...Shelley's Frankenstein, (Topic) Victor has two doppelgängers, one being Clerval and the other being his creation (Argument) because the monster is an embodiment of his worse self who doesn't take responsibility and Clerval is his better self who lives without guilt, which is reflected in their relationship to nature, and view of self. (Reason) Victor Frankenstein...
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...the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein attempts to create a man but the man that he creates turns out to be hideous in appearance. The only differences between the man created by Frankenstein and a man created in the typical sense of birth are (1) the manner by which the men are brought into the world, and (2) the...
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...photographed the first three of Whale's quartet of horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), and The Invisible Man (1933)” (Wikipedia). Edeson’s cinematic technique can be seen elsewhere in film like The Maltese Falcon (1941), Sergeant York (1941), Casablanca (1942), The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), and Three Strangers (1946). The excellent cinematography in Frankenstein evokes a surreal and mysterious quality, perfectly matching the thunder and lightening storm above the gloomy castle in classic black and white imagery, and capturing that German Expressionism completely, from acting to set design, everything is wonderfully filmed, but as film critic Leonard Matlin mentions in his book Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1994, “It’s creaky at times, and cries for music score, but it’s still impressive” (Maltins 441). Historians will point out,...
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...and Individual Responsibility in Frankenstein Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in a time of wonder. A main wonder was whether you could put life back into the dead. Close to the topic of bringing life back into the dead was whether you could create your own being, like selective breeding but a bit more powerful. Looking after something you create is one point that shows up in the story. Frankenstein created his creature so he should have looked after it but instead just because he didn't like the way it looked he ran away. He never taught his creature anything so for all that the creature knew it could have been okay to kill people and suchlike. That relates to today as some children who were not taught right from wrong by their parents and have to learn on their own, but by the time they learn, they might have messed up to immensely to fix it. This point could also be known as teaching a child or creation right from wrong. Responsibility towards family is another point Frankenstein brings up. This point can be taken in two ways that Frankenstein was irresponsible to his creature or that the creature was irresponsible to Frankenstein. Frankenstein was irresponsible to his creature by running away and to his creature Frankenstein was his family and Frankenstein was responsible for teaching him the ways of life. Instead he ran away. The creature was irresponsible to Frankenstein as when Frankenstein left he should have done his best to fend for himself. The Creature...
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...Nine English AEP Frankenstein/Science Fiction Essay (Reading and Writing Task) Topic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the Science Fiction text that allowed all other examples of the sub-genre to follow. Discuss this proposition with specific reference to the Drama Script and Film versions of the novel, along with any other relevant Science Fiction texts you have read or viewed. * Your essay should especially consider Shelley’s context and that of other writers you refer to, as well as your own context as a reader. * You should make specific reference to the texts you are discussing via both direct (quotations) and indirect (explanations) evidence. * Be sure to plan your response so that each paragraph has its own unified idea. A sample paragraph structure might look like the following: 1. Introduction – Thesis: e.g.: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the first text which uses scientific experimentation as the basis of its plot. In doing this, it paved the way for all Science Fiction which followed…” 2. Body P1 – Author context + sub-genre features – what changes have occurred over time as a result of context? Consider Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury 3. Body P2 – Discussion of Frankenstein 4. Body P3 – Discussion of other text e.g.: War of the Worlds (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) 5. Body P4 - Discussion of other text e.g.: There Will Come Soft Rains (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) 6. Body...
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...create anything we want. However, in Mary Shelley's novel ‘Frankenstein’ and the Canadian Space Arm, we went beyond the boundaries of ethics, where we created objects which were incredulous, yet at the same time, they were monsters of our own making. Both creators were nothing less than admirable in their intentions. Nonetheless, in providing both creations with human- like names and features, they violated what I believe to be ethical limits, and as a result they ended up with unethical monsters. I do not believe that it is right to give inanimate objects human like features; when we...
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...This monster is known to be a feared monster that has parts of the dead made by Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is a normal person and he went crazy into trying to find the secret to life and death itself and in chapter 4 Victor makes his biggest victory over life and death so he goes and makes a man out of skin and bones and when he first knows that it worked he was happy and excited and when he sees his monster he is horrified by what he sees he sees a man with yellow eyes looking at him and the creation had black lips that are as black as charcoal was scaring him. Victor Frankenstein runs away and meets his friend Henry and they return to Frankenstein house and frankenstein was scared that his monster was still there and how...
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...world full of judgement, the Frankenstein family face a massive amounts of obstacles they must overcome. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, multiple societal standards are shown against the monster and the Frankenstein family. With the choices made and the creation of a monster, the family is outcasted by society. When the monster is created he is harshly judged by his appearance, leaving him to live a sorrowful life. When death is brought upon the society and also members of the Frankenstein family, many emotions begin to surface. There are many societal standards shown in the book Frankenstein, but the most obvious are discrimination, barbarism, and misconception by the society. Shown extensively in the book, discrimination is one of the most obvious societal standards. When the family is judged and treated by how wealthy or unwealthy they are, they are forced to work for their food unlike the other families. They are mistreated and harshly criticized because they are poor. INSERT QUOTE. Also the family is discriminated against because of how they look. Being at the bottom of the social class the family isn’t the best looking and they don’t...
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...person who puts out their flame will be left with nothing to drive them, and a person who feeds too much into their flame will become overtaken by the fire. In both the novel, “Frankenstein”, and the play, “Macbeth”, the title characters find themselves in the latter situation, eventually becoming too engulfed in their own fire to extinguish the blaze. In both books, Frankenstein and Macbeth feed too much into their ambition, leading them to pursue things with deadly consequences. While both books feature characters whose ultimate downfall is a result of their ambition,...
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...Different, Yet so Alike In Marry Shelly’s novel Frankenstein she develops two different characters, Victor Frankenstein and the Creature also know as Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. Even though these two characters are not related nor do they look alike in any way, they have very distinct characteristics that make them so similar. Looking at just the surface it’s hard to see how it would be even possible to call them alike. However, after digging a little deeper it becomes easier to draw distinct parallels between the two characters. As these similarities connect them in a few ways the Creature begins to seem less like the actual monster. They are similar because of; their desire to learn, a love for nature, and a longing for revenge against their enemies; all these begin to blur the lines on who the actual Monster is, as Dr. Frankenstein begins to seem more evil. From the very start, both Dr. Frankenstein and his creation had a similar desire to learn. When Dr. Frankenstein was a young child he had an abnormal desire to learn. Surely, what ultimately led to his downfall. Beginning as just a child he was obsessed with reading books on alchemy, astrology, and pseudo-sciences. He came across a volume of Cornelius Agrippa’s books, which is what completely shaped his thinking of the world around him and his love for natural philosophy. This thirst for knowledge inspired him to go to a university to study science. During his studies he gained a lot of knowledge from his mentors and...
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...In this novel Victor Frankenstein created a monster that he had grown to become afraid of. After the monster was created Victor left him, but when Frankenstein returned to his house the monster was gone. Victor Frankenstein becomes ill and his best friend Henry Clarval takes care of him. When Frankenstein becomes well again he goes home, but when he gets there he receives a letter that said that Elizabeth had got Scarlet Fever and Caroline Beafort took care of her, but as Elizabeth was getting better Caroline Beafort caught it and she died. After two years Frankenstein runs into the monster. The monster tells him everything that has happened in his life, but the monster wonted a female companion. Frankenstein said he was not going to do it. The monster tells him that if he didn’t do it he was going to kill others in his family. So Victor started to create the female, but he could not go thought with it. So he runs, but the monster eventually finds him and tell him that he was going to see him on his wedding night. Frankenstein is afraid to marry Elizabeth because the monster might kill her and he does. Frankenstein is so angry at this point that he wants to kill the monster, but the monster is so fast and so strong that he just plays with Frankenstein’s mind. The monster played with him so much that he lead Frankenstein all the way to the Artic where he eventually dies because he wasn’t eating right. In the Artic the monster also kills himself because he has no one to tease are...
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...passage, Frankenstein feels as though he has been separated from his fellow man due to his actions, this is revealed through Shelley's use of figurative language, most notably, the use of light and dark imagery. “They were my brethren, my fellow beings, and I felt attracted even to the most repulsive among them, as to creatures of an angelic nature and celestial mechanism.” Frankenstein’s desperation to be close to humanity is evidenced when he craves to be near ever the “most repulsive” men because men are “creatures of an angelic nature and celestial mechanism”; light and dark imagery make this comparison possible. “But I felt that I had no right to share their intercourse. I had unchained an enemy among them whose joy it was to shed their blood and to revel in their groans.” Light and dark imagery present in the line “joy it was to shed their blood and to revel in their groans.”, as joy and putrid bloodshed greatly contrast. This light and dark imagery is used to explain that the reason Frankenstein feels he is separated from his fellow man is due to the man-hunting monster he has created. “How they would, each and all, abhor me and hunt me from the world did they know my unhallowed acts and the crimes which had their source in me!” Frankenstein further laments his actions through the use of dark...
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...Elvis Dizdarevic Interpretation of Lit 11/17/2011 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Dangerous Knowledge By: Elvis Dizdarevic Aristotle once said, “All men by nature desire knowledge” and I tend to agree with him. Every human being strives to be more knowledgeable. It is something we all want. In society, it puts people above one another and gives a certain power to the ones who are intelligent. It is revered to be only a good thing to have and to seek but in some situations pursuing more knowledge is, in fact, dangerous. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, two main characters have this obsessive pursuit of knowledge; Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. Walton, an Englishman, is on a quest to be the first to reach the North Pole. His story is the frame for Frankenstein and the monster’s stories. He is a determined man who wants to possess a knowledge that no one else has. Walton desires to explore uncharted lands and to discover new particulars unbeknownst to the average man. Victor Frankenstein parallels Walton in his obsessive pursuit of knowledge. Most would say Frankenstein is even more obsessive. Frankenstein is a man who is purely driven to learn more. While attending the University of Ingolstadt, Frankenstein learns all that his professors have to teach him. After mastering the sciences he becomes fascinated with life and its creation. So much that he neglects his family and stays in his apartment for months at a time to research. He believes that there is...
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...Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley about a creature produced by an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was nineteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823. Shelley had travelled in the region of Geneva, where much of the story takes place, and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her future husband, Percy Shelley. The storyline emerged from a dream. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. She then wrote Frankenstein. Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. Brian Aldiss has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story, because unlike in previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results.[1] It has had a considerable...
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...Elaine Scarry says that by civilization creates the awareness of what a person unconsciously needs. Candide by Voltaire and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley both feature characters who approach civilization differently. Victor Frankenstein attempted to create a whole new civilization by creating a completely different creature than those that already existed while Candide and Frankenstein’s monster approached society attempting to find their place. Candide, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster all fail themselves with “each successive intensification of civilization” and in the process of attempting to integrate themselves into society they sacrifice everything else only to eventually give up and focus on themselves after realizing civilization was not worth their sacrifices. The place where they begin determines what journey they will take to find what they think they want. Victor Frankenstein, the monster and Candide all began their stories differently and it impacted how they wanted to be part of civilization. Candide lived in a castle and had access to anything he needed only to be kicked out for...
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