Wasted lives is a key theme in both Frankenstein and In cold blood and both of my articles show this in comparable ways- firstly is the wasted life of victor Frankenstein from many Shelly’s Frankenstein and the wasted life of Mrs Clutter in cold blood, both of my extracts highlight the fact that both of these characters are often ill and end up spending most of their time in bed – in in cold blood we know from my extract that Mrs clutters health is ‘not to good’ and that she promised that she would ‘never be sick again’ – we know from the rest of the book that Mrs clutter is ill often with a type of mental disorder and therefore misses out on a lot of time as she has to spends extended periods in bed – Victor Frankenstein is also often ill, infact in my extract Victor ‘felt a faintness seize me’ the audience would know the last time this happened victor was ill for several weeks and therefore may relise that for Frankenstein life is precious therefore not something to be wasted hunting his own creation, Mrs Clutter had just started to get better when she was murdered, for both of these characters life was just starting to work out from them when there life was tragically cut short – perhaps this theme of wasted lives would also relate to the perspective audience of both books and therefore links sharply to its gothic genera , this also links slightly with the wasted lives of the monsters victims in my Frankenstein extract who were ‘so diabolically murdered’ -we know that the monster was responsible for the death of many innocents, most women and children and seeks to ‘Glut the maw of death until it be stained with the blood of your (Victor’s) remaining friends – this not only shows the wasted lives of the monster itself who has become so wretched and eager for revenge, but also you are left wondering what could of become of the victims life’s, all murdered by the monster and all had good lives ahead of them which were drastically cut short.
The monsters own wasted life links strongly with the wasted life of both Dick and Perry in my second extract, it’s almost as if Dick is the good half of the monsters personality which by its own addition “glows with love and compassion” – the point here is that the monster, despite being horribly disfigured could of have become many different things, perhaps disfigurement would have been seen as a bigger barrier back then that it is now, but still the monster could of have done wonderful things with his many other attributes such as his super strength and fast reflexes, but instead he turned to his inner bloodlust and decided to murder the innocent showing a clear wasted life – just as Dick and Perry did not have to murder the clutter family they went ahead and did it anyway, this also links to victors own wasted life – with the little time he has now unwell he spent plotting on how to destroy the monster, ironically the only real accomplishment in his life. This is highlighted again by victors speech inside my extract ‘Wretched Devil come that I may extinguish the spark that I so negently bestowed’ from this it’s clear that Victor has become as wretched as the monster the he hunts in a sort of role reversal, Victor was smart and successful and now his wretched and weak, the monster was weak with a lot of potential but wasted in all to ruin his creators life – both life’s were wasted. The final wasted life shown in my extracts is that of the younger generation of Clutters, they are described as ‘exceptional, unassuming kids that you would never have guessed lived in such a big houce’ This shows that the kids has many things going for them, the vivid imagery of there abrupt and violent murder contrasts strongly with this near perfect image we get of the children, they had such a good future but there life was wasted by petty thief’s looking for a quick buck; there wasted life links to the wasted life of William which is hinted to in my Frankenstein extract, another child who is described in such a good way but whose life is cut short.
The language in both of my extracts links to the separate audiences the books were intended for – for instance my ‘in cold blood’ extract is quite low register with the inclusion of many colloquialisms – this reflects the fact in cold blood is a non-fiction text, therefore the register of the book is almost totally reliant on the local populous, the descriptions are high register enough and have a lot of polysyllabic lexis, the same is true of my Frankenstein extract, both narrators use high register lexis to create a vivid image of the area they are trying to describe and sum up very specific emotions about each characters actions. Both articles use symbolic language with the semantic field of despair throughout which links to both the wasted life’s and the gothic genera which surrounds death, high registers lexis of this field are used such and ‘Dissoluble and ‘Annihilation’ where as ‘In cold blood’ does the same thing but with far more colloquial lexis such as ‘gripping’ and ‘pain’, this language devise both enhances the gothic genera and helps build tension for the imminent reference to wasted life’s . Both articles use contrast to highlight the theme of wasted life’s within them – in Frankenstein the monster is described as ‘superhuman’ and ‘exceeding man’ where was victor is described as ‘cautious’ and ‘faint’ – the same is true in my second extract where Nancy clutter is described as ‘wonderful’ which contrasts to the fact her room is found ‘splattered with blood’ – both authors use this contrast to help enhance the vivid imagery through polylibic lexis just as listed above to highlight just how gruesome these crimes were and what wasted life’s the children lead when they were so perfect but met such terrible ends. There are two more language devices I will compare, the tripathide structure of the monsters arguments and the use of direct speech in in cold blood – the point is both extracts use these specific devices to convey emotion to the reader to help them better understand the tragedy of their separate wasted life’s inside the extracts – we hear of the monsters many attributes in tripathide descriptions of himself and as I have previously stated links to his own wasted life but again it helps us visualise just what the monster is and what he has become, the same is true of direct speech in ‘in cold blood’, the narrator himself tell us just how wonderful the clutter kids were, so it’s far easier for the reader to feel animosity towards Dick and Perry and to take the side of the clutters as you realise just what wonderful people they were and how there life’s were wasted.
Structure / form
Wasted life’s
Social historical / presentation and changes in language
Conclusion