Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

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Frankenstein

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a novel that was written during the age of Romanticism. It contains many themes which are common in Romantic novels such as dark laboratories, the moon, and a monster; however, Frankenstein includes lot more than a common romantic novel. Shelley came to write Frankenstein in 1816 when she was in Switzerland and the poet Lord Byron proposed for entertainment they would each write a ‘ghost story,’ this is when Shelley started to write ‘Frankenstein’. I will now consider the character of the monster and how Shelley uses him to raise themes and issues.

In the novel, she describes a monster that is hideous and wretched looking.  A monster’s whose appearance prohibits anyone from going beyond his exterior to reach the inside qualities.

‘His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriance's only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set…’

At ‘birth,’ the creature appears to not be either violent or vicious, but then unfortunately, the rejection by his creator drives it to a life full of revenge. Rather than focusing this child-like hatred on Frankenstein, the monster takes it out on his loved ones, this suddenly changes the views of the reader from feeling sympathy for the monster back to having the feeling that the monster really is a terrible and violent creation. This originally peaceful monster, now bitter and hateful, resorts to random acts of violence to compensate for its mistreatment.

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Mary Shelley then allows the reader to learn that the monster possesses emotion and passion.  The monster failed to understand each emotion that he experienced, but they all affected him. The monster experienced feelings of happiness, joy and excitement several times. However, for most of the time, he felt lonely, neglected and depressed.  Evil and anger corrupted him. The monster let his anger and negativity get the best of him, and he acted irresponsibly because of it. This shows that the monsters fury and violence is only a product of his loneliness and misery. Like Frankenstein, many other people ...

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