This last letter from Walton to his sister describes his final encounters with Victor Frankenstein and the Creature itself. Within these two letters, the author, Mary Shelley, includes irony between two passages to close out the novel. Passage one is a conversation between Walton and Victor while passage two is between Walton and the Creature. Each passage contains irony within themselves along with irony against each other that connect to the overall story. The first chosen passage discusses how Victor feels he has changed for the worse from his younger self. Ever since he created the Creature his life has held a multitude of misfortunes. All of these incidents were at the hand of the Creature he made, thus being ironic in a sense. Victor’s …show more content…
The Creature appears when Victor is found dead in his chambers. Immediately the Creature sobs at the sight of his dead creator. He is deeply saddened by the death of Victor however, he is enraged by the thought that it was his fault. The Creature expresses to Walton his feelings of remorse towards all his previous murders as well as Victor’s death. He also speaks on his feelings of abandonment and exile from all humans throughout his life. The irony is in the fact that the Creature once only thought of a dream to have normal relationships with humans but, now his thoughts of murder and revenge. He cannot believe that the creature he is today is the same as “the creature whose thoughts were filled with sublime and transcendent visions of beauty” (Shelly 97). One day, he thought, he would be amongst other people but because of his crimes he is alone. His thoughts are ironic because he was the cause of his dream of being normal never to happen. It is ironic that he went from being a kindhearted innocent creature to a dangerous …show more content…
Victor and the Creature’s irony throughout their life is found to be self caused. Each character drastically changed their own life under the choices they decided to make. Victor Frankenstein caused his own irony by wanted to create something beautiful however, making a monster. The Creature’s irony is having a goal to walk peacefully with humans but only to change to the desire to murder. The situational irony in both characters are self inflicted and contributes to an overall theme to the novel. The theme to be found with the help of this irony is one’s fate in life. A person’s fate can be determined early on by the cause and effect of their chosen actions. Victor chose to test life by creating a living creature. The effect to this action was that he made a monster who decides Victor’s fate for the rest of his life. Now, the Creature chose to murder Victor’s various family members out of revenge against his creator. The effect of this is his own fate of ruining the biggest dream he hoped for, to live a normal life. He ruined that because he truly became the monster he was perceived to
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is elevated in the area of rich text by its use of allusions, specifically to Paradise Lost. The most predominate is the story in Paradise Lost the original creation story that takes place in Genesis of the Bible. In the Romantic era, biblical and religious references were commonly used in literary work. It is common in the Romantic-Gothic genre. Mary Shelley uses these biblical allusions because she wants to show the principles of what it is to be human, and they are relevant to how she wants the audience to perceive God and the creation of life, which might feed into her stance on people “playing God” which she shows in the book, that she does not believe it is a wise decision to mess with the natural order.
Victor is tormented by the creatures ambition and this leaves Victor a void of his former self, subject to anything he puts his mind to and it is this form of himself that leads him ever so closer to the end of his days. Left a hollowed out version of himself, Victor is unable to cope with the loss of all of his friends and family through the hands of his own creation and seeks to right all of his
He commits the most heinous crimes and shows a terrifying volatility, having “murdered the lovely and the helpless”, yet he seeks forgiveness at the side of his dead creator, expressing regret for his actions (146-148). At the deathbed of Victor, the creature laments that he “the miserable and the abandoned” is “an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled” and resents this injustice, for he is was he was created to be
After Victor brings the creature to life, he is immediately repulsed by his creation and abandons him. Victor's cruelty towards the creature has far-reaching consequences, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads to tragedy. This act of cruelty is a powerful motivator for the creature, who seeks revenge against his creator for abandoning him. As the creature explains, "I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley 117). Victor's cruelty towards the creature ultimately leads to the deaths of several innocent people, highlighting the dangers of unchecked ambition and the human desire for power.
A foil is a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein is telling his story about his trials and tribulations so far in his life. Characters like the creature, Elizabeth, and Henry Clervel help highlight Victor’s qualities. Robert Walton is a more effective foil for Victor Frankenstein based on his experiences that parallels and contrasts Frankenstein’s life.
Lulu Lydon Honors Sophomore English Final Essay Frankenstein and Dracula have an ongoing allusion to mythology, the Bible, and other canonical works of literature. With this allusion, the reader is able to track the dominant connections of the two novels. When authors incorporate these allusions into their pieces, it enhances the writing. Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein uses a couple different elements to incorporate the allusion to mythology, the Bible, and other canonical works of literature.
In the following passage from Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses an abundance of stylistic elements, simple tone, and major themes to portray Victor Frankenstein’s emotional state. Throughout the novel, Shelley uses detailed metaphors to assist the reader into connecting with the characters and their troubling situations. One specific example of these detailed metaphors are, “trees lie broken and strewed on the ground; some entirely destroyed, others bent, leaning upon the jutting rocks of the mountain or transversely upon other trees”. This metaphor illustrates and compares Victor’s family tree to broken trees. Victor watched as his family tree became damaged, just like the ones on the mountain.
Victor’s first look at his “masterpiece” horrifies him and he proceeds to run away; leaving his “child” all alone. The paths both Victor and the monster will lead will be obvious as the story progresses. Through indirect characterizations, it is obvious that, both characters undergo changes as the story furthers. The author conveys Victor Frankenstein’s change by expressing his actions and feeling throughout
The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.
Internal Conflict in Frankenstein Frankenstein. A name that is known around the world. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, wrote this classic in 1818 when she was 19 years old. Mary Shelley did not anticipate that her book would grow to be this well known. Though she did plan how the book’s motifs and themes would be significant, including internal conflict.
The irony the author A.C.H Smith values as a literary device in Labyrinth is using it to create suspense. To start, there are examples of verbal irony. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the speaker says the exact opposite of what she or he means. Here are some examples of verbal irony. To begin with, Hoggle says to Jareth “I am taking her to the beginning of the Labyrinth.”
The creature wants to take revenge on Victor for abandoning him and causes Victor grief by killing the people he cares about. When the creature kills, Victor feels responsible and guilty of the murders. He continually breaks down with each death by “his” hands, which makes him go mad. The task of creating a monster turned Victor into a monster
After the creature is finished explaining its story to Victor, there is a turning point in the novel. Victor realizes that he needs to take on some responsibility for his creation: “did I not as his maker, owe him all the portion of happiness that it was in my power to bestow?”(Shelley 148). Victor also thinks, “…the justice due both to him and my fellow creatures demanded of me that I should comply with his request. ”(Shelley 150). Victor is finally understanding that he needs to take on some responsibility for this creature.
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;
The Monster and Exile Every person in life is created with a strong sense of belonging. Whether the belonging is to a person, a place, or a moment in time, they still feel connected and influenced by it. Exile is an action that separates a person from this connected belonging, and can suffer great consequences, but can also enrich their lifestyle. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the creature creaked by Victor Frankenstein is forced, from the very beginning of his existence, away from his creator and society as a whole. This type of exile turned the creature into what he is, shaping his ideas and mentalities.