Mutability Mary Shelley Analysis

Stanza 3 of Percy Shelley’s poem “Mutability” focuses on how people have no control over the change around them, which can apply to Mary Shelley’s characters in her novel Frankenstein. While the 3rd stanza doesn’t apply to the monster as much as Frankenstein, someone can still connect it to both characters. One example is in the first line of the stanza when the poem states, “We rest- a dream has power to poison sleep.” This refers to Frankenstein’s constant nightmares through the novel; for example in chapter 5 page 51 Frankenstein states, “I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her; but as I imprinted
This is supported in chapter 2, page 35-36 when the novel says, “ Wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” and once more on page 37 when the page says, “It was a strong effect of the spirit of good; but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.” This quote goes along with the poem because of Victor’s “polluted thought” to change mankind which resulted in many of his family members dyeing, if he had never chased after that idea than everyone that died wouldn’t have died. Lastly the two last line of stanza 3, which declares, “We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep, embrace fond woe, or cast our care away.” Victor’s emotions throughout the novel are more than hinted at; at one moment he is happy about meeting Henry in chapter 10, only for him to been in fear later on in the chapter when he believes that his creation got to him. These sudden changes apply to the theme of the 3rd stanza, in which Victor cannot control some of the changes around