Enlightenment And Alienation In Frankenstein

After analyzing Victor Frankenstein and his creation, it obvious that they both have an unbalanced subconscious. At the start of the novel, Frankenstein’s id was more prominent, and after he realized what he’d created, his superego took over with his sense of guilt. The creature on the other hand, primarily follows his id, and doesn’t feel guilty of what he’s done. Despite their hatred for one another, Frankenstein and the monster are very much the same. The monster is a product of Frankenstein; “Creator and created” (Hennessy).

In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, Victor and the Creature are the main references when it comes to the issues of morality. Several themes such as good versus evil, prejudice, and ambition & fallibility, the importance of friendship along with references to other famous texts like the Christian bible are manifested through the use of Victor and the Creature as they interact with each other allowing readers to construe examples of morality. Many debaters may argue the Creature is “evil” since a majority of his actions harm others while Victor is good because he was the victim and seeks to destroy his creation. However, one may counter this argument if they accentuate Victor is evil since he was the Creature’s creator,

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.

The monster is also capable of wanton destruction when he burns down the DeLaceys’ house and dances “with fury around the devoted cottage”(123) like a savage. Finally, the monster seems to enjoy the pain he causes Frankenstein: “your sufferings will satisfy my everlasting hatred” (181) he writes to Victor. Were these pieces of evidence taken out of context, the reader would surely side with Frankenstein. But Shelley prevents such one-sidedness by letting the monster tell his version of the story. The monster’s first-person narrative draws the reader in and one learns that the creature is not abomination

When the Monster learns that people fear him and can’t seem to understand him, his attitude changes. The Monster becomes livid throughout the novel and unyieldingly seeking revenge on humans and most importantly Victor. "You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede” (Shelley 174) he tells Victor to create another Monster, a female companion that he could identify himself with. When Victor breaks his deal with the Monster to create his female companion, the Monster continues to take away the things Victor cares about

Mary Shelley uses Frankenstein's rationalizations to show how his ego seeks to protect itself. Shelley focuses on how Frankenstein's ego gives Frankenstein a warped sense of reality. This warped sense of reality is first seen when Frankenstein decides to go from having little scientific experience to creating life from nothing. His ego forces him to labor with rot and the dead to achieve a mythical status as first and lone creator of life, further blinding him to the horror of his creation. As the novel progresses, Shelley uses ego to once again rationalize Frankenstein's actions.

Society is well-known for pushing those who are outsiders or strange away from society. This is prevalent to the examples in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The monster who was created by Victor Frankenstein who wanted to be the first to create life was appalled by the sights of the his creation. Frankenstein’s monster is judged based on his appearances and is often ostracized by society, just as anyone in modern day society can be shunned or pushed away due to their looks or how they think. The most outstanding example of ostracism that occurred throughout the novel is based on the monster’s physical features and structure.

​Both Dr. Frankenstein and Prospero are show as the more dominant figure of their relationships, as they both possess a sense of control over their companion. In addition to being viewed as the oppressor, both Dr. Frankenstein and Prospero views their companions as beings who are not worthy of their respect. Dr. Frankenstein treats his creature with such disdain that he states that he wished he were dead. Similarly,

The novel “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley tells the story of a man named Victor Frankenstein, who decides to go against the laws of nature by bringing to life a being constructed with decaying body parts. Victor believes in natural philosophy and science, which leads him to the idea of creating this Creature. Although this novel can be interpreted in many ways, I believe that Mary Shelley is shining a light on the harmful and dangerous impacts that prejudice and assumptions can have on people who are considered different. Shelley may be suggesting that humanity is the true 'monster ' due to its socialized ideologies that make ambition, self-greed and rage fulfilling. Even to this day society is known to shun those who we do not see as equals.

Frankenstein, a work by Mary Shelley, is a story about how man creates life so he can carve a new era of society, but ultimately faces the repercussions from attempting to defy the laws of nature. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the themes revenge, nature, and isolation from society to create meaning for her readers. For example, Revenge is a powerful force that will consume the minds of those it inhabits. The monster begins its life with a warm, open heart. However, after it is abandoned and mistreated first by Victor and then by the De Lacey family, the monster turns to revenge, it became blinded, and “...feelings of revenge and hatred filled [its] bosom…

In many novels throughout literature, enemies often share striking similarities. They push and pull at each other to the point where they lead to the each others undoing, yet they share tremendous likeness. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly Victor Frankenstein and his creature are two sides of one person. Both despise each other, and in doing so they are despising themselves. There is a power struggle between the two adversaries, which leads to both Frankenstein, and his creature ending up alone.

Furthermore, the theme of light/dark is present in both as in Othello, Iago says that he will turn Desdemona’s king act into something evil and dark. The contrast between light and dark is shown as Desdemona’s good deed is the light and way Iago will portray it to Othello is the dark. Similarly in Frankenstein, the light dark imagery is present, although not as evident, in that the way the creature communicates to Frankenstein is somewhat light, as he is talking in a calm and reasonable manner. The darkness is shown when he threatens Frankenstein with the ultimatum, comply with my demands or he will kill all of Frankenstein’s friends and

Victor was part of a wealthy Swiss family who treated him as ““...an object of their love, not a participant in it; he is "their plaything and their idol.” Victor insists upon remembering "the best of all possible worlds" is the psychological defense of an only child (as he was for a long time) who maintains a love/hate relationship with his parents because he senses that they share an affection that in some way excludes him” (Claridge). This gave Victor the idea that people were somehow objects that you can give love to which he soon does with Elizabeth. “His mother tells him, "I have a pretty present for my Victor -- tomorrow he shall have it.” The child subsequently accepts Elizabeth as his "promised gift" and makes her his own possession.”

Throughout this article Hsu uses Julia Kristeva’s definition of what she defines as the abject to explicate the symbolic meaning behind Frankenstein’s monster, which by its application asserts that the monster aggregates all forms of abjection. Hsu coincides with this notion by pointing out that it is by the monster’s constant rejection from society by its appearance that signifies it as being something that disrupts order (that of a societal one) and thus is what causes a sense of horror in both the reader and in Victor Frankenstein. Furthermore, it is Victor’s feelings of both obsession and repugnance towards the labors he undertakes to create this monster that expresses the abject being used ambivalently. Likewise, it is due to the monster

Several traits distinguish whether a character is a Romantic and Gothic protagonist in a literature piece. Romanticism is described by the attraction of a human to the natural forces, often uncivilized, of the Universe. Instead of thinking rationally, a Romantic looks to imagination, which allows one to view the world in an idealistic light. Gothicism is a category of Romanticism, which focuses primarily on the obscure and supernatural forces of the Universe. Therefore, Romantic Goth characters have the talent to both see and feel the beauty in the dark and obscure, which often inspires them to react differently to a given situation.