Frankenstein Figurative Language

An abandoned life from society and that doesn’t follow normal activities could make you a romantic hero. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, she portrays the main character, Victor, as a man that is intent of learning more about nature. Victor begins to make mistakes which causes him to be full of sorrow and exiled from society. Victor begins to possess some traits from Byronic list of traits that romantic heroes possess. Rejection from community and social norms, persistent loneliness. He is also similar to the Greek God, Prometheus, who saved mankind but, only after stealing fire and ignoring Zeus’ orders. She creates this perception by using strong word choice and diction.

In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Robert Walton is on a voyage to discover unexplored knowledge. While on this journey he finds Victor Frankenstein, who tells the reader of his own journey to discover the unknown. In this novel, Mary Shelley employs literary devices such as repetition, imagery, and rhetorical questions to provide meaning to the audience. For example, the author uses repetition to emphasize Elizabeth’s confidence. Expressing her frustration with the situation Elizabeth repeats, “But she was innocent. I know, I feel, she was innocent” (Shelley 63). The repetition used in this phrase shows how Elizabeth feels very irritated with the circumstance she is currently in. Another way Shelley uses literary devices to convey

Immediately at the beginning of chapter five (p. 43), Shelley gives the reader an image of the day that the monster was born on: “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.” (Shelley 43). This not only describes the weather, but using the word “dreary” sets a darker, colder tone that lasts throughout the rest of the passage. The visual picture she creates is very intricate, showing the image of the monster he created in great detail. “... his watery eyes, that seemed almost the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” (Shelley 43). This clearly depicts the horrific sight Frankenstein witnessed firsthand.

Of some of the many early films, Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), can be noted for its impact on film history as being one of the first films of its kind. This new genre of film inspired many more films to come in the Universal Hollywood film era, due to its vast amount of new techniques that were used to support German Expressionist film production. German Expressionist film production occurred after World War One, and had the primary goal to create a world much different from which the creator lives in. Frankenstein, itself, also created strong ties to German Expressionism, which called for a new way of cinema. This new wave of Cinema was noted for its “great burst of artistic activity” (Mast, Kawin 104). In Frankenstein the use of this

His family and home is everything to him, especially his love for Elizabeth. However, as the story progresses and Victor begins to realize the magnitude of his mistake in creating the monster, his outlook on life changes drastically and shifts to a darker tone. During his trek through the wilderness in search of himself, Victor finds peace and comfort in the bleak and powerful mountains. Specifically “...while rain poured from the dark sky and added to the melancholy impression I received from the objects around me…My heart, which was before sorrowful, now soared with something like joy” (Shelley 67). After this passage, Victor then moves to exclaim that he would be alright if “Wandering spirits” would “take me...away from the joys of life.” By connecting the daunting and rainy landscape to the feelings of elation and awe that envelop Victor, the reader can interpret that, unlike the beginning of the novel where Victor is accustomed to the sunny bliss of Geneva, he is instead much more at ease within the dark yet powerful landscapes of the mountains. Using the darkness of the rainy day, Shelley helps to paint a picture of the melancholy that begins to take hold of Victor’s

In Frankenstein, on Victor’s way home after being away for six years, a key moment in the novel that weather sets the mood is when “It echoed from Saleve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of light dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake making it appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant, everything seemed of pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered from the preceding flash” (Shelley 50). The author, Shelley uses weather to describe the murder of his young brother, William. The weather conditions effect Victor’s mood and convey his emotional feelings of Victor as being scared, sad, or depressed. The imagery in the quote relates to the thunder thus a way to broadcast the murder of his younger brother across the land and

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Hunter, Paul J. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. North & Company, 2012. Print.

Victor Frankenstein describes nature as calming and it brings him great happiness when he is surrounded by nature because he himself is happy and adored by friends who surround him. Frankenstein has friends whom he holds strong bonds with where “harmony was the soul of [their] companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsided [their] characters drew [them] nearer together” (29, Chapter 2). He is surrounded by companions that give him plenty of love and affection that in turn, bring him happiness and a favoring outlook on nature. Victor takes pleasure in wandering through various scenes of nature, feeling accepted by it, therefore, he can portray it as full of life and “awful and majestic” (82, Chapter 10). Nature has the “power of bestowing on

Shelley sets the challenging tone in the beginning by hinting to a possible dangerous predicament that Victor may find himself. He describes the landscape as “terrifically desolate” (66). This is a recurring description that Shelley often uses when Frankenstein desires solidarity and secludes himself from society. It can be seen again when he isolates himself on the Orkneys Islands, “[…] whose high sides were continually beaten upon by the waves”, as well whose “soil was barren” (119). Shelley’s description of the soil and the roaring tides add to the dreary and treacherous scenery she attempts to create. She uses descriptive nature as means to perpetuate the depressing mood. Victor then describes the condition of the trees in the area -where many of them are broken, destroyed or bent-emphasizing the severity of the scene. This reflects the beginning of the novel when Victor first encounters the powerful wrath of nature. At the age of 15, he witnesses a thunderstorm so terribly violent that “the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens” (22). The strength of the lightning was so strong that it struck and engulfed a tree in flames in Victor’s front yard and “reduced [it] to thin ribbons of wood” (22). Shelley uses the destruction of trees as a representation of nature’s

A writer named Nikita Gill once said “When you see a monster next, always remember this. Do not fear the thing before you. Fear the thing that created it instead.” This quote can be related to the novel Frankenstein where instead of the actual creature being perceived as the monster, the person who created it deserves to be called one. Using the archetypal lens, Victor can be seen as the real monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from his cruel characteristics, continuous patterns of monstrosity, as well as symbols and themes involving nature.

In many poems, poets use nature as a metaphor for human life. In "Storm Warnings" by Adrienne Rich, she uses an approaching storm as a metaphor for an emotional storm inside herself. Although, there is a literal meaning of the poem. There really is an incoming storm. Rich uses structure, specific detail, and imagery to convey the literal and metaphorical meanings of the poem.

Natural landscapes in "Frankenstein" help the author to bring out the theme of sublime Nature, dangers of forbidden knowledge and monstrous results of wrong actions.

In E.B. White's essay “Once more to the lake,” the speaker contrasts his childhood vacation to the camp, with the new and improved technology advanced cabins at the same campground. White employs a series of of rhetorical devices to portray his experience at the cabin over the week. The use of action heavy verbs, and figurative language in paragraphs eleven through thirteen allows the reader to recall memories from his childhood. Without these rhetorical devices, White would not have been able to accurately display the speakers memories and attitude towards the camp.

1) According to the film, the standard metaphor for a corporation is that of an apple within a barrel where most apples are good and just a few bad. Several CEO’s offered alternative metaphors, such as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a sports team, family unity, a telephone system, or an eagle. Less flattering metaphors are that of a devouring monster, a whale, or the Frankenstein monster. Are any of these metaphors more appropriate than others?

In James Davis’ literary essay “Frankenstein and the Subversion of the Masculine Voice,” he discusses the oppression of women and the minor roles of females in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein. With a feminist perspective, Davis claims, “He [Victor Frankenstein] oppresses female generation of life and of text; he rends apart both the physical and the rhetorical ‘form’ of female creativity. In fact, all three male narrators attempt to subvert the feminine voice, even in those brief moments when they tell the women’s stories” (307). Throughout his essay, Davis demonstrates the underlying message of Shelly’s subversion towards men and the social consequences of misogyny.