RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FRANKESTEIN AND THE CREATURE

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Vimal Arumugam 11P                            English C/W                                          18/12/2007

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FRANKESTEIN AND THE CREATURE

        Gothic novels are written mainly to strike fear in their readers; they also served to show the dark side of human nature.  Nature is used often to create atmosphere. It predicts forthcoming events (e.g. the rainstorm on Victor’s wedding night foretells something evil is about to occur).

        A typical gothic tradition is the eerie atmosphere of Frankenstein.  Victor, unafraid of the dark, spends his time in vaults and charnel houses. He visits the cemeteries at night, and such details as the creaking doors, the soft blowing of the wind in the still of the night and the quiet footsteps in the house all succeeds as a gothic horror or even a ghost story.

        Another element is sickness. Throughout Frankenstein, several characters grow sick during periods of extreme stress. Sickness serves as an escape from life’s harsh reality. It also seems to foretell horrible future events.  Science fiction explores the wonders of discovery and achievement that may result from future developments in science and technology. Mary Shelley, who used some of the most recent technological finding of her time, created Frankenstein.  

Frankenstein is the story of a man doomed to failure and death for his desire to create a being so destructive, in human form that he cannot control.  Victor Frankenstein abandons to take responsibility for his creation, resulting in the murder of his most loved ones as the creature’s revenge. Frankenstein is disgraced with his own creation and is unable to predict the drastic effects of giving life to a being that could never be entirely accepted by human society.  Lastly, choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, Frankenstein's sufferings are finally demolished.  The unloved creature and the search for a death cure hold Victor Frankenstein more responsible for his own ruin than the creation himself.

As the story develops, the relationship between the creature and Frankenstein changes. We notice, when reading the novel, how Frankenstein and the creature feel the same a lot of the time. They are both extremely lonely and feel isolated in their world.

Chapter 5 is when we start to observe Victor Frankenstein’s feelings towards the creature.  This chapter begins with ‘it was a dreary night’, which sets the tone for the rest of the chapter.  This immediately tells the reader that all hasn’t gone according to plan. The word ‘dreary’ gives an impression of quite a lengthy but pointless attempt at something. It also tells the reader Frankenstein’s feelings of tiredness.  

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Frankenstein calls his life long dream a catastrophe, when he sees the creature come to life. He then goes on to describe it, he says ‘beautiful-great god! His yellow skin scarcely covered the works 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, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.’  Mary Shelly has created contrast in this quote to ...

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