...AP LIT Frankenstein Literary Analysis I Must Know More Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a romantic era novel based on the theme of knowledge. The word “knowledge” reoccurred many times throughout Frankenstein and forced the reader to understand the definition of it. According to Webster’s Dictionary, knowledge is defined as “Knowledge: n. Understanding gained by actual experience; range of information; clear perception of truth; something learned and kept in the mind.” The word knowledge is very simple, but has different meanings to all of us. Knowledge is the tool we use in making proper judgement. Knowledge is an extremely powerful thing and it must be used wisely and properly. Carelessly using knowledge can cause terrible consequences. The novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a novel that has many comparisons of powers in life. It pertains to many themes in society today. Frankenstein contrasts science, technology, life and death, and most importantly knowledge and ignorance. It shows the consequences of knowledge in both negative and positive ways. In Frankenstein, three characters searched for one thing - knowledge. Unfortunately the results of their search differed from what they had anticipated. Walton, blinded by ambition, believed that search for knowledge on the route to the North Pole would bring fame to his name, but he quickly learned that he ended up only with the danger to the lives of his crew. Frankenstein, driven by passion and inability...
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...4: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Forbidden knowledge From the beginning of humanity, a thirst for knowledge was born within the human soul. This thirst made it essential for the human mind to seek knowledge constantly and discover new things. We want to know everything. And it has been a great journey for mankind in the field of technology and science; the achievements that humanity has managed to accomplish in the different fields of knowledge are outstanding. Over the past few centuries, the intellectuals of society have made countless advances in science and the development of technology, which, to different degrees, have all benefited mankind. Our thirst for knowledge is what has kept and still keeps us moving forward, and it is what separates us from our ancestors and makes the present life different than the ancient one; without it we wouldn’t have the full-of-technology, modern life we have today. Every scientific discovery is the result of man’s hunger for and dedication to acquiring knowledge, information, and power. However, the innate curiosity and desire for understanding in an individual can grow so immense that his or her moral and ethical boundaries erode, which might result in tragic and disastrous results for all who are involved. Despite that there is a huge number of fields in which humans can seek knowledge, forbidden knowledge have always been attractive for some. The secrets of life and death stand as the most tempting, and in Frankenstein we see...
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...this case, deadly. Victor Frankenstein is the creator of the creature. Victor becomes obsessed with the idea of creating the human form and bringing it to life. Immediately after creating the creature, he is terrified because he doesn't truly understand what he has created. He returns home to his family, only to find tragedy there. Victor is not fully aware of the consequences of his actions and in a turn of events he spends his entire life trying to destroy the the one thing he spent his entire life creating. Much like a mother figure Victor Frankenstein brings a creature into the world but unlike most mothers Victor...
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...When a person thinks of Frankenstein's monster, they most likely think the creation as being wretched, but in reality, Victor Frankenstein is the wretched one. Victor gave his creation life, but he found his being to be so horrid that he ran from his new responsibility without teaching morals. The murders of Victor's loved ones happened because Victor abandoned his being, causing his creation to find its own life's principles. Victor Frankenstein's mistakes caused him to be the person responsible for the deaths within Mary Shelley's novel. Initially, Victor Frankenstein desired unknown knowledge which was not thought about carefully. When Victor made the decision, bringing life to a being, he did not consider the consequences of creating a...
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...Frankenstein/Bladerunner In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) humanity’s manipulation of nature paradoxically erodes the human spirit and compromises integrity. Although contextually disparate, both texts explore a creator’s need to take responsibility for his creation, cautioning responders of the dangers of unrestrained scientific progress and conveying humanity’s severed relationship with nature. Where Shelley communicates with a certain ambiguity characteristic of the contradictory Age of Reason and sets her tale against a backdrop of a sublime natural world, Scott portrays a society fuelled by ecological destruction and 1980s corporate abuse. This reflects each composer’s anchoring of their visions in the socio-cultural realities of their time; a fundamental transgression of human values over time. Both texts explore the dangers of uninhibited scientific progress. In Frankenstein, Shelley fashions a gothic world where nature is tampered with and a ‘hurricane of enthusiasm’ drives the protagonist towards abandoning his conscience, prompting Shelley’s valuing of moderation. Underpinned by the Industrial Revolution and an era of scientific change, Victor embodies the obsessive passions and Romantic ego-identities of 19th century scientists. The epistolatory narrative framework adds a disquieting sense of truth to Victor’s retrospective dialogue, “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,” reflecting his Promethean disobedience...
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...Webb 1 Kennedi Webb Ms. Barrett AP English IV September 4, 2014 Frankenstein “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay. To mould me Man, did I solicit thee. From darkness to promote me?” (Paradise Lost, X, 74345). There are many different major themes in the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Life and Revenge would to be two major themes that condemn two of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature he has created. Life is one of the major themes in Frankenstein for many reasons. Dr. Victor Frankenstein chose to make life from different body parts of corpses hoping to make a new species/race. Victor somewhat plays God by creating life in an inanimate object. The difference between Victor and God is how Victor does not take responsibility of his creation and is horrified at what he has done. The creature is abandoned at the very beginning of his new life and is undoubtedly hated by his creator. “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for misdeed” (10.3). The monster sees himself like Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, “irrevocably executed” from bliss. The creature was created like Adam and free of sin but the way society has treated him has made him hateful and vengeful. “I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone?”(10.3). The monster only wants love from another companion and does not receive that from even his ...
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...Frankenstein This is an extract from a roman, written by a woman named Mary Shelly. The story is about a man named Victor Frankenstein who is trying to develop a new scientific discovery. He completes his mission and creates a monster. This monster is getting ostracized because of his looks. When Mary Shelly started writing “Frankenstein” she was only 19 years old, and she had just lost an unborn child. That made her think about scientists, who were able to regain life. In this essay I will focus on Victor, as a mad scientist, his responsibility, his self-confidence and my own opinion on Victors morals and personality. In this extract of Frankenstein written by Mary Shelly, she shows us that Victor Frankenstein is a mad scientist by using long descripting sentences to describe how Frankenstein get’s sick in his passion to accomplish his mission. For example “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree;” By writing this, she gives us a chance to understand Victor’s eagerness to complete what he thinks is his duty for mankind. He works while he is sick. A part from that, Mary Shelly also describes how Victor get’s and furnished his materials from a slaughterhouse and a dissecting room. “The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials;” once again by writing this, she shows that he will do almost anything to complete his duty. All from breaking in to a slaughterhouse and steel and use materials, to...
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...The True Monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein The True Monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Science reaches its long tangles tentacles into our everyday life and existence, area’s that reach into such studies as the universe, the environment, animals, insects, and even the prehistoric dinosaurs. Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, who unwittingly creates a “monster” that counteracts with man and god’s view and control over the human condition. Victor’s monster becomes a constant threat to his way of life, the woman and family he so dearly treasures. Created as an experiment, only to be thrown into the human world like a day old sandwich is discarded into the trash. Never being taught the difference between right and wrong; the same as a mother snake would lay and keep an egg warm, only to leave it once it has hatched. The question is can the “monster” that is never given a name really be held accountable for his actions, or should the blame fall to his creator. It seems that Shelly is trying to display through her writings that when science is followed merely on the bases of discovery without thought to the affect that the experimentation can have we risk endangering everything that we hold dear. Frankenstein becomes totally enveloped by a sinister passion that fuels his intense desire to create life; an innocent curiosity that leads him to discover what he feels is his life’s purpose. He is so over taken by his quest that...
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...1818, by an “anonymous” author, Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus has inspired numerous adaptations, remakes and parodies across different literary genres. Reprinted again in 1831, this time with an introduction written by Mary Shelley acknowledging her authorship, Frankenstein through its discrediting of science and the omnipotence of nature, confirms ands challenges our own habitual understandings of the world around us. The habitual understanding I will be focusing on is western hegemonic rationalism and the dominance of science as the ruler and explainer of my universe in comparison to the earlier more romantic ideology of Shelley’s time. Frankenstein also carries a warning about ambition. In a society that believes ambition to be a good thing, Shelley attempts to revel catastrophic consequences for humans over come with the quest for glory and science’s obsessive and overly ambitious nature. Western hegemonic ideal is the cultural identity that has conditioned me, becoming habitual, normal and routine. However, Shelley was privileged as she was writing at the beginning of the scientific enlightenment era, and could therefore identify what would be lost if science and technology were to usurp the position of God, nature and fate. Art, emotions, passion, suffering, humility etc were to be restricted into liminal spaces, creating a world not unlike Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World. Romantic philosophies have been endorsed in Frankenstein through the downfall of Victor...
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...Someone who is hungry for power will never be satisfied and will desire for more until he or she gets what they want. In the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, we are introduced to Victor Frankenstein a scientist that aspires to create a creature, which later he achieves. Throughout the novel, the theme is well developed and takes the reader through Victor and the creature's point of view showing the reader a clear picture of the dynamic between the two. The story shows the reader who constantly seeks power will cause destruction upon himself or others. Victor wants to discover more but is only doing the discoveries and achievements for the sake of fame. He no longer is a scientist who solves problems and searches...
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...Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” Essay Introduction: Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” has is more than just an ordinary novel. It is a book that carries a profound philosophical message. The novel touched me to my very soul. It turned out to be a book not about a struggle against a monster but a tragedy of a scientist, who reached the goal of his work and life and realized that breathless horror and disgust filled his heart but all of these is on the surface. The deepest philosophical thought is covered and hidden, but is very deep. The author tries to say that life is a gift. After this gift is given no one can take it away and it becomes the responsibility of the creator. The novel makes the reader concerned with the question: “Is a human being able to take responsibility to give life?”. “Frankenstein’s” philosophy is a conflict between the value of human life and the value of a scientific discovery. This story is not only the tragedy of Victor Frankenstein but also of his creation. It is the tragedy of loneliness and fighting alone with the world.The tragedy of Viktor Frankenstein was a tragedy of him being a toy in the hand of his own parents for the believed that he “was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery”[p.34]. The next quote shows exactly how he grew up: “they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed…”[p.37]. This subconsciously led him to the desire to have somebody...
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...According to dictionary.com, the term ‘responsibility’ is defined as the state or the fact of being answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control, or management. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, one certain character attempts to avoid his responsibility caused by his genuine desire and determinism for knowledge and fame, which eventually brings a catastrophic tragedy for the novel as a whole. Mary Shelley incorporates themes such as nature of man, curiosity, dangers of knowledge, expectations versus reality, the pursuit of fame and popularity to achieve and depict the character’s actions and reactions. In Shelley’s novel, Victor Frankenstein is depicted as a character that creates the creature and is the primary...
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...The role of science is the modernization of the world, thus possessing a lot of power. The outcome and use of scientific progression depends solely on the scientist’s intentions of its use. Humanity should fear the power of the creator or the creation’s behavior due to its social, physical, mental and environmental health effects, if it is not used for the better of the community. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly argues that the beast is dangerous because it symbolizes scientific technology; implying that the beast can impose threats to civilization. The author warns, that the beast can form independent consciousness and then turns upon society in an apocalyptic rage. Society becomes afraid of the monster and as a result, rejects it. This fear...
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...General 1. Title: Frankenstein 2. Author: Mary Shelley 3. Date of publication: Jan 1, 1818 4. Novel type: horror, Gothic, science fiction and tragedy Structure 1. Point of view: Throughout most of the novel it is a first person narrative. The main narrator s victor Frankenstein however there are 2other narrators too; Walton and the monster. Walton’s narration is through letters. 2. Relationship to meaning: The first person narration helps the reader see things from the character point of view and also helps create doubt over what really happened or why something really happened. 3. Plot structure: A. exposition: Walton narrates how he has encountered a man named Victor Frankenstein while on his voyage through ice caps. The reader also sees the creature for the first time here. B. inciting incident: The stories conflict starts of here, Walton explains to Victor how his search for knowledge is worth any amount lives and this is where victor realizes Walton will lead the same path as he did in life and he decides to tell Walton his life story. C. events contributing to rising action: Victor begins to start his research to create a monster and then is finally successful in creating his monster. The monster runs away and begins to live in a forest right by the De ‘Lacey family and he learns to read and speak. The monster begins to feel lonely because most of society and his creator have shunned him. D. climax: The monster goes into the De...
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...Frankenstein and Blade Runner Although written more than 150 years apart from each other, and with very different mediums of production both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scotts Blade Runner reflect upon the societal concerns of their times in order to warn us of the consequences of overstepping our boundaries and unbridled technological advancement. Subsequently, it becomes evident that despite their temporal and contextual differences, both texts are in fact linked through their common concerns and concepts. Frankenstein was written in 1818 at the height of the industrial revolution. 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. The story is partially based on Giovanni Aldini's electrical experiments on dead animals and was also a warning against the expansion of modern humans in the Industrial Revolution. Blade Runner, on the other hand was written in 1982 at the beginning of the age of computers. The movie is set in Los Angeles in 2019 inside a post-modern, post-industrial and post-apocalyptic city. The world is devoid not only of nature, but children, sunlight and “real” animals. In the opening scene, film noir characteristics, such as disoriented visual schemes and heavy reliance of shadows and rain are used to show the vast yet dwarfed city. This leads us to believe that this city is a result of past consequences where nature has not just...
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