The Manifestation Of Self-Esteem In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Sigmund Freud's studies in psychoanalysis are uncannily fore-grounded in the late romantic period. The works of William Wordsworth, Percy B. Shelley, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley, all function as poetic preludes to Freud's 18th century field. Particularly, it is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that creates a fictional rendering for psychoanalyst. In Frankenstein, Victor's rejection of the Monster metaphorically represents the ego's rejection of the unconscious. Following from this metaphorical paradigm, Freud's theories on narcissism, the libido theory, the doppelganger, neurosis, and the Oedipus-complex all resonate in the pages of Frankenstein. After a brief introduction to narcissism and

In our modern society, being self-absorbed is a common thing. People take selfies, brag about their lives online, and tend to disregard others’ struggles by stating that theirs are more important. The older generations are vocal with their strong dislike of the growing narcissism in the younger generations, saying that only thinking of yourself is harmful. The book Frankenstein is a perfect representation of how harmful thinking only about yourself can be. Written in 1818, Mary Shelley tells the tale of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist about to create a being while completely disregarding the future consequences of his actions. Mary Shelley uses symbolism, heightened emotion, and foreshadowing to portray the theme that being egocentric only brings emotional pain.

    In any novel the author is free to create and shape their characters in whatever way they see fit. In Frankenstein, Shelley does an excellent job of shaping her characters, be it however minute their part in the story, so that the reader gets a clear picture of Shelley's creations. It seems that each character in Shelley's Frankenstein is created by Shelley to give the reader a certain impression of the character. By doing this Shelley creates the characters the way she wants us to see them. She tells us certain things about them and gives them certain traits so that they will fit into the story the way she wants them to. In particular I will examine the characters of the

After bringing to life his creation, he realizes the true and hideous monster he has unleashed. He is scared of his own creation, much like many imagine Gods of all religions to be, of the monstrosity that the human race has become. Acting as both a God and a coward, Victor flees his monster out of fear but this only turns into a murderous revenge. With only a heavy heart, the monster speaks of loathing, “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” (Shelley, 83) To only one, Victor is revered as a God, the Creator, to this

The above quote by Bloom is an explanation of the view that all the gothic novels are interpretation of psychological and social factors and this is especially true in the case of Mary Shelley. Shelley began her novel at the age of 18 when the most prominent materials in the consciousness and unconsciousness of Shelley were concerned with the conflicts stemming from the death of her mother. Frankenstein is the outcome of Shelley’s unresolved grief for the death of her mother which was the crisis she needed to work through to forget her own adult identity.

My life, although not without surprises and unusual events, is dictated by predictable and ordinary elements. However, through fiction I am transported into a world of boundless imagination and extraordinary themes. One such example is evident in my response to Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. Through fiction, Shelley invites the reader to accept the extraordinary. Firstly, we are led to believe that Victor Frankenstein is able to create life by shocking it with electricity, and to this I responded with an imaginative curiosity. But it was the consequences of the creation provoked a stronger response from me. The element of horror Victor experiences and his reaction to the ‘god like’ qualities bestowed upon him as creator is truly

Learning can also be a form of self-realization this what the creature finds out that due to his appearance people will not trust him. The creature randomly seeing a young girl in distress as she falls into a river. He does the right thing as he decides to help her but, it gets him a lot of trouble with a random man. The man assume because of the creature’s appearance that he was harming the girl. We can see the moment that the man does this in the following passage: “On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms hastened towards the deeper parts of the wood” (99). The creature has not learn yet that his appearance will scare people because he does this again with old man Delacy. The creature just so desperate to be

Frankenstein is a story about a scientist who creates a living creature that ends up wreaking havoc on his life. He begins life as a happy person but then has a life of tragedy and horror. Though Victor Frankenstein and his creature oppose each other, they develop similarities between each other as the story progresses.

“But it is true that I am wretched. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin” (Shelley 274). Who is to be blamed for Victor’s family’s death? Is it the creature or the creator? Victor created life, but he is not responsible for the creation’s actions. The monster has a mind of his own, in which he is emotionally characterized as human. The monster felt and acted like human; his appearance just seemed to jeopardize his life and acceptance in society. Victor’s creation has only caused him to enter a state of remorse. On the other hand, the monster feels neglected and rejected which causes him to kill Victor’s loved ones. Their relationship is made up of betrayal, rejection and a lack of love. Shelley uses allusions and epistolary form in order to express Victor and his creature’s relationship by giving an insight of both point of views, which allows the audience to learn about each character and their use of power and independence as they use it against each other.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives many definitions of the word monster, however the two that apply most directly to this story are as followed: “one who deviates from normal or acceptable character” and “a person of unnatural or extreme ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty (Monster).” Throughout this novel it is hard to determine which of the two main characters embody these characteristics most. Neither Victor nor the Creature he creates are blameless in the sins that they commit within this novel, which leaves the reader to determine for themselves who the true monster is. However, not only can they be called monsters, but both the Creature and Victor can be identified as victims as well. They experience many separate miseries, although each of their problems are ultimately caused by one another. The nature of humanity plays an extremely large part in the development of both characters and for the eventual outcome of the novel. Human nature is defined as the “fundamental dispositions and traits of humans (Britannica).” These traits and dispositions are laid upon each person at birth, continue to change as they grow, and help make this person who they are. Just as it is a parent’s duty teach their child the wrongs and rights of the world, it was Victor’s responsibility to take care of the Creature and equip him with the knowledge that the creature needed to adapt into

Knowledge is a distinct gift that is gained through the power of learning from mistakes, progress, and experience, which is why knowledge is has been proven to be a push for mankind to create and learn about new things each and every day. Without knowledge, people feel empty, and they feel that way because they feel useless, and they feel useless because they don’t know what to do, and this is what leads me to believe that texts like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or Pauline Hopkins of One Blood: or the Hidden Self can portray, knowledge. They can portray the importance in knowledge because these text’s reveal in many cases why it is extremely important to obtain knowledge no matter the gender or sexuality of a person or thing. Another great

Because the events have already happened, Victor's recollection leaves room for bias, and various interpretations of his narrative. Although Victor repeatedly bashes at the monster’s cruel actions and ugliness, his ruthless rejection of his creation is what stimulates the monster's evilness, who is inherently

At our foundations, human beings are creatures of society. We thrive with the connections that we form and need interactions with others to keep our minds healthy, as we need nourishment for our bodies. When we are deprived of these connections we are incomplete people, starved of a key building block for building our identity. In Frankenstein, the creature was shunned by society for his appearance, not just once, but repeatedly. First, he was shunned by his creator, then by the villagers, and finally, by a family he had grown to know. These rejections represent being forced out and pushed away by different symbolic groups, like the family, the world, and the friend.

Mary Shelley’s Gothic Romantic novel Frankenstein creates a critical social commentary on the human drive within scientific development and the effects of social class and gender in societal treatment within the environment and conflict of the creature and Victor Frankenstein. Shelley, rather than beating around the bushes, clearly portrays several questions of egotism, use of knowledge, justice versus revenge, and nature versus nurture, blending into an observation and inquiry of the errors of the human race and its consequences, affecting the thought process during reading into a search for conflicting opinions on society’s treatment of specific peoples.