(INSERT IDENTITY BASED ATTENTION GRABBER BECAUSE I CAN’T THINK OF ONE)
Good morning/Afternoon, I’m Tarryn and today I’m going to talk to you about personal identity. Identity is what makes us who we are, everyone has a different identity. Without identity we wouldn’t be human because everyone needs one to exist. Our identity is changing as we progress through life and as we experience new and different things. The texts that I’ve looked at are “Frankenstein”, the graphic novel by Gris Grimly, published in 2013, is an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original text, about a scientist who creates a ‘monster’ who he’s ashamed of and leaves the ‘monster’ with no knowledge of anything about himself or the world. My second text is “Edward Scissorhands”, a film directed by Tim Burton and released in 1990, which is about a man created by a scientist who dies before he can entirely finish his creation and must live his life with scissors as hands. From these texts, I am going to be talking about how our journey through life changes our identity and how others can affect our identity.
As we progress through life, our identity changes. We are always moving through life so our identity never stays the same, along with our identity changing so do our views and beliefs. In Gris Grimly’s graphic novel, “Frankenstein”, we are presented with a young intelligent Victor Frankenstein, as we progress through the novel, we see his dark interests and intent begin to show. Page 19 presents Victor
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the unnamed creature brings terror to civilians and commits horrific acts against his creator, Victor Frankenstein. However, his redeemable acts of kindness makes his character morally ambiguous. He struggles between doing well and causing trouble because of isolation, the excerpts of society, and his pursuit for love.
In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster is portrayed as a grotesque abomination. However, as Hopkins states in Contending Forces, the cultural and geographical situations, or lack thereof, in which one matures in play a crucial role in the proper development of one’s mind and brain. The monster is simply a product of circumstance. The lack of social interactions alongside geographical isolation propelled the daemon to be alienated from society, ultimately resulting in a lack of morals and an underdeveloped psyche. By being a culmination of his surroundings and experiences it is revealed that the true monstrous entities are the factors that leave the daemon predisposed to fail in a modern society. Arguably, Victor created a being, while the circumstances that said being was placed in “created” a monster. Shelley purposefully terrorizes the monster with such intensity to provoke and justify the overarching theme in this novel which states that people should not be judged on their physical appearance.
In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the character Victor Frankenstein can not be identified as purely evil or purely good. An interest in science leads Victor to create an evil monster, however midway through the book Victor develops sentimental feelings for the monster, even though he has committed many acts of pure evil. Victor abandons the monster which contributes to the overall theme, regarding nurture vs. nature. Throughout the novel, Victor is faced with challenges and hardships as a child that causes his character to become morally ambiguous.
However, finding the personal identity is not a temporary task for just some moments in one’s life. Identity deserves people’s whole life to find on their
Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, tells the story of Victor Frankenstein’s pursuit of creation and the monster he unintentionally brought to life. Horrified with his own creation, Victor escaped his responsibilities, leaving him to fend for himself. The story follows the monster’s futile attempts to assimilate into humanity, his hatred finally leading him to killing his creator’s family one by one until Frankenstein committed himself to vengeance. The theme of humanity was prevalent throughout the novel as the monster’s existence blurred the line between what was “human” and “inhuman.” The question of whether nurture, or nature, mattered more to one’s identity was explored throughout the story. In Frankenstein, nurture rather than
In Mary Shelley´s Gothic novel, Frankenstein, the Monster once claimed, “The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” Frankenstein, since the 1910 film adaptation, has known a series of several adaptations that changed drastically, not only the plot but one of the main characters, the Monster, from stealing its creator´s name to being portrayed as a cold villain. Though, in the original storyline, the biggest threat to society is the creator itself, the one pretending to play as God, Victor Frankenstein. This essay will discuss the nature of the main characters of the novel and conclude who is the “real monster” in the end.
Victor Frankenstein, a complex character created by Mary Shelley, experienced a complete change in attitude and perspective on the scientific world as he knew it. Between the deaths of his close family and friends, to the constant fight for survival as his own creation stalked him, Victor was under straining circumstances that allowed for his evolution as a character. Pre monster, Victor had strong morals and close relationships with his family. His family was his priority. Victor’s dedication to science was always a constant nagging in the back of his mind, but it did not mean more to him than his family dead. During the formation of his creation, he began to block off his family, especially his fiancee, Elizabeth. His dedication to science was his only priority, above food and hygiene. He was driven by the creation of his monster. After creation, his family members were killed off, eliminating any type of relationship he had with them, he rejected all science and moral values.
In particular, the motif of the Double, or Doppelgänger, very popular in nineteenth-century gothic fiction, is central to the parallels drawn between the Monster and Victor, in Frankenstein. In modern society, there is a popular tendency to refer to Frankenstein as the monster, or vice versa, reflecting the use of the motif. In this case, the monster represents Victor’s hidden inner desires and unexpressed psychic needs that stem from his brutal pathos for success, glory and knowledge. Thus, in Victor’s attempt to realize this ambition, he gave form and shape to his deepest fears; his desires. Through the rejection of the parameters set by society and humanity, Victor gives in to his egomaniac god complex seen throughout the novel. Specifically while consciously creating an abnormal being, which appalled him, but still enthralled him, "…often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion." Hence, by giving life to the monster, Victor created a manifestation of his suppressed self, stating, "I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch" , being vague whether this refers to the creature itself, or the manifestation of his dark, disturbing desires, hinting that the two are similar, and creating a link between them. Thus, following Freud’s theory of the structure of the human psyche, the creature becomes a human form of Victor’s id, with the first proof of the connection shown in the monster’s need to fulfill the most basic urges such as anger, thirst, hunger, and sex immediately, regardless of possible consequences, "I longed to obtain food and shelter,” as explained in Freud’s theory . He is now seen as a human being in the eyes of basic psychology, and can be thus seen as a plausible
Victor Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity lies in good intentions with bad results. Victor evolves from an intellectually curious, innocent and blameless man to being remorseful, secluded and obsessed with the
“Since Victor’s story is a story of creation, murder, investigation, and pursuit, Frankenstein is ultimately a book about our pursuit of self-discovery, about the knowledge of the monster within us” (Griffith 2).
Many years has passed since the novel “Frankenstein” was published for the common readers, yet it gave a huge impact in the society’s point of views and beliefs about what kind of monster Victor Frankenstein created. Even in the present days, the novel has influenced in many ways on how to shape the opinions of the society in the present. Although, it has many argumentatives elements, they are all based on how the monster develop in the story from a victim to a villain.
In Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the monster which is created by Victor Frankenstein acts as a mirror to reflect and bring out Victor’s hidden thoughts. In a particular study called Frankenstein – A Critical Study from a Freudian Perspective, it argues that Victor on the surface seems to be a “healthy man” (Johnson 1). In fact, he unconsciously has many dangerous thoughts, and the creation of the monster brings out those thoughts and finally leads to his failure (Johnson 2). In specific, present paper will analysis Victor’s characters by examining his intention and decisions toward the monster he creates, and the paper is intended
Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In other words it's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. The theme of identity is often expressed in books/novels or basically any other piece of literature so that the reader can intrigue themselves and relate to the characters and their emotions. It's useful in helping readers understand that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want but that can never change. The theme of identity is a very strenuous topic to understand
Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same