Good And Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Words: 618
Pages: 3
Open Document
In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” practically all of the women are portrayed as caring, innocent, but also helpless and susceptible to punishment for careless acts performed by the men in the novel. The women almost seem like they are foils to the reckless Frankenstein who sustains a selfish and unhealthy frame of mind throughout his life. In this novel, Shelley presents women as beings of eternal happiness for men, sacrifice, and interestingly, beings who can conceive evil through reproduction.

Due to irresponsible actions that Victor undertook, women become the objects of revenge and receive the wrath of his actions. This becomes obvious when Justine is executed for a murder that she did not commit. “…for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise have excited was obliterated in the minds of the spectators by the imagination of the enormity she was supposed to have committed.” Victor becomes an object of vampirism to Justine because he abstracts her innocence, not in a sexual …show more content…
A life with a companion almost becomes a sanctuary away from their dreadful circumstances. The creature expresses his opinion when he states “I demand a creature of another sex… it shall content me… Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel.” The creature strongly desires and needs a companion to diminish the pain of being an outcast. He feels that having just one benevolent creature in his life will terminate his evil intentions and actually make him content and relaxed. Victor proves his desire for a companion when he assures his concerned father “My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union.” Victor’s future happiness solely depends on his union with Elizabeth. He admits to himself that until their marriage, he will stay consumed by the fear and anger caused by the creature he
Show More

Related Documents: Good And Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Good And Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

I believe that people are never born evil. Those who become evil always have something happen during their life that makes them malicious. This could be a personality trait that develops because of circumstance, the way society treats them, or an unknowing mistake. The situation of traits growing and transforming into villainous actions is shown by Victor Frankenstein throughout the story. His trait is that he is extremely curious and overconfident. If he hadn’t decided that he was going to do the…

Words 252 - Pages 2

Monster In Frankenstein

a monster. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, we are introduced to the main protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, whose obsession with creating life leads him to create a creature from the remains of corpses without taking into consideration the consequences of his actions—he sets loose a “monster” who is the very cause of not only his death but the death of his loved ones as well. But is the creature that Victor creates truly a monster? Throughout Shelley’s…

Words 843 - Pages 4

Essay about Frankenstein and Creature

“Love is All You Need” Mary Shelley, the “founding mother of science fiction”, obviously lived a life filled with struggle. Her mother died when Mary was only three days old. Her surviving father disowned her after the elopement of her and her husband, Percy Florence. She then lost her husband and three of her children, all by the age of twenty-four. Not surprisingly, she battled serious depression off and on for most of her before she passed away in 1851 at the age of fifty-four. It is believed…

Words 716 - Pages 3

Victor Relationship In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein,” she shows that there’s much more relationship between Victor and Frankenstein than just the creator and creation. There are different ways to look at this story from many perspectives. For example, a father abandoning his child that causes an enormous conflict between him and everyone else. When the child is brought into this world, they need someone to look up to as an example, or turn to someone when time is tough. The feeling of being alone and everyone either…

Words 1192 - Pages 5

Who Is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley was a romantic writer during the 1800s. Shelley started her Ghost story as a short story, she wrote “Frankenstein” or , the Modern Prometheus”, and it was published in 1818. Producers have altered her work through video clips. According to Shelley in her story “Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus’’ she describes the protagonist Victor Frankenstein as the scientist instead of the monster. Victor was fascinated by all the things he saw during the storm. In Shelley’s excerpt she states…

Words 311 - Pages 2

The True Nature Of Humanity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

answer to a certain extent. Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, is a novel that questions the true nature of humanity. We see this play out through the novel when the creature interacts with humans for the first time, and when the creature saves the girl, or even when Victor first sees the creature come to life. In Frankenstein, the benevolence of humanity and the amount of kindness shown to the creature, is poignantly questioned. One significant moment that shows the evil in humanity and how it…

Words 630 - Pages 3

Alienation In Frankenstein

“One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race” (Shelley 23). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein follows the path of a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, before and after the dramatic event which forever alters his life--his creation of life. His failure to maintain relationships and support his creation mirrors the failures of his own father. The beast’s carnage…

Words 2249 - Pages 9

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay

Literary analysis Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, utilizes very profound imagery, its elevated language helps to develop a shift in tone, and Shelley’s overall message (theme) of not judging a book by its cover and to not mess with the natural order of life has a powerful impact on the work as a whole. On pages 43-44 ending with “so miserably given life”, these examples of literature are exemplified. Pages 43-44 of Frankenstein, gives good examples of imagery. One stormy November night, after months…

Words 615 - Pages 3

Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Film Analysis

The original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley was a cautionary tale of the dangers of science and the pursuit of knowledge. Kenneth Branagh’s film does a good job at capturing these two major themes through the evil misdeeds of the Creature that Victor Frankenstein creates. After the Creature escapes from Viktor’s laboratory, he flees into the nearby woods. Later, he becomes bitter towards his creator and in his need for vengeance kills Victor's brother William and, indirectly, kills Justine in…

Words 648 - Pages 3

Victor Frankenstein: A True Tragic Hero

Selena Zuzarte ENG 2071 October 16th 2017 Alyssa MacLean Topic 4 Victor Frankenstein: A True Tragic Hero What does a tragic hero consists of? A tragic hero is a literary character who decides to make a judgement that leads in a fatal error. Aristotle, an ancient Philosopher once said “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” According to his novel of Poetics there are five characteristics that make up a tragic hero which are: Hamartia, a tragic flaw the hero posses…

Words 316 - Pages 2