Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley

The story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a British literature classic. It has become so famous because of how clearly its messages transcend through time and highlight problems that the reader has in their own life. The greatest theme from Frankenstein is the need for friends or companionship, and the loss of these necessities. Readers of the book will notice that this message stands out to them because everyone has had to deal with being an outcast at some point in their life. Several of the characters throughout the novel have overcome this outcast adversity, however they all revolve around Victor Frankenstein either entering or leaving their lives.

Frankenstein deals with much. It has the obvious nightmarish terrors represented in the monster, terrifying in both sight and murderous actions. There however exists a subliminal context of horror within the narrative. The characters within the narrative reveal the moral shortcomings of humanity, and when stripped to its base constructs, amount to little more than what the monster becomes. It shows the psychological frailty of man, and when unhinged the dangers it is capable of.

The pressures that Frankenstein experiences coming from society force him to continue his strenuous work of making the creature, which eventually deprives him from his morals. Shelley’s changes in point of view allows the reader to fully comprehend the heartlessness of

When most people think of Frankenstein people usually think of a monster. However when reading the story by Mary Shelley you see that he is not as horrific as he is presented. The monster notices the care and concern the family has for each other, and he senses that there is a mood of despair among the younger family members. The family suffers from poverty and a lack of food. Desiring to keep his cottagers happy, the monster becomes an aid to the family by secretly hauling wood to the cottage and performing repairs, all under the cover of darkness.

    Sometimes, in novels like Frankenstein, the motives of the author are unclear.  It is clear however, that one of the many themes Mary Shelley presents is the humanity of Victor Frankenstein's creation.  Although she presents evidence in both support and opposition to the creation's humanity, it is apparent that this being is indeed human.  His humanity is not only witnessed in his physical being, but in his intellectual and emotional thoughts as well.  His humanity is argued by the fact that being human does not mean coming from a specific genetic chain and having family to relate to, but to embrace many of the distinct traits that set humans apart from other animals in this

Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, symbolized a person’s necessity for acceptance by society. Society labels everything as good or bad, right or wrong, rich or poor. Although some of these labels may be correct, many are misconceptions. The monster, needed to be accepted by society, but instead was scorned, attacked, and shunned because of his outward appearance. The treatment of the monster was on the assumption that he was actually a monster. The only justification of this treatment was his outward appearance.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is very much a commentary on the Enlightenment and its failure to tame the human condition through reason. The human condition can be defined as the unique features which mold a human being. The creature is undoubtedly a victim of this predicament. He grapples with the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, and the awareness of the inescapability of death. These qualities and his ceaseless stalking of his master conjure up the metaphor that he is the shadow of the Enlightenment. Indeed, the Enlightenment is represented through Frankenstein whereas the creature is the embodiment of everything it shuns. These include nature, emotion, and savagery. The two characters are understood as counterparts and yet strikingly similar at the same time. The creature is considered a monster because of his grotesque appearance. Frankenstein on the other hand is a monster of another kind: his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienate him from human society. He is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation. Both characters also commit primordial crimes. Although rationality pervades through Frankenstein's endeavours, it can be argued that he becomes less human the more he tries to be God. The secret of life lies beyond an accepted boundary from which none can return. By creating life Frankenstein ironically sets the stage for his own destruction as well as that of his family. The

The novel Frankenstein unfolds through a psychoanalytic lens and teaches the reader about what it means to be a human being. One common motif throughout the novel is mental illness. This is shown through many characters, but mainly the Creature when he develops mental illnesses based on his experiences. These experiences explain his behavior, which makes his actions plausible. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein explores the layers of what it means to be a human being, revealing that society builds opinions based on physical appearances before personality, which ultimately affects each individual’s mental health.

In the gothic novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a story about a man named Victor Frankenstein who decides to recreate life without knowing the possible consequences it can have in the future. Throughout the novel the author incorporates a variety of literary elements to develop a clear view as to what the theme is. In Frankenstein, the writing depicts a theme of family and how being isolated from family or society can lead to despair and tragedies. To begin, the qualities of the characters presents them in a way that demonstrates the theme of this novel. For instance, in chapter twelve the creature states, “At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am,

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is a story about how important having a family is to some, but also judging someone based on their appearance. Victor Frankenstein starts the novel by describing his childhood with his loving and supportive family. Family is very important to him because he did not have many friends growing up. While Frankenstein is away at school he starts to become very depressed and you see his attitude towards his family and his life change. Being away at school, he creates a “monster” by using different pieces of corpses and that becomes the only thing that matters to him until he sees how hideous it is. He immediately hates his creation just because of how he looks. Frankenstein begins to abandon everyone and thing in his life because of his obsession with the idea of glory and science, causing the novel to go from Romanticism to Gothic. The “monster” finds a family living in a cottage, by watching all winter he learns how a family should love and accept others. By seeing this, Frankenstein’s creations understand what was taken from him, and will do whatever he has to do to have a family of his own.

Frankenstein, led by the desire to widen human knowledge, finds that the fulfillment of his own condescending ambition has brought only a curse to mankind. Furthermore, the creation of Frankenstein, this monster, illustrates the embodied consequences of our own actions. Mary Shelley uses the monster as statement: everything born pure in this world is susceptible to corruption and evil. The gigantic stature of this creature can also be viewed as a symbol of the enormous perils found in creating life outside of natural bounds. Although the creature received a moral and intellectual

Frankenstein is a tale of gory human sacrilege only to be used to unprecedented research in order to fill a gap in a heart/brain of a man named Dr. Victor Frankenstein. It contains elements of man becoming god, something that is extremely relevant in the present. With many different types of research and findings the ability to create a monster is becoming easier by the day. Frankenstein is a story that teaches the moral behind what it means to play god and what that can do not on to the monster but to the doctor as well. As set by Victor Frankenstein’s standards, it seems as if anything is possible no matter how cruel and unusual the outcome may be.

What purpose does it serve to have multiple narrators telling a story? In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, three main narrators tell the story about the creation of a monster and the events that follow. The job of narrator shifts between Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster that Victor creates. As each narrator shares his own recollection of the events that occurred, new facts are introduced to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Although Frankenstein uses multiple narrators to tell the story, it is important to look at the effects it might have on the stories accuracy. In this essay, I will closely examine the motives, differences, and similarities of each narrator to see what influences, if any, they have on the narrative.

Social values such as relations with other humans and family values are neglected by Frankenstein. This is made evident early on when Frankenstein becomes absorbed in the creation of his creature and neglects his family, friends and social life. He says “Company was irksome to be... I abhorred society.” As such Shelley is able to symbolise how relentless pursuit of one thing can lead one to neglect everything else. On the other hand, the monster embodies this very value of humanity that is lost to Frankenstein. The monster, unlike Frankenstein, tries to integrate into society. But in doing so he challenges social conventions due to the fact that he was a “fiend with unparalleled barabrity” trying to form relations with humans. However like Frankenstein he too is rejected from society but due to his grotesque appearance. Shelley reflects the humanity expressed by the creature through his love, admiration and self-sacrifice which are characteristics believed to define humanity during the romantic era. Through the acts of the monster helping and regarding the De Lacey family in a positive light before they reject the creature and Frankenstein’s lack of compassion for the monster, Shelley is comparing society’s ability to be civil, compassionate and barbaric. Today these social values of compassion and relations with others continue to be current. Although, today society as a whole is more accepting of individuals on the fringe of society. These changing values and perspectives can be attributed to the differing historical and social context of

Mary Shelley, a writer and leader of the Romantic era, was clearly influenced by the great thinkers of the Enlightenment. One such thinker was John Locke, who expressed that all humans have natural rights. Locke also had a theory that humans are born with clean slates, and the environment humans grow in, especially at a young age, has massive influences on aspects of their personalities, ideals, and motivations. Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was, without a doubt, influenced by this claim. This is evident in more ways than one, with the strongest argument being that the monster, that Victor Frankenstein created, was almost completely like a newborn baby with a fully developed brain. His actions and beliefs were merely an result of his experiences and the natural goodness of human beings. In essence, Mary Shelley is using the monster of Frankenstein as a representation of other human beings who are affected by the hate and cruelty that surrounds them and become that which they experience. In essence, the monster is an embodiment of the human condition, in a creature that isn’t classically defined as human, but meets all the criteria.