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Comparison Between Frankenstein And The Creature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley’s science fiction novel, Frankenstein, amplifies the damaging psychological consequences of obsession through the lives of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature he constructs. Victor treats his spawn with pure negligence and hatred from the moment he entered the world, which planted the seed for their demise. The Creature retaliates against his creator by murdering those he cherished most, ultimately generating a vicious cycle of revenge that consumes and ruins their lives. By the end of the novel, Shelley uses many diverse literary conventions to close the story between the two destructive beings by displaying the concept of Tabula Rasa on the Creature’s dismal psychological state, importance of self awareness, and displaying …show more content…

Through strong diction, Shelley emphasizes the pain he endured when he allows his rage take over him especially during the murder of Henry Clerval. His existence was made to receive and radiate love, but instead his blank slate was plagued by traumatic experience which made him believe he was incapable of love. In midst of an argument with Walton, who claims the Creature only seeks sympathy and feels remorse for his misdeeds because Victor is gone, the Creature claims, “No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed...But now that virtue had become to me a shadow, and the happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair…” (). The use of a metaphor to relate the virtues of love and affection to a shadow that turned into bitter despair allows the reader to deeply understand the severe dissociation and alienation the Creature suffered. The lack of nurture throughout his life has etched pain so deeply into his blank slate that he is no longer searching for sympathy from the world around him, but instead from within, showing gradual signs of self realization and tranquility. Continuing to expand on his misleading prospects, the Creature confesses, “Once I falsely

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593 Words | 3 Pages

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature is born a blank slate who becomes corrupted by his acquaintances. The Tabula Rasa theory states that people become who they are based on the experiences they have. Directors James Whale of the 1931 film, and Kenneth Branagh of the 1994 film, incorporate Shelley’s ideas into their interpretation of the story by emphasizing Mise-en-scene and framing shots in a slightly different fashion during the birth of Frankenstein’s monster. In the 1931 film, James Whale displays Frankenstein as a mentally ill scientist caught up in his obsession of “infusing life into an inanimate body” (pg. 35).

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141 Words | 1 Pages

It is impossible to evaluate how much energy we invest in trying to mend and deny our emotions - especially the ones that rock us to our core, like loneliness, rage, and grief. Gothic author, Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, depicts scientist Victor Frankenstein in his attempt to create a monster, resulting in his ultimate downfall due the perceptual consequences that await him. Shelley’s purpose is to showcase how humans are shaped through their surrounding environment and the experiences that they endure. She adopts a fatalistic tone to emphasize the severity of the repercussions that come with attempting to play the role of god - inevitable destruction. Through the utilization of the creature as a foil character to Victor, Shelley

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Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victor to warn the reader of the dangers of aspiring to godliness, and the consequences one faces in the aftermath doing so, even going as far as to compare Victor to Satan, tempting the crew of Walton’s ship, in the book’s final pages. The Victor Shelley creates is very similar to the Satan created by Milton in his book, Paradise Lost, which explores the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. In Frankenstein, Victor speaks of his desire to create the Creature, saying, “I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow-creatures.” (152). Shelley’s diction choices, such as the word “useless” exemplify Victor’s excessive hubris, portraying him as a man who creates his Creature for, in his mind, the good of society.

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, shows how a character who is portrayed as a tragic hero, in the beginning, can become the monster in the end. Victor and the Monster in Mary Shelley’s captivating novel showed how rival enemies share striking similarities. The similarities between the two tragic characters are driven by their dreary isolation from the secluded world. A large difference is that they were both raised in two completely different environments but understood the meaning of isolation. Physical differences are more noticeable rather than their personalities.

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Frankenstein’s Monster VRS. The Incredible Hulk: Who will win . . . the fight to be human? When considering Frankenstein’s monster, the word “superhero” is generally not the first to come to mind.

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While his creator lives in extreme comfort, the creature suffers extensively which it blames on its maker. When at an all time low, the creature discovers a family that fills his underdeveloped mind with the idea that he might still have hope of accommodating with the world it found itself in and attempts to acquire the traits that might enable this adaptation with a familiar environment. The creature immensely strived to be accepted by the one that made it that it would subject itself to immense self loathing and strenuous mental development. This portrays the torture Frankenstein subjected his poor underling to due to his imperfections. With this, Shelley criticizes the weakness of the faulty chemist.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

The story is now told from the perspective of Frankenstein in which offered the readers with a new point of view on Frankenstein’s actions and on the story in general. Mary Shelley, the author, illustrated Frankenstein journey after that fateful night; moreover, she displays Frankenstein to be very similar to a child who is still observing and learning about the harsh world. The similarities between Frankenstein and a child provided the readers with a more in depth view on Frankenstein thought process and also justifying his desire for cares. Frankenstein attentiveness to the cottage is a subliminal message about his issue due to the lack of care from his creator, Victor. Additionally, the theme of the dangers of knowledge is clearly exhibited

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In the film “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” directed by Kenneth Branagh was based on the book “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. Victor, the main protagonist, is against the adversary monster he has created. The movie as I consider should earn a “D-” for there was excessive flaws upon the based of the novel, however, few key points was correctly shown that would flow the movie. The book portrays Victor Frankenstein as he was the only one working to the creation of the monster with no other acknowledgement of creating the monster, however, in the movie Professor Waldman have had Victor motivated upon the discovery of his(Waldman) works in which the works have helped him create the monster.

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2539 Words | 11 Pages

The Creature in Frankenstein Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” is an inspirational work of horror and science fiction; it is the narrative of an unorthodox act of creation, of a monster which torments his miserable creator. The author puts forth ideas, and reinforces it through the development of the plot, that mankind is capable of both good and evil. Shelly demonstrates the ‘humanity’ of the creature; his actions and his inclination are like those of mankind. Indeed, even the negative aspect of his character, demonstrated through his quest for revenge, has a parallel in the actions of his human creator. In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” the creature is represented as being vicious and murderous but he is not inherently evil or malicious.

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1240 Words | 5 Pages

Due to neglect and immediate abandonment during the beginning of his life, the creature develops a hostile attitude and seeks revenge on Victor Frankenstein. In response to the cottage dwellers attacking him, the creature exclaims “cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence of which you had so wantonly bestowed” and reveals his feelings “of rage and revenge” (Shelley 135).

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Victor questions why men so instinctively attempt to become superior to nature when men are also a product of nature. He criticizes that if humans reverted to our primal instincts, “hunger, thirst, and desire” (67) that we’d be free, or content with our lives. This is his subliminal self-reflection as he understands that seeking the secret to life, by creating the monster, did not bring him happiness but rather brought him misery and self-loathing. In this last line of the passage, Shelley highlights a major morale and theme of the story which is using science to tamper with nature, a critique against the enlightenment period. The consequences of Frankenstein’s creation have not only caused the death of William and Justine but will also become the reason for his own inevitable doom

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766 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Shelley shows the endless amount of revenge and that it is driven by pure hatred and rage. The monster was not created to be vengeful, he was kind hearted but when he was poorly treated by Victor and then by the Delacey family, he turned cold. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley displays the immorality and destructive effects that revenge can have through Frankenstein and his pursuit of the creature. Immediately after the monster had awoken, hatred thickened and would drive the plot to be all about revenge. The creature illustrates this hatred as he says to Victor, “Everything is related in them which bears reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of that series of disgusting circumstances which produced it is set in view;

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1921 Words | 8 Pages

The fictional horror novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is driven by the accentuation of humanity’s flaws. Even at the very mention of her work an archetypal monster fills one’s imagination, coupled with visions of a crazed scientist to boot. Opening her novel with Robert Walton, the conduit of the story, he also serves as a character to parallel the protagonist’s in many ways. As the ‘protagonist’ of the story, Victor Frankenstein, takes on the mantle of the deluded scientist, his nameless creation becomes the embodiment of a truly abandoned child – one left to fend for itself against the harsh reality posed by society. On the other hand, Walton also serves as a foil to Victor – he is not compulsive enough to risk what would be almost

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic novel that tells the story of scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his obsession with creating human life. This leads him to creating a gruesome monster made of body-parts stolen from grave yards, whom upon discovering his hideousness, the monster seeks revenge against his creator, causing Victor to regret the creation of his monster for the rest of his life. Shelley uses the literary elements of personification, imagery, and similes to give a vivid sense and visualization of Victor Frankenstein’s thoughts and feelings as well as to allow us to delve deeper into the monster’s actions and emotions. Throughout the novel, Shelley uses personification of various forces and objects to reflect the effect in Victor’s actions.

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1609 Words | 7 Pages

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein follows the story of a scientist and his experiment gone wrong. Victor Frankenstein, the scientist, abandons his creature at the first sight of it coming to life. The monster, left alone and afraid, transforms from a warm, loving character to one that seeks revenge as the toils of nature and reality begin to take control. Their title changes of “master” and “subordinate” are often referenced in Frankenstein, and plays off the feelings of vengeance they have for each other. Shelley has built the novel around this relationship in a way that captures not only the audience’s attention but also the character’s feelings of regret and hatred as the consequences of exceeding these moral boundaries come to haunt them in the decisions they make and influence the people around them.

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