Frankenstein contrasts his 'thirst for knowledge' with Elizabeth's interest in 'the aerial creations of the poets'.

Frankenstein contrasts his 'thirst for knowledge' with Elizabeth's interest in 'the aerial creations of the poets'. What is your response to Shelley's exploration in Frankenstein of the relative merits of science and literature? Mary Shelley grounded her fiction of the scientist who created a monster he cannot control upon an extensive understanding of the most recent scientific developments during her days. She thereby initiated a new literary genre, what we now call science fiction. More importantly, she used this knowledge both to analyze and to criticize the more dangerous implications of the scientific method and its practical results. Implicitly she contrasted what she considered to be "good" science - the detailed and reverent description of the workings of nature- to what she considered "bad" science, the hubristic manipulation of the elemental forces of the nature to serve man's private ends. In Frankenstein, she illustrated the potential evils of scientific hubris and at the same time challenged the cultural biases inherent in any conception of science. Victor Frankenstein chooses to work within the newly established field of chemical physiology. He must thus become familiar with the recent experiments in the disparate fields of biology, chemistry, mechanics, physics and medicine. The need to span the entire range of science is stressed by Frankenstein's chemistry

  • Word count: 505
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Isolation in Frankenstein

Jessica Rodriguez Rodriguez 1 English 5b Professor Dumler 28 Feb. 2005 Isolation in Frankenstein Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, has several themes imbedded in the text. One major theme is of isolation. Many of the characters experience some time of isolation. The decisions and actions of some of these characters are the root cause of their isolation. They make choices that isolate themselves from everyone else. However, other characters are forced into isolation for reasons that are not in their control. The actions of another cause them to experience loneliness. The story begins with Robert Walton writing to his sister, Margaret, about his voyage to an undiscovered place. In these letters, as the voyage gets underway, he writes of his loneliness. Letter II states, "I have no friend ..." (Hunter 16; ch 1). He describes how his "enthusiasm of success" will be experienced alone and also how he must suffer his disappointments alone. He states, "I desire the company of a man" (Hunter 10; ch. 1 ). In another letter, Walton is telling his sister about a conversation he had with Frankenstein about friendship. Frankenstein tells Walton, "I once had a friend ..." (Hunter 16' ch. 1), implying that he no longer has any friends. Isolation is evident from the very beginning. Robert Walton chooses his isolation. He chooses to take this voyage. Walton

  • Word count: 1422
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Human curiosity in "Frankenstein"

[Type text] Name: Ilia Nee Class: PHL 103 Date: 12 April 2012 The mover of the progress… Mankind throughout its history always made many different discoveries. People are very curious creatures, and they always want to learn something new. Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein refers to human curiosity and the acquisition of knowledge. Almost every character in this novel is a very curious person. Robert Walton wanted to explore the North Pole, the Creature tried to learn more about everything that surrounded him and, finally, Victor Frankenstein was absorbed in science, he wanted to create a human being, and he did it. Mary Shelley describes the consequences of this curiosity, and almost all these consequences are bad. It follows from this that human curiosity brings misery. Based on facts that human curiosity is the mover of progress of human civilization, that without curiosity human civilization will stop its development, and, moreover, it will lead to the degradation, this paper will show that human curiosity is not only a curse, but it is also a blessing, and if people control their curiosity, it will become only a blessing. First of all it is necessary to understand what curiosity is and why people are curious. The definition in any dictionary describes curiosity as “a strong desire to know or learn something”. (Oxford English Dictionary) People start to

  • Word count: 1941
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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''mistakes in frankenstein''

'How and what causes characters to learn from their mistakes' In Frankenstein, listening is an important theme in the characters learning from their past mistakes. The novel is written in a narrative form, which allows the story to be relayed through other characters several times. The reader and Mrs. Saville are the first people who listen to Frankenstein's story through Walton's letters home. Walton listens to Frankenstein's story from Victor, and Frankenstein listens to the monster's story. Each person's story has a message or warning that they need to relay to the other and upon hearing their story they each learn of their past mistakes and how to correct them. Mary Shelly emphasizes the importance of listening through a series of key characters. Mrs. Saville and the rest of society read Walton's letters which tell Victor Frankenstein's story. This is the outermost layer of the narrative format of the novel. Mrs. Saville is Walton's sister; he begins writing her letters on his mission to the Artic to let her know that he is in good health. When he comes across Victor Frankenstein he records Frankenstein's story in his letters home to Margret. Victor's story is supposed to communicate a warning to society. The warning is to not become so wrapped up in the pursuit of knowledge that contact with other people becomes unimportant. Isolating oneself from society due to

  • Word count: 954
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Hero Representation in Frankenstein

Hero Representation in Frankenstein If we are to look at hero representation in Frankenstein, we must look at exactly who is the hero. At first glance we could name the Doctor, or even Robert Walton as the protagonist of the tale, but deeper analysis shows that Shelley never fully explains her choice as to who is the hero and who is the villian. It is left open to the reader to decide who is right and wrong. On the exterior, the cause is to be for the good of all society; however, underneath the surface it is actually an expedition for Walton's own personal glory. Throughout his many letters, his self- love becomes apparent due to the fact that he never once asks about his sister's well being, for he believes that she is pining for him and spends her every moment awaiting his return. In each letter that he writes, Walton displays evidence of the intentions of his ambition with his redundant references to "glory", "admiration" and "triumph". This facade prepares the reader for the understanding of the central theme of the novel, as Walton's story is temporarily abandoned and we are introduced to Victor Frankenstein. The characters of Walton and Frankenstein were shaped by Romantic idealism. That is, the pursuit of fulfillment through the exploration of the undiscovered. What sets them apart is the means that they utilize to accomplish their respective

  • Word count: 4600
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Themes in Frankenstein

From our reading so far I can identify many themes within the novel which I will now explore and analyse in this essay. Possibly the most powerful theme shown in Volume One is the dangerous pursuit of knowledge and the possible moral consequences of ambition. From the day we first meet Victor we learn that he is an obvious over-reacher and will attempt to surge beyond any regular human limits to access the secret of life. Through Victor and his ruthless ambition Shelley makes it clear that she believes knowledge such as the type of which Victor is enthralled in can lead to no good and that it soon becomes destructive when uncontrolled. Although, not only Victor is affected by this theme, Walton too succumbs to his uncontrollable passion, saying this though; it is Victor whose obsession is bizarrely intense. “I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation: my eyeballs were starting from their sockets in attending to the details of my employment,” it is during these lines where his obsession grows immensely. In fact Victor is so deeply engrossed in the process of making his creation that he fails to consider what his

  • Word count: 940
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What is scary in Frankenstein?

What is scary in Frankenstein? In her 1831 introduction Mary Shelley relays her task, to "awaken thrilling horror- none to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." In the nineteenth century, horror, fear and disgust were the proper responses to creations that failed to conform to neoclassical aesthetic ideals of unified ideals, harmonious composition of parts in simple regularity and proportion. Victor's overwhelming feelings of horror and disgust on seeing his hideously disproportionate creature come to life display the reaction of society to Frankenstein as a novel (Fred Botting.) In general, people were far more religious then and would have balked in horror at someone giving life to a being such as the monster. However, today, a reader might even deem Shelley's progeny boring, or tedious to get through. The culture we live in has been desensitized to many things that would have filled one with fear during the 1800's. Explicit media such as television and film provide us with graphic images of violence, sex, and gore. But in the time of Mary Shelly, the suspense and spooky intrigue of books and plays were the only way to "get carried away with your imagination" and there was certainly plenty in Frankenstein to scare. However, since the nineteenth century there have been significant cultural changes, which has

  • Word count: 2151
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Feminisim in Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's life influences on her novel Frankenstein If most people were to think of Frankenstein they would say it is a story about a male scientist's creation of a monster. However, if we look at Mary Shelley's life we can see that there is a great amount of focus on feminism in the novel through the role of women or lack thereof and the importance of a mother for a child. We can interpret the novel as a Feminist work and the result of the absence of a mother figure through a child's birth and development Childbirth without women Shelley came up with the idea of telling a ghost story with creation and galvanism because of a dream that evoked fear and anxiety in her. Mary Shelley had given birth to a baby girl eighteen months earlier whose death two weeks later caused a recurring dream. I quote "Dream that my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived. Awake and find no baby. Once again she was dreaming of reanimating a corpse by warming it with a "spark of life." Mary Shelley had given birth a second time, to William who was six months old at the time that Mary wrote the story. Being only nineteen at the time, there's no doubt that she had struggled with the idea of creation and the upbringing of a child at that point in her life. Thus, she wrote a book exploring that topic. Shelley lived during

  • Word count: 1316
  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: World Literature
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Marry Shellys Frankenstein.

PRE-1914 PROSE COURSEWORK: STAGE 1 Marry Shelly's Frankenstein In the story there are obvious sections, there are a few reasons for this. As you read the book you realize that the story is subdivided. There are different forms of narrative in the story. This varies from letterform at the start of the story, different narrators and letters sent to people in the story. In Frankenstein there are three different narrators, these are the monster, Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton. The narrative set up is rather like an onion. This is because you have the main narrator, the monster, in the middle then Victor and then finally on the outside Walton. Robert Walton would have been seen as a Romantic hero because of his rebellious ways. Mary Shelly choose Robert Walton's character because she wants him to be a rebel, which also links him to Victor Frankenstein as victor is a rebel as well. Mary Shelly links Robert Walton to Romantics. Firstly Romantics have interest in nature, rather like Robert Walton who is going on a voyage to the North Pole. Also Romantics rebelled against social rules. Robert Walton is rebelling against what Shelley calls the rules of nature as he goes on an expedition to the undiscovered. There are many Romantic heroes from various books like Odysseus from The Odyssey. But there are also other rebellious heroes many of who are from myths and legends. One of

  • Word count: 736
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Frankenstein and Blade Runner - Comparative in Context.

Texts inherently embody the values and ideas prevalent at the time they are written. They are also bound by form available, and their features also reflect the society in which they are written. These influences rely to an extent upon what is popular, the dominant values and ideology as well as topical issues of the time. An example of texts betraying the context in which they are written is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and Blade Runner by director Ridley Scott. Frankenstein was written in 1818, during a time of scientific upheaval and questioning. Shelley incorporates this along with her interpretation of where this change could potentially lead. Blade Runner was first released in 1982 at a time when texts were swinging towards dystopia’s, and this is encompasses also in the 1991 director’s cut, which also questions the budding science of genetics. Within Frankenstein, knowledge and education is generally valued, this being seen by Victor’s extensive education. Yet certain practices such as galvanism and natural philosophy are clearly not valued, and condemned. “Learn from me how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.”* This is true of the context as many where shocked by its controversial nature. The value of nature can be seen very clearly in Frankenstein, with metaphors such as the “wondrous works with which nature adorns her chosen dwelling places.”

  • Word count: 1103
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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