Shelley’s Frankenstein does an excellent job at demonstrating the ideas and accomplishments of the enlightenment period. Shelly expresses these ideas and thoughts through the character of Victor Frankenstein who is an aspiring scientist seeking an intellectual challenge. Victor Frankenstein live s his hometown of Geneva and leaves in quest of a valued education in Ingolstadt. When Victor arrives at college he is lonely and finds himself in a new world in which he lives by himself. He than meets Mr. M.
Waldman who is a chemistry professor. We can tell the Frankenstein is a representation of the Enlightenment and scientific period because he just like the earlier theorist Who is a Each character represents an important part of history such as the ideals of the scientific revolution, the embodiment of non- European ideals, and the scientific path that the Europeans would be taking in the future. The creation of Frankenstein itself is a symbolization of the progress of the enlightenment period. During this time the Europeans had just witnessed the scientific revolution where simple devices like the microscope and better telescopes were invented along with the advances of knowledge.
The Term Paper on Frankenstein and the Enlightenment
Written in 1818 and conceived from a nightmare, the gothic novel of Frankenstein is one of the most chilling and deeply disturbing stories ever told. The novel has transcended time periods, and today is still one of the most profound novels to be studied, exploring concepts such as life, love and existence. One of the key themes presented through the story is the dangerous pursuit of knowledge, ...
The creature’s embodiment of the non-European, the outcast, the alien and the other stems from the incompleteness of the monster ability to engage in cretin perceptions of the world he was brought in. Unlike the Europeans, the monster was brought to life with no concept of value, or cultural norms. This also included the inability to use his 5 senses, to differentiate the differences of emotions and let along the use of empirical sciences to derive about the truths of the life he was forced to live. He was such and outcast to the people around him because of his appearance, though at first the monster had sincere feelings for others, they began to diminish because of the rejection of people to accept him because he was alien to them. When Frankenstein realizes how hideous a creature he has mad he instantly creates a negative connotation of the monster. We know this because when the creature is brought to life Frankenstein says ‘For this I had deprived myself of rest and health.
I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart (Chapter 5, pg. 42).” Immediately after the event he runs out of the laboratory petrified at what he had done. From the passage quoted above and from his actions in the lavatory this further implies that Frankenstein was very unhappy with the result of his invention, resulting in negative actions toward him. Later in the book we learn to understand that the creature becomes violent. This is resulting from any encounters that the monster has had with people. When he soon learns the rejection of him by people, he becomes violent and sets out to kill Victor his creature.
As the monster stumbles upon a young boy in a forest he plans to kidnap him, so that he would have someone to love. When he figures out that this is Frankenstein’s younger brother he kills him as a part of his vengeance. Mary Shelley’s conclusion about the historical paths that Europeans are taking, infer that man is trying to create and direct the natures of life to peruse what they believe to be happiness. Shelley points this out to the world through her novel “Frankenstein.” Though it is a tale, she makes it a point to point out of Victor, who was extremely talented in the sciences wanted to create a form of life. Since he had the knowledge and drive to complete his experiment it back fired on him.
The Term Paper on How Does Mary Shelley Persuade the Reader to Pity Frankenstein’s Creature?
At the time, the Industrial Revolution was occurring and science was being developed. Scientists carried out experiments with electricity, trying to bring frogs back to life. Shelley visited an alchemist’s castle in the Rock of Franks where she was inspired by the alchemy. Two of Shelley’s daughters had died which influenced her to make the novel about life and death. She would relate to ...
This is because the world we live in has its own natural God given rules. When human kind decides to control destiny from God and nature it will always result in chaos. I believe that Shelley is pessimistic about the world’s historical path. I say this because from her text she gives us evidence that suggest that sense man is so greedy with their wants and desires in life that they will use any means if necessary to benefit them. This will eventually result in more violence, illness, etc. Resulting in world corrupted by man.
In conclusion I found this book to be extremely good. Mary Shelley clearly states the importance of how human beings are very intelligent and knowledgeable about our world. We have the ability to clean and experiment with life. As Shelley demonstrated in the book, man can only create understand certain aspects in life, while others depend on nature and higher beings rather than empirical reasoning. Frankenstein’s character gives us an example of how many things in life need to have a sense of belonging or attachment to something of importance, Victor exemplifies the quest for technological improvements by man against nature, and the book in general gives us a sense of understanding of the dangerous human beings can create through selfishness.
