Name:
Makwana Monika J.
Roll
no: 21
Subject:
The Romantic Age
Topic:
Critical analysis of Frankenstein.
Email
I’d: Makwanamonika76@gmail.com
Institute:
SMT. S.B. Gardi department of English.
Introduction
Frankenstein is a novel. It was written
by famous novelist Mary Shelly. Frankenstein is a part of Gothic movement in
literature. Mary Shelley tells the story of Victor Frankenstein. And he is
protagonist of the story. He is a young scientist who creates ugly, sapient
creature in an unorthodox experiment. Frankenstein novel published in 1818.
Shelley
started
writing the story when she was eighteenth and the first edition of the novel
was published in London on 1 January 1818. When, she was twentieth.
Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic
Movement. Frankenstein was written in the form of a Frame story that starts
with captain Robert Walton writing letters to his sister.
It takes place at an unspecified time in the 18th century. In the story
following the letters by Walton, the readers find that victor Frankenstein
creates a monster that brings tragedy to his and his family's life.
About The Author
Mary Shelley was born 30 August 1797
in London, England. Frankenstein novel was written by her. She married poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two year later she published her famous novel ‘Frankenstein’.
English writer Mary Shelley was best known for her work Frankenstein or the
modern Prometheus in 1818. And she wrote several books and novels. She is
the daughter
of
philosopher and political writer, her Father was ‘William Godwin. In 1814 she began a relationship with P.B. Shelley
(A Poet) and P.B. Shelley was a loyal student of her father, but he soon
focused his attention on Mary Shelley. Mary and Percy Shelley traveled about
Europe for a time. They struggled financially and faced the loss of their first child in 1815. Mary
delivered a baby girl who only lived for a few days. The following summer, the
Shelley’s are in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polisori.
• The group entertained themselves one
rainy day by
reading a
book of ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested they all should try their hand at
writing own horror story. That time Mary Shelley began work on what would
become her most famous and best novel ‘Frankenstein,
or modern Prometheus.
• Her major work
‘Frankenstein’
(Novel)
‘Lodore’
(Novel)
‘Perkin
Warbeck’ (Novel)
‘Historical
novel Valperga’ (Novel)
‘The
Last Man’ (Novel)
‘Falkner’
(Novel)
‘Rambles
in Germany and Italy’ (Book) and ‘Dionysius Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia’
She
is famous for her works and most important work is Frankenstein, or modern
Prometheus.
• Characters
• Victor Frankenstein: Victor is a hero of the story and protagonist.
The novel is based on his ugly creation of monster by him. He is narrator of
the story. He was studying in Ingolstadt. He discovers the secret of life and curious monster, from that he
recoils in horror, he hide his ugly creation of the monster a secret, feeling
ashamed as he realize how helpless he is to prevent the monster from ruining
his life and the lives of others. He created a monster was very ugly. For this
he tolerated very much problems and also his family.
• The Monster: The ugly creation of victor and eight foot tall. Intelligent and
sensitive the monster attempts to unify himself into human social patterns, but
all who see him shun him. His feeling of abandonment compels him to seek
revenge against his creator victor Frankenstein. He destroys humans those who
are related to victor, for revenge.
• Robert Walton: The arctic seafarer whose letters open and close Frankenstein.
• Alphone Frankenstein: victor’s father, very sympathetic toward his son.
He consoles
victors in
moments of suffer and encourages him to remember the importance of family.
• Elizabeth Lavenza: An orphan, four to five years younger than Victor
Frankenstein, whom the Frankenstein adopts. In the 1818, edition of the novel,
Elizabeth is victor’s cousin
and the child of Alphone Frankenstein’s sister. Elizabeth embodies the novel’s
motif of passive women, as she waits patiently for victor’s attention.
• Henry clerval: Friend of victor, who nurse
victor back to health on Ingolstadt.
• William Frankenstein: victor’s youngest brother and the darling of the
Frankenstein family. The monster strangles William’s death deeply saddens
victor and burdens him with guilt about having created the monster.
• Caroline Beaufort: the daughter of Beaufort, after
his father’s death, Caroline was taken by and later marries, Alphonse Frankenstein.
She dies of scarlet fever, which she contracts Ingolstadt at the age of 17.
• Peasants: A family of peasants, Including a blind and old man, named De Lacey, his son and daughter named Felix and Agatha, a foreign women named Safie. There monster is learns how to
speak and interact by observing them.
• M. Waldman: A chemistry professor who speaks victor’s interest in science.
• M. krempe: A natural philosophy professor
at Ingolstadt.
• Mr. Kirwin: the magistrate, who accuses victor of Henry’s murder.
• Analysis of Frankenstein
The
novel Frankenstein was written by a famous novelist Mary Shelley, wife of poet
P.B. Shelley. In 1794, in the Arctic Sea, Captain Robert Walton was a man
obsessed to reach the North Pole, pushing his crew to exhaustion. When his ship
an iceberg, it was stranded in the ice. Out of the blue, Captain Walton and his
men overhear a dreadful cry and they see a stranger coming to the ship.
He
introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein and he tells the Captain the story of
his life and since, he was a little boy in Geneva.
Victor was a brilliant student, and
in love with his stepsister Elizabeth,
an orphan that was raised by his father Baron Victor Frankenstein. In 1793,
Victor moves to Ingolstadt to study at the university, and he promises to get
married to Elizabeth. At the university, Victor befriends Henry Clerval, who becomes his best and friend. Victor gets close
to Professor Waldman and decides to
create life to cheat death, but Waldman advises him that he should not try this
experiment, since the result would be an abomination. When Waldman dies, Victor steals his notes and
tries to create life. He was succeeds and gives life to a strong Creature,
composed of parts of deceased people. However, he realizes that his experiment
is a mistake and he renounces the Creature, expecting that it will die alone.
However the Creature survives and learns how to read and write, but he is a monster rejected by society and his own
creator victor. The Creature decides to seek revenge from Victor by killing
everyone he loves.
Dr.
Victor Frankenstein creates a simple creature from various body parts. The
creature turns into a monster when Dr. Frankenstein rejects him.
Robert
Walter, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, writes a letter to his
sister, Margaret Seville, in which he says that his crew members
recently discovered a man adrift at sea. The man, Victor Frankenstein, offered to tell Walton his story. Frankenstein
has a perfect childhood in Switzerland, with
a loving family that even adopted orphans in need, including the beautiful Elizabeth, who soon becomes Victor's closest
friend, confidante, and love. Victor also has a caring and wonderful best
friend, Henry Clerval. Just before Victor turns seventeen and
goes to study at the University at Ingolstadt, his mother dies of scarlet fever.
At
Ingolstadt, Victor dives into "natural philosophy" with a passion,
studying the secrets of life with such zeal that he even loses touch with his
family. He soon rises to the top of his field, and suddenly, one night,
discovers the secret of life. With visions of creating a new and noble race,
Victor puts his knowledge to work. But when he animates his first creature, its
appearance is so horrifying he abandons it.
Victor hopes the monster has disappeared
forever, but some months later he receives word that his youngest brother,
William, has been murdered. Though Victor sees the monster lingering at the
site of the murder and is sure it did the deed, he fears no one will believe
him and keeps silent. Justine Moritz, another adoptee in his family, has been
falsely accused based of the crime. She is convicted and executed. Victor is
consumed by guilt. To escape its tragedy, the Frankenstein goes on vacation.
Victor often hikes in the mountains, hoping to alleviate his suffering with the
beauty of nature.
One
day the monster appears, and despite Victor's curses begs him incredibly eloquently to listen to
its story. The monster describes his wretched life, full of suffering and
rejection solely because of his horrifying appearance. The monster also
explains how he learned to read and speak so well. The monster blames his rage
on humanity's inability to perceive his inner goodness and his resulting total
isolation. It demands that Victor, its creator who brought it into this
wretched life, create a female monster to give it the love that no human ever
will. Victor refuses at first, but then agrees. Back in Geneva, Victor's father
expresses his wish that Victor marry Elizabeth. Victor says he first must
travel to England.
On
the way to England, Victor meets up with Clerval. Soon, though, Victor leaves
Clerval at the house of a friend in Scotland and moves to a remote island to
make his second, female, monster. But one night Victor begins to worry that the
female monster might turn out more destructive than the first. At the same
moment, Victor sees the first monster watching him work through a window.
The horrifying sight pushes Victor to destroy
the female monster. The monster vows revenge, warning Victor that it will
"be with him on [his] wedding night." Victor takes the remains of the
female monster and dumps them in the ocean. But when he returns to shore, he is
accused of a murder that was committed that same night. When Victor discovers
that the victim is Clerval, he collapses and remains delusional for two months.
When he wakes his father has arrived, and he is cleared of the criminal charges
against him. Victor returns with his father to Geneva, and marries Elizabeth.
But on his wedding night, the monster instead kills Elizabeth. Victor's father
dies of grief soon thereafter. Now, all alone in the world, Victor dedicates himself
solely to seeking revenge against the monster. He tracks the monster to the
Arctic, but becomes trapped on breaking ice and is rescued by Walton's crew.
Walton
writes another series of letters to his sister. He tells her about his failure
to reach the North Pole and to restore Victor, who died soon after his rescue.
Walton's final letter describes his discovery of the monster grieving over
Victor's corpse. He accuses the monster of having no remorse, but the monster
says it has suffered more than anyone. With Victor dead, the monster has its
revenge and plans to end its own life.
• Conclusion
This essay has clearly argued that the
creature, Frankenstein, was not the monster he was assumed to be, but rather it
was Victor and the society that are monsters in the story. Despite the fact
that Victor has often been perceived by his family and friends as an individual
who is kind and loving in nature, he in his real nature an empty human without
empathy and who was self-centered. Victor was a reckless scientist who was
driven by passion of satisfying no one but himself and this is why he ran away
from his family, instead of thinking about what he was creating, Frankenstein
is only a victim of circumstances and is seen to be humane than any human he
encountered in his life. His life is filled rejection, and even his creator
does not take pride in him as he describes him as an animal instead of looking
at him as a human. In his struggles to be part of the high society, it is
notable that humans are the monsters and every evil thing originates from our
doings and preconceived ideas. Frankenstein criminal career was as a result of
the injustice he faced.
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