1 Undisputed masterpiece Frankenstein by Mary Shelley frankenstein characters analysis

3 Frankenstein literary analysis
In Frankenstein, the central conflict revolves around the inability of the Victor to understand the consequences of his actions. He only focuses on his goal and works hard to achieve his ambition without any concern about its impact on the people surrounding him. The presence of the Monster in the novel is a constant reminder of Victor’s failure and his lack of sense of responsibility. He does not accept the fact that his action against the laws of nature. The first sign of conflict appears when Frankenstein immerses himself in the studies at the University of Ingolstadt and neglects his family and society. This conflict increases when Victor discovers the secret of life, and he becomes obsessed with creating a monster.He never worries about the experiences of the Monster and nor he is worried that he has abandoned his family in pursuit of knowledge. What he is concerned with is his ambition and nothing else. His quest for creation comes to the peak when he creates the Monster, and the horrible sight of it makes him run from the room in horror. This episode shows the conflict between Frankenstein and his moral obligations. He is the one who creates it, and when he does not like it, he abandons it.The tension in the novel increases when William Frankenstein, younger brother of Victor, dies, and the adoptee Justine is accused of the murder. The murder provides a chance for Victor to take responsibility for his actions but fails. By allowing Justine for execution than revealing the truth, he further increases the conflict. Victors meet up the monster in the mountains, and Monster’s narrating the account of his suffering, loneliness, and alienation heightens the conflict. This meeting gives another chance to Victor to give up his selfishness. Victor reluctantly accepts the demand of the Monster to create a female monster for him, and then the two will live outside human society.However, Victor reignites the conflict when he gives up on creating the female monster and throws away the remains of his works in the sea. Unaware of the consequences of his action, his reckless choice makes the Monster vow revenge against him. The Monster killed his friend Henry Clerval and his newly wedded wife, Elizabeth.Though the Monster clearly states him that he will take revenge, Frankenstein is genuinely surprised by the Monster’s revenge. The life of Victor is turned into a living hell, deprived of the loved ones. The conflicts are shifted to its final stage when Elizabeth is killed.At this stage, Victor vows to avenge the Monster and hunt him to destroy him. The conflict is partially resolved by Victor’s vow as it is what the Monster exactly wants. The total attention of his creator is turned to him, and the two interlocks each other’s fate.Victor hunts the Monster around the world, and when he reaches the Arctic Ocean, he encounters Walton. At this point, the story is brought back to the point from where it started. The narration is switched back to Walton from Victor. Victor dies because of his exhaustion after narrating his story of life to Walton. The climax of the novel occurs when walks see the Monster in the room weeping at the dead body of Victor.Frankenstein never realizes his role in creating the tragedy and chaos that caused miseries of the Monster and the deaths of many innocent people. In contrast to Victor, the Monster shows guilt and self-abhorrence, which suggests that he is more “human” than his manly creator. At the end of the novel, Walton listens to the Monster’s perspective of the story as well, which makes him feel a combination of inquisitiveness and sympathy. In the falling action of the novel, the Monster tells his plan to end his life and then set off alone to carry out his plan.SYMBOLSAbstract ideas and concepts in a literary text are represented by objects, characters, and figures. Following are the symbols in the novel Frankenstein by Merry ShelleyFIRE AND LIGHTIn displaying the hope and faith in science, Walton asks: What could not be expected in the country of eternal light?“ In the novel Frankenstein, light is the symbol of discovery, knowledge, and enlightenment. For Victor and Walton, the natural world is full of hidden places, dark secrets, and unfamiliar mechanisms. It is the goal of scientists to discover them, that is to say, to reach the light. The next to light is it’s dangerous and more controlling cousin fire. When the Monster first experiences the blazing flame, he gets to know its dual nature. It is productive as it gives out light, as well as it is destructive; it hurts when it touches it.The fire symbol in the novel is representative of the full title of the novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. In Greek Mythology, the knowledge of fire is given to humanity by god Prometheus. He was then severely punished for it. In the novel, Frankenstein tries to become god Prometheus and is indeed punished; however, he does not give the knowledge of fire but of the secret of life.MOTIFSThe recurrent images, structures, and literary devices in a literary text are called Motifs. The emphasis on the idea helps develop the major themes of a work. The following are the motifs in the novel Frankenstein by Merry ShelleyPASSIVE WOMENThough the novel Frankenstein is written by the daughter of the leading feminist, the novel lacks a strong female character. The novel has women who are passive and calmly suffer and then dies. For example, the mother of Victor Caroline Beaufort is a sacrificing woman who spends her life in taking care of the adopted daughter; Justine is wrongly accused of murder and is executed; Victor aborts the creation of the female monster in fear of it more destructing nature; Elizabeth waits for Victor throughout her life and is helpless to Victor to come back and marry her and is eventually killed by the Monster. Despite the passivity of the female character, one can also argue that Shelley wants to put emphasis on the destructive actions of Victor and the Monster, which is why she does not establish her female characters as strong and dominant as males.ABORTIONThe character of Victor and Monster illustrates the motif of abortion with their feeling of the ugliness of the Monster. When Victor first sees his creation, he says: “When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made.” Similarly, when the monster sees himself, he has some views about it that looks like his creator. He says I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” Both of them regretted the creation of the Monster and wished that Victor had never created it. The motif of abortion also occurs in other pursuits of Victor. He aborts his act of creation when he discards the female monster before animating it. When Victor describes the natural philosophe, he figuratively aborts materialization. He says: “I at once gave up my former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science, which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge.” With the creation of a monster, Victor also aborts the natural philosophy saying that it is unhelpful and intellectually grotesque. SETTING OF THE NOVELThe story of the novel Frankenstein is set in Switzerland. The country is in central Europe. Mary Shelley was living in Switzerland when she started writing the novel.The setting of the novel is not static. It changes within Europe and also across the world. Victor Frankenstein travels to England, France, Germany, and Scotland. Elizabeth belongs to Italy, the peasant family is French, and Walton visits Russia. Safie belongs to Turkey, Clerval decides to shift to India, and the Monster decides to move to South America.The frame story of the novel is narrated by Walton and is set in the Arctic Ocean. As the novel Frankenstein encompasses the whole world, it is represented as a collective and universal story. The wide and multiple settings of the novel suggest that it can be read as an allegory. The rapid expansion of European power across the globe in the time to Shelley is driven by the likewise advancement in the science that facilitates Victor Frankenstein to craft the Monster. GENREGOTHIC NOVELWith the employment of elements of secrecy, mystery, and disturbing psychology, the novel Frankenstein belongs to the genre of Gothic literature. The novel is an account of the doomed monster of Dr. Frankenstein. The Gothic novel initiated as a literary genre in the 1750s. The genre has the characteristics of secretive and mysterious events, supernatural elements, ancient setting, isolated locations, and mental undercurrents that are associated with the repressed sexuality or family dynamics.The novel provides an obscure description of the procedure that Victor uses to create the Monster. His dialogue “Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil” increases the horror instigating the reader to imagine the procedure itself. The action of the novel mostly took place in the nighttime with mysterious circumstances. The novel also suggests that the weird behavior that Victor possesses is because of the repression. When he admits his love for Elizabeth, his tone is incestuous as they grew up as siblings.Moreover, he appears to be reluctant to marry her and is obsessed with his friend Henry. His need to have a live remote from sexual reproduction shows that he may have a traumatic mind or disgust heterosexuality and may be general sexualityFrankenstein also falls short of the traditions of Gothic literature. In contrast to traditional Gothic elements like ghosts, etc., the birth of the Monster is not mysterious but deliberate. The questions of his birth and creation are known to the readers.Moreover, the question of whether he really exists or is the creation of the character’s mind is totally out of the question. The mystery around which the novel revolves is not the creation of the Monster, but what he wants. The setting of Frankenstein is the same during the time it was written.However, traditional gothic novels and stories were always set in the past. Moreover, it is custom to show that past people lack knowledge that leads to supernatural situations. Frankenstein suggests that excessive knowledge and extreme focus of innovation is also destructive. SCIENCE FICTIONFrankenstein also initiates the genre of science fiction. According to many critics, Frankenstein is the first novel of science fiction. The genre of science fiction deals with the speculations about the possible applications of scientific advancement and technology. The rules necessary to maintain order in life have lapsed in the science fiction novels.For instance, in science fiction, the common practice is the existence of life out of the earth. Science fiction novels can be used to criticize contemporary society implicitly through scientific developments and fictional technologies.For example, the rapid expansion of European power across the globe in the time to Shelley is driven by the likewise advancement in the science that facilitates Victor Frankenstein to craft the Monster.POINT OF VIEWThe novel Frankenstein has multiple narrators; however, the story is narrated from the first-person point of view. Each narrator narrates the story at a different point in the novel. The constant shifts in narrator and different points of view suggest the readers look beneath the reality and ponder on the deep things.The novel opens with the narration of Walton. Walton is a ship captain and is writing letters to his sister. The narration shifts to Victor Frankenstein, who narrates his account of life to Walton and tells him about his weird creation and how he happens to be at sea.After listening to the story of Victor, Walton admires his experiences. When Victor reaches in the story to the episode in which he meets the Monster, the narration shifts to the Monster. The Monster narrates his miseries in the first person.Initially, the readers and Victor both assume the monster to be inhumane and barbaric; however, listening to his perspective, both realize the kindness and innocence of the monster. The narration again changes to Victor, who continues his story. The novel ends with the narration of Walton, who ends the story from the first-person point of view.