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Mind Map by emilyvburgess96, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by emilyvburgess96
over 9 years ago
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Themes in
Frankenstein
- CREATION AND DIVINE ASPIRATIONS
- Victor usurps the role of God by giving life to his creature, it is
suggested that his 'frightful' presumption in aspiring to act like
God is his main crime. However there is no vengeful God to
punish Victor, only a vengeful monster. The crime that Shelley
also highlights is not so much what Victor does, but what he fails
to do: nurture his creation, and Victor's description of his 'secret
toil' does suggest he is engaged in something unlawful and
shameful.
- 'A new species would bless me as it's
creator...No father could claim the
gratitude of his child so completely as i
should deserve theirs'
- 'The moon gazed on my midnight
labours...my workshop of filthy
creation'
- 'The moon gazed on my midnight
labours...my workshop of filthy
creation'
- ISOLATION
- A key theme from the opening with Walton's
complaints to his sister about his lack of
companionship. The sufferings of both Victor and the
monster are primarily caused by their alienation from
others. The monsters isolation is caused by peoples
fear of him and his creator who abandons him, he
longs for companionship and affection and turns to
Victor for this, Victor destroys his dream of ever
finding love and happiness. Victor insists that his
loneliness is due to the monsters crimes,nevertheless
he choses to isolate himself from family and friends to
carry out scientific experiments.
- 'I bitterly feel the want of a friend' -Walton
- 'I am malicious because i
am miserable' - The
Monster
- THE DOUBLE
- A common trope in nineteenth century gothic. It
is often used to demonstrate tension between
the laws of society and the desires of the
individual, and to give voice to that which has
been silenced by rational discourse. The popular
tendency to refer to the monster as
Frankenstein is appropriate considering
Shelley's use of the motif of the double. When
he refers to the monster as 'my own spirit' he
provides clarity that they are doubles.
- 'My own vampire, my own spirit let
loose from the grave, and forced to
destroy all that was dear to me' -Victor
on the monster.
- 'My own vampire, my own spirit let
loose from the grave, and forced to
destroy all that was dear to me' -Victor
on the monster.
- A common trope in nineteenth century gothic. It
is often used to demonstrate tension between
the laws of society and the desires of the
individual, and to give voice to that which has
been silenced by rational discourse. The popular
tendency to refer to the monster as
Frankenstein is appropriate considering
Shelley's use of the motif of the double. When
he refers to the monster as 'my own spirit' he
provides clarity that they are doubles.
- 'I am malicious because i
am miserable' - The
Monster
- 'I bitterly feel the want of a friend' -Walton
- A key theme from the opening with Walton's
complaints to his sister about his lack of
companionship. The sufferings of both Victor and the
monster are primarily caused by their alienation from
others. The monsters isolation is caused by peoples
fear of him and his creator who abandons him, he
longs for companionship and affection and turns to
Victor for this, Victor destroys his dream of ever
finding love and happiness. Victor insists that his
loneliness is due to the monsters crimes,nevertheless
he choses to isolate himself from family and friends to
carry out scientific experiments.
- THE FAMILY
- Percy Shelley's preface of 1818 claims that the
chief concern of the novel is the 'exhibition of
domestic affection, and the excellence of universal
virtue'. It is domestic affections which the monster
longs for and that Victor repeatedly holds up as the
ideal as to which he should have aspired. The Home
is represented as a paradise and the woman as the
presiding angel.
- Kate Ellis however has convincingly argued that
it is possible to read the novel as questioning the
value of the domestic affections and as an attack
on, rather than a celebration of the institute of
family strictly enforced by artificial role
distinctions. The treatment of the creature by
the De Lacy family points to another defect in
the domestic world: its insularity. Ideal though
this family may seem, it functions only by
excluding anything that appears as a threat to its
security. The monster devotes himself to the
destruction of ideal domesticity once he
recognises he is doomed to be excluded from it,
and in this he may be acting as Victor's double.
- 'If no man allowed
any pursuit
whatsoever to
interfere with the
tranquility of his
domestic affections
Greece had not
been enslaved;
Caesar would have
spared his country'
-Victor.
- 'No father had watched my
infant days, no mother had
blessed me with smiles or
caresses' -The monster.
- 'No father had watched my
infant days, no mother had
blessed me with smiles or
caresses' -The monster.
- 'If no man allowed
any pursuit
whatsoever to
interfere with the
tranquility of his
domestic affections
Greece had not
been enslaved;
Caesar would have
spared his country'
-Victor.
- Kate Ellis however has convincingly argued that
it is possible to read the novel as questioning the
value of the domestic affections and as an attack
on, rather than a celebration of the institute of
family strictly enforced by artificial role
distinctions. The treatment of the creature by
the De Lacy family points to another defect in
the domestic world: its insularity. Ideal though
this family may seem, it functions only by
excluding anything that appears as a threat to its
security. The monster devotes himself to the
destruction of ideal domesticity once he
recognises he is doomed to be excluded from it,
and in this he may be acting as Victor's double.
- Percy Shelley's preface of 1818 claims that the
chief concern of the novel is the 'exhibition of
domestic affection, and the excellence of universal
virtue'. It is domestic affections which the monster
longs for and that Victor repeatedly holds up as the
ideal as to which he should have aspired. The Home
is represented as a paradise and the woman as the
presiding angel.
- 'A new species would bless me as it's
creator...No father could claim the
gratitude of his child so completely as i
should deserve theirs'
- Victor usurps the role of God by giving life to his creature, it is
suggested that his 'frightful' presumption in aspiring to act like
God is his main crime. However there is no vengeful God to
punish Victor, only a vengeful monster. The crime that Shelley
also highlights is not so much what Victor does, but what he fails
to do: nurture his creation, and Victor's description of his 'secret
toil' does suggest he is engaged in something unlawful and
shameful.
- CRITIQUE OF SOCIETY
- Whilst the family is the institution most throughly examined
and analysed, throughout Frankenstein there is a more general
challenge to and criticism of the established social order and its
institutions. Shelley frequently uses the monster as her
mouthpiece in he critique of oppression and inequality in
society.
- 'Men appear to me as
monsters thirsting for each
others blood' - Elizabeth
after the execution of
Justine.
- 'Am I to be thought only criminal,
when all human kind sinned
against me?' The monster to
Walton.
- 'Am I to be thought only criminal,
when all human kind sinned
against me?' The monster to
Walton.
- 'Men appear to me as
monsters thirsting for each
others blood' - Elizabeth
after the execution of
Justine.
- Whilst the family is the institution most throughly examined
and analysed, throughout Frankenstein there is a more general
challenge to and criticism of the established social order and its
institutions. Shelley frequently uses the monster as her
mouthpiece in he critique of oppression and inequality in
society.
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