Throughout Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows how dangerous knowledge can be. Discuss. In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights how the pursuit of knowledge can lead to disastrous consequences when it is placed in the wrong hands. This is evidenced by Victor Frankenstein’s carless actions, and that of his creation when it is discovering the world and society for the first time. Victor’s reckless behaviour contributes not only the deaths of his family, but the creature’s nature of becoming sinful through experience.
Shelley is nuanced in acknowledging that a belief in absolute good or evil is an unrealistic moral framework of the world and in defining key points of unexpected moral reversal amongst her characters, Frankenstein can also suggest Both The creature and Victor display monstrous and humane qualities. The creature 's own killing spree is unable to be overlooked and especially his premeditated attack on Elizabeth, where he explicitly threatened to be with her "on her wedding night" illustrates that the monster also demonstrated monstrous qualities. Additionally, Shelley presents the destructive nature of her otherwise victimised creature, through the black marks that his murder imprints on the necks of Henry and Elizabeth. This symbolic manifestation of the lasting scars of unfettered industrialism perhaps evoke resentment for the monster 's lack of control and similarly suggest that Both The creature and Victor display monstrous and humane qualities. Moreover, it is Victor who appears transiently capable of consideration for the consequences of his actions who, as he aborts a secondary female creation, questions "had I right... to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?"
Well today in society, the line between hero and monster is blurred. It isn’t as clear as we would think it should be or that it ever was. Throughout history is has always been filled with Monsters disguised as heroes and Heroes that look like monsters. There are monsters that are flawed, but in some ways redeemable, and there are heroes who are flawed and broken. Well to me, what separates a hero from a monster would have to be their intentions.
Well, in my research I had found out that according to Rebecca Dudczak the one reason was that Pometheus experiences consequences from power and enlightenment,(Dudczak) just as Victor Frankenstein does in the novel. Experiencing consequesnes is the first reason Frankenstein is considered The Modern Prometheus. The inquiry for power and enlightenment and not being precautious of what could happen if you temper with the laws of nature. The consequences in Frankenstein can be compared with the original story Prometheus because there is an abundance of tragedy in this story and it seems to repeat itself as it does in Prometheus. The monster continues to strangle and kill multiple people and the bird continues to attack and eat the liver of prometheus.
Rhetorical Analysis of “Monsters and the Moral Imagination” Many people believe monsters are imaginary creatures that are seen in movies or even for others, it could be a serial killer that was heard about on the news. Stephen T. Asma wrote “Monsters and the Moral Imagination” which “first appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education in October 2009” (Hoffman 61). Asma, who is a professor of philosophy, examines how different individual’s perceptions of a monster can be different depending on the era or even events happening around them. In “Monsters and the Moral Imagination,” Stephen T. Asma wrote a nonfiction, persuasive article for an educated and possibly specialized audience to examine how the idea of monsters have changed over time, what could be the motivation to create them, or even how life experiences could change an individual’s perceptions. Asma shows that his article was written for an educated or specialized audience by his continual use of complex vocabulary, as well as the place of which the article was first published.
Many books, movies, and television programs center around both the physical and mental state around monsters. For some of us, monsters are even in our dreams. Why have monsters become so inherent in our society? The answer must be that we are in truth, reflecting the monsters inside of ourselves. We look inside the depths of our hearts and we see all that is wrong and evil about us.
In Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart, Poe writes about how his characters are driven to commit murder and how their guilt eats them alive. The dark plots used is his writings exemplify the threshold of the unknown through the way that individuals are viewed as evil. All of his writings have some sort of violence that is driven by supernatural occurrences. The man in The Tell-Tale Heart has an eye that is scary and seen as potential evil that drives the narrator crazy and eventually causes murder. Poe uses romantic characteristics in his texts by having dark plots that include murder, funerals, and mental and physical torture that regards humanity by showing how people react to even the smallest situations.
A monster instill fear, by behaving different from humans. A monster is often seen as an outcast that has a bad quality and is often, put on display. In the article Blake and Cooper state “Monsters have always been symbolic creatures, generally representing darkness or evil, providing foils for the heroes of myth and legend. Monsters often have an aura of darkness which is given to them by people who fear them. The monster of a significant of the darkness when in us.
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, uses gothic literature to portray the fact that there are limits to what mankind should be capable of and their pursuit of knowledge should be restricted. Frankenstein is a gothic novel because of 4 elements that are rendered throughout the novel. Frankenstein’s drive and motivation to grow and his curiosity to learn is what leads him to become his own worst enemy. Shelley uses horror and violence to illustrate the idea of what mankind is capable of when the pursuit of knowledge is not restricted. Sublime nature is used to foreshadow and emphasize the supernatural elements that are used in the novel.
The monster archetype has been one of the most riveting archetypes that surrounds the concept of ‘evil’. It has been portrayed as a supernatural creature with grotesque features that normally brings disruption to the city and needs to be tamed or controlled to bring once again peace to the story. Due to this, it is most commonly depicted with a negative connotation, and with the idea of horror and fear. The monster has been present since the bible, which was written approximately 3,400 years ago, with the anecdote of Goliath. It has remained with its primary role of converting the protagonist into a hero and providing fear to the storyline.