Mary Shelley discusses the themes of birth and creation, appearance and the necessity of companionship, love and acceptance in her novel Frankenstein. The themes that are explored in Frankenstein are relevant to today’s modern world. Shelley challenges readers by endorsing and confronting attitudes and values in her text through the events, circumstances and outcomes that take place in the novel, thus causing the reader to reflect upon their own lives and in turn the society around them. Shelley raises in her text an issue that is on the forefront of discussion in the modern world, that of man taking the place of God and the role of woman in the creation of life. The modern world is currently grappling over the concerns of cloning, genetics and stem cell research, questioning the ethics and morality of man playing God. Shelley’s novel challenges readers to consider the consequences of this through the horrific outcomes resulting from such actions.
Victors consuming passion and motivation to create life is “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.” Pg 47 Here Shelley challenges those seeking to pursue such actions to consider their motivations as the later discussion shows the terrible result of such pursuits. Shelley’s suggestion that Victor has attempted to usurp the role of woman as the bearer of life are also suggested as Victor likens his descriptions of creating the creature as to that of a woman’s pregnancy. “After so much time spent in painful labor”winter, spring and summer passed away during my labors” This allusion to the seasons representing the duration of a woman’s pregnancy. One is lead to consider the contrast between Frankenstein’s description of his own childhood “My mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my first recollections”, that of God and his creation Adam “He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature.” Pg. 135 and in contrast that of Frankenstein’s creature “I beheld the wretch- the miserable monster whom I had created.” Through presenting Frankenstein’s creation and the tragic outcome and comparing it with that perfect and beautiful creation of Adam and Frankenstein, Shelley challenges modern society to consider the consequences of what may happen if man seeks to take the place of God and usurp the role of woman.
The Essay on Frankenstein as God
Some students and literary critics may argue that Victor does not “play God” in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. I disagree with this assumption. Mary Shelley makes us consider if something can be done does that mean that it should be done. Victor Frankenstein puts together human and animal pieces to make a single corpse. Although he does not specify how he then instills the corpse with life. ...
One of the main themes in Frankenstein is appearance and acceptance. In today’s society and the society in which Frankenstein is set, people often judge one another solely based on appearance. Social prejudice is often based on looks. Be it the colour of one’s skin, the clothes they wear, facial features or even ones body expressions. People make snap judgement’s based on what the eye beholds.
Today’s schools are a prime example of this as people are classified instantly and almost unknowingly.” There’s a lot of hate around here, Gentry Roller, 16, a sophomore at Santana High. He reels off the high school cliques: the gothics, the freaks, the dorks, the jocks, the Mexican gangsters, the white supremacists.” Time March 2001 pg. 24 This example of the significance of appearance in modern society is also echoed in Frankenstein. The parallel between the society in the novel and modern society is that of snap judgement’s based solely on appearances. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is a perpetrator of such judgement’s. Victor “selected his features as beautiful.” Here it is seen Victor’s shallowness as he picked the most perfect body parts and beauteous features, all to be pieced together in great anticipation.
The Term Paper on Society Today Is Confronted By A Profound Crisis And Challenge part 1
Society today is confronted by a profound crisis and challenge in the world of humans and of nature. God so orders creation that everything in it is related to everything else. All physical components and all organisms, including human beings, are purposefully woven together in ecological systems or ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands, the oceans, as well as the planet earth. When any part is ...
However as one can see, the result is horrific and due to the hideousness of the wretch that he has created, he abandons him. This same shallowness of judgement due to appearance again surfaces when Victor accuses the creature of murdering William due to simply his horrific appearance.” I stood fixed, gazing intently: I could not be mistaken… it’s gigantic stature, and the deformity of it’s aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity… it was the wretch, the filthy daemon… No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth… He was the murderer!” pg 73 One continues to see such prejudice towards the creature throughout the novel due to his appearance.
The old man in the hut “turned on hearing a noise; and perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable'”pg 107 Shelley repeatedly shows such reactions due to the monsters appearance as the villagers stone him, Felix beats him and perhaps the cruelest of all when a man shoots him after he saves a girl from drowning. All of this due to the creatures appearance. Little has changed in modern society as one sees a blatant parallel in Frankenstein and today’s world through racism. Racism is explored in Frankenstein as Victor despises the creature due to “his yellow skin” and appearance. “The father of Safe… a Turkish merchant…
he was tried and condemned to death. The injustice of his sentence was very flagrant; all Paris was indignant; and it was judged that his religion and wealth, rather than the crime alleged against him, had been the cause of his condemnation,” pg 127 Here once again Shelley is raising the issue of racism and appearance in the determination of the way one is accepted and treated. Interwoven in societies both old and modern, threads these basic prejudices, be they good or bad they have always been evident to some extent through racism, prejudice and appearance. Through out the time in which Shelley’s Frankenstein is set and down to society today Is Confronted By A Profound Crisis And Challenge part 1">today society is moved by these issues, and the nature of humans is presented and bought to one’s attention through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Another parallel between Frankenstein and today’s world is the necessity and importance of companionship, love and guidance. Mary Shelley challenges and encourages reader to consider the consequences of a lack of such affections.
The Essay on Frankenstein Shelley Use Of Mascuine And Feminine Roles
Shelley began writing Frankenstein in the company of what has been called her male coterie, including her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori. It has been suggested that the influence of this group, and particularly that of Shelley and Byron, affected her portrayal of male characters in the novel. As Ann Campbell writes: [The] characters and plot of Frankenstein reflect ...
Humans in society today seek these essentials and like the creature in Frankenstein have been driven to similar horrific outcomes.” After Andy Williams, was arrested for opening fire on his classmates in Santee, California, last week his mother wept… Williams had been a lost boy for some time, hopelessly adrift in a dysfunctional, anonymous suburban landscape, craving acceptance but too often meeting rejection instead. His schoolmates bullied him. His mother rarely saw him.
His father neglected him. Even his friends taunted him.” Time, March 19, 2001 Here the analogy can be drawn between Andy Williams and the creature in Frankenstein. Initially the creature is created good and kind. “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” pg. 84 His kindness is evident as he chops wood for the DeLaceys and saves a drowning girl. The creature seeks to communicate with the DeLaceys and have companionship with them.
“people possessed a method of communicating their experiences and feelings to one another by articulate sounds… this was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become aquatinted with it.” He expresses his sadness at being alone. “But I was wretched, helpless and alone… I am solitary and abhorred.” Pg. 136 The creature seeks friendship and companionship desiring victor to create him a companion. “You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.” pg 153 However, it can be seen that the creature is never successful in his attempts to have companions, love and be loved.
The Essay on Loved One Time Give Remember
The paradox of our time in history is that we have Taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, But have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have Bigger houses and smaller families, more Conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees But less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, More experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but Less ...
Time and time again he is rather, rejected and alienated by man. The similarities are clear as due to Andy Williams and the creatures lack of companionship, guidance and love they are driven to convening such disastrous deeds. The values of society today of friendship, love and the negative attitude towards rejection and loneliness are evident, as one is lead to sympathise with the creature and Andy. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not ‘irrelevant and outdated’ rather it is evident that the issues of birth and creation, appearance and acceptance and the necessity of love, companionship and guidance are all relevant to today’s world. Through the creatures horrific and fatal outcome, Mary Shelley’s novel provides a challenge and perhaps even insight into the consequences and outcomes that could result if modern man attempts to play God and fails to provide love, guidance and companionship to those around them. Reference Shelley Mary, Frankenstein, Barnes and Noble books, Sandstone publishing, 1999 Time, March 19, 2001.
