Frankenstein Rhetorical Analysis Essay

All humans find themselves obsessively determined to succeed in gaining something, whether it be knowledge, a promotion, or someone’s love, only to find out that what they thought they were going to get is not what they actually wanted at all. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley describes this phenomena occurring within Victor Frankenstein’s internal narrative. He is obsessed and determined to discover the secret of life, and once he does he realizes its effects on not only his life, but others’ as well. Throughout the passage found on pages 30-31, Mary Shelley reveals the attitudes of curiosity, wonder, and determination through descriptive characterization of Victor Frankenstein and his thoughts, effectively bringing her own attitudes to fruition through language, symbols, and sentence structure.

The first component of the rhetorical triangle is the rational appeal, where the writer uses logical reasoning to persuade their audience. The character who uses the rational appeal in narration is Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein tells his personal story about his encounters with the Creature. He does not base his narration on how the actions made him feel, but the actions themself. He tells the story of the action and let them speak for themself.

Throughout the well-known novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein is characterized as being a very selfish man. Contrary to this idea, Victor tells his father, “A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives. . .” (184 Frankenstein). It is ironic that Victor makes this comment, as it is evident throughout the novel that he does not truly mean this. In other words, Victor did not sacrifice his life for his friends and family at any point over the course of the story.

He initiates the hostile relationship, threatening the creation, “We are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight in which one must fall” (103). Just as Victor abandons the creation from the day he creates him, Victor demands for the creation to leave him. Victor’s first instinct is to escape, avoiding his creature, and the responsibility he has to him as the creator. He rejects love in the relationship, while the creation seeks it from his estranged author.

In reality, he is disgusted by the sight of his creation so he abandons it leaving it all alone in the world without any guidance and runs away to the next room. Victor himself suffered from being a social outcast and now he bestowed the same feeling onto the creature by abandoning him. By treating the creature as an outcast, “he will become wicked … divide him, a social being, from society, and you impose upon him the irresistible obligations—malevolence and selfishness” (Caldwell). Not only is Victor selfish for abandoning his creature but he is shallow as well. Instead of realizing that he achieved his goal of bringing life to an inanimate body he runs way because of how hideous it is.

(Shelly 69) What Victor endured in the past still fuelled his hate and anger towards the creature. This hate consumed his whole being leading him to parade such savagery to the creature. Through the cruelty he shows buth his own body and the creature we can see Victor's selfishness.

Frankenstein, Dialectical Journal- Chapter 4- The End A theme that was very prevalent in these final chapters was, Creator and Creation, furthermore how the monster and Frankenstein are more alike than they like to think. Both characters had been wronged by the other and made it their missions to destroy each other, losing parts of themselves along the way. “You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes.

The gothic fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley centralizes on humanity and the qualifications that make someone human. The content of the novel Frankenstein depicts a monster displaying human traits that his creator Victor does not possess: empathy, a need for companionship, and a will to learn and fit in. Throughout the novel Shelley emphasizes empathy as a critical humanistic trait. The monster displays his ability to empathize with people even though they are strangers. On the other hand Victor, fails to show empathy throughout the novel even when it relates to his own family and friends.

He had not thought about the downfall his actions could bring until after the monster was created. This novel is often referred to as The Modern Prometheus. In greek mythology, Prometheus is known for stealing fire from the gods, and giving it to mankind. This can be compared to Victor because he stole God’s job; he created life. Victor abused his understanding of human anatomy and created another being, which led to disaster in his life.

Following Victor’s whole trial he was only saved because his father spoke out and someone from the justice system saw how the evidence did not point to him. Showing how dysfunctional and irresponsible society and the justice system at the time was what Mary Shelley intended. Commenting on these issues was what the novel proved effective on showing just how dysfunctional the government and their neighbors really

Perhaps the emphasis Shelly puts on the childhood emotions of the characters emphasizes the importance of that phase in a person's life. Victor explains near the end of the story: "From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk". By contrasting Victor's core tendencies and emotions against those of his family and friends, Shelly also emphasizes how they can control the character's fate. For instance, Elizabeth and Henry, the similar contrasts for Victor's personality, shared the same fatal ending at the hands of the monster that is the product of Victor's

The fact that Victor sees the creature as such a vile thing shows us that Victor doesn’t have any respect whatsoever for it. The creature states that he was ‘dependent on none and related to none’ which also

It is quite difficult to identify with the protagonist in Frankenstein because he comes across as quite cowardly and irresponsible, these are common traits one would not want to associate themselves with. It could be argued that Victor changes from an innocent young adult, curious about the ways of science into a guilt ridden man, constantly cautious about horrific creation. In terms of the main parts of the book, Victor has no apparent positive change but can still be considered a round character as he tries to come to terms with the terrifying creation of his past, which is the ideal element that the protagonist’s character in a Gothic novel upholds; “ I revolved in my mind the events which I had until now sought to forget: the whole train

Once noted, the parallels between Frankenstein’s fears and desires and the reality the monster experiences are many. Now that Victor is in university, he no longer has family and friends to fall back upon in the unknown territory of his university. Frankenstein voices is that “[he] believed [himself] totally unfitted for the company of strangers,” irrational as it may be, and believes himself solely dependent on his family and childhood friend for companionship. Without the love guaranteed to him by his family, Victor believes he is unfit to make companions by himself and destined to a life of loneliness. He places much importance on the fact that his father and Elizabeth love him and are concerned with his well-being.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Critical Analysis About the author Naomi Hetherington is a member of the University of Sheffield, the department of lifelong learning. She is an early researcher in sexuality, religious culture, the 19th-century literature, and gender. She holds a BA in Theology and religious studies, an MA and a Ph.D. in Victorian Literature. She currently teaches four-year pathway literature degree at Sheffield University for students who have already attained foundation degrees. Among the books, she has written the critique of Frankenstein.