are two sides of one person. Both despise each other, and in doing so they are despising themselves. There is a power struggle between the two adversaries, which leads to both Frankenstein, and his creature ending up alone. Shelly’s novel christens the era of romanticism and successfully merges these ideas with those of gothic style. The infatuation with discovery and creation is evident in the main character, Victor Frankenstein, and his pursuit of knowledge…
As explained by the lecture, the main characteristic of the Romanticism were emotions and spontaneity of feeling, individualism, and nature, and all of them are embodied in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. First, emotions play a significant role in the book be they positive or negative; also, all of them are genuine and sincere. Shelley emphasizes negative emotions by the example of how fear can make people mistreat the creature and by how creature himself becomes absorbed with the revenge for all the damaged caused to him. Second, individualism stressed that each person is a whole world with an authentic originality. However, in the case of the creature his individualism, his differences from others only hurt him. All he wishes is to be accepted;…
The Frankenstein monster created by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is one of the most wondrous characters in literature. Furthermore, the psychology behind Victor Frankenstein and the monster that he had created has been an issue that has been debated by psychologists for several years. Moreover, it has been claimed that the Frankenstein monster gives the reader a glimpse into the consciousness of Victor himself. This being said, many individuals have tried to understand the reasons for the monsters actions and his change in disposition. Despite its vicious behavior and committing the act of murder, Doctor Victor Frankenstein’s creature is not characteristically evil or malicious but a creation of rejection and negligence and Shelley give numerous reasons to back this up.…
In the novel of Mary Shelly as we all know, Frankenstein, the story claims to be the sympathetic depiction of domestic affection. It may seem strange in a novel full of murder tragedy, and misery. But in fact, all that tragedy, murder, and misery occur because of the lack of joining to either family or society. We can put it another way, the true evil in Frankenstein is not Victor or the creature (whom Victor created), but isolation. When the main character, Victor, becomes so lost in his studies he removes himself from human society, and therefore loses sight of his responsibilities. “In studies loneliness can send a person down a path toward bad health, and even more intense loneliness. But while some have assumed the culprit was…
Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, conveys a tale about Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a creator, who produces an existence outside of love. If Dr. Frankenstein had believed in God, he would have known not to produce a being outside of natural law. The creature’s life would have been significantly different had god been involved. Frankenstein, the creature, is missing out on a creator who loves him, a creator who is forgiving, a creator who makes a companion for his creation, and a creator who sacrifices for his creation.…
In the novel Frankenstein we can see many of the character’s madness and irrational behavior throughout the book makes the story continue but in the end he also sees how his wrongdoing but as the reader where it leaves the reader for interpretation if Victor is good or evil. In the story it shows Victor’s madness and paranoia not only how it affects the character, but affects others around him. In the novel we can also see how that secrecy can affect one’s self and make them act in an irrational behavior that makes them because mad but also shows us we can always fix our mistakes and learn from them.…
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, there are many topics being portrayed throughout the novel: Madness and obsession, Nature, and Physical Appearances (the beautiful and the monstrously ugly).…
Mary Shelley’s efforts to have Victor Frankenstein play creator simply points to the inability of an imperfect human trying to play God. Man’s motivation to use science to advance selfish needs becomes an obstacle in the quality of life that the creature created would experience. The idea that free will trumps control of living beings is easily recognizable. In the end, the failure of the monster to be successful speaks to the intricacy of creation. The complexities…
A passage of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), in which Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation climbing the slopes of Mont Salêve, primarily functions as a spectacle of awe and terror, but is underscored by Shelly’s reflection on the complex nature of the division between good and evil. Two perspectives are presented to the reader, that of Frankenstein, who views his creation an unnatural monster of evil, and Shelly’s authorial voice, which invites the reader to question the view that Frankenstein offers.…
In Kenneth Branaghs adaptation of Mary Shelly’s gothic horror novel Frankenstein. We follow the story of young Victor Frankenstein a soon to be doctor and his unfortunate journey through madness. This madness is one of not accepting the reality of death. Victor uses his knowledge of the human anatomy to create a creature of very human like qualities. Shelly’s most frighting character Victor scares the audience because of his lacking in human qualities and his ever growing madness and obsession with “playing god” and cheating…
Victor Frankenstein’s journey to achieve scientific greatness ultimately resulted in self-desolation. The pursuit of knowledge enchanted Frankenstein’s life from a young age. However, even Victor’s own father ridiculed his studies. But, Victor’s desires to learn were greater than any belief his father has. Victor knew greatness was within his reach. He simply needed time to reach it. In order satisfy his hunger, Victor went to college. Yet, once again his dreams were obliterated before his eyes when his first professor condemned Victor’s previous studies. The destruction of all the studies he thought were true lit a fire within Victor. Now, more than ever, Victor was determined to prove himself. The creation of his monster resulted from such motivation. Shelley’s…
Kel Kelsey Rama Zappa English 4 3/26/13 Mirrored Selves Victor Frankenstein, the creature and Robert Walton are three characters in Mary Shelly’s novel “Frankenstein” that are very similar due to their contribution to the duality in the story. Both Frankenstein and Walton share the common interest of science and knowledge. However similar to that they may be, Walton is also foil to Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s ambitious dream to explore the cause of generation and life leads him to self-destruction and death, whereas Walton chooses to stop his voyage due to the safety and life of himself and his crew. The creature’s hatred for Victor feeds into his monstrous side while the love he feels for the family he helped feeds into his loving and humane side. There is no doubt that this story is full of duality.…
In her novel, “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley presents us with a cautionary tale about the dangers inherent to the quest for individuality and identity if left unchecked by community and moderation. The characters around which this story centres are Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, who can be viewed as two sides of the same theme of dangerous individuality; taken together, Shelley has formed a complete being who completely fits the mould of the romantic hero and who can master his own destiny rather than be mastered by it. However, fate keeps these two characters tragically apart. Their separate states cause both to fall short of one or more of six necessary phases of development a hero must go through to truly qualify as a hero; alone, they are inherently flawed beings. Moreover, in their isolated states they lack anything to contrast themselves against and thereby give themselves an identity, which drives them both to decidedly dark extremes in attempting to achieve this elusive goal.…