This blog is in response to a task given by our professor,https://yeshab68.blogspot.com/2022/08/frankenstein-mary-shelley.html.
Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England to philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft; both her parents were noted writers in the 1800s. Her father's most famous book was Political Justice (1793), which is a critical look at society and the ethical treatment of the masses. Godwin's other popular book Caleb Williams (1794) examines class distinctions and the misuse of power by the ruling aristocracy. Mary Wollstonecraft, her mother, was a leading feminist writer who espoused her views in her famous work A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). They married in 1797 to protect the rights of the forthcoming child. When their daughter Mary was born, William and Mary had only been married for five months. Four weeks after giving birth, Mary Wollstonecraft died of complications. Thus, Mary Shelley never knew her mother. Her father remarried a woman by the name of Mrs. Clairmont when the young Mary was four years old.
Mary's learned father, who had frequent guests in their home all through her formative years, guaranteed her education. A voracious reader, Mary borrowed books from her father's extensive library. She enjoyed writing at a young age, and her passion was to write stories intended for a very limited audience. The influence of her famous father's home cannot be understated with a constant stream of writers, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was at home that Mary developed into a person of letters, following in the family tradition of writers and thinkers.
Mary Shelley makes full use of themes that were popular during the time she wrote Frankenstein. She is concerned with the use of knowledge for good or evil purposes, the invasion of technology into modern life, the treatment of the poor or uneducated, and the restorative powers of nature in the face of unnatural events. She addresses each concern in the novel, but some concerns are not fully addressed or answered. For instance, how much learning can man obtain without jeopardising himself or others? This is a question that has no clear answer in the novel.
Victor Frankenstein learns all he can about the field of science, both before, during, and after his work at the university. Prior to his enrollment at the university, Victor focuses on the ancient art of alchemy, which had been discredited by the time of Shelley's writing. Alchemy was an early form of chemistry, with philosophic and magical associations, studied in the Middle Ages. Its chief aims were to change base metals into gold and to discover the elixir of perpetual youth. At the university, Victor gains new knowledge with the most modern science as a background. However, it is Victor's combination of old and new science that leads him down a path to self-destruction. This is one of Shelley's themes:"How can we harness the knowledge that we have so that it is not self destructive and for the benefit of all mankind?" The answer is not an easy one, and Shelley is not clear on her feelings about the use or abuse of technology. The reanimation of man from the dead is a useful thing to revive people who have died too soon, but what responsibility must we exercise once we bring people back from the dead? This is a morally perplexing question. Thus, we are stuck in a dilemma:"How far can we go in raising the dead without destroying the living?" Shelley seems to conclude that man cannot handle becoming both like God and a creator without much difficulty.Since the Industrial Revolution had pervaded all part of European and British society by the time of her writing, Shelley questions how far the current wave of advances should push the individual in terms of personal and spiritual growth. She conveys the impression that perhaps the technological advances made to date rob the soul of growth when man becomes too dependent on technology. Personal freedom is lost when man is made a slave to machines, instead of machines being dominated by man. Thus, Victor becomes a lost soul when he tries his ghastly experiments on the dead and loses his moral compass when he becomes obsessed with animating the dead. Victor's overindulgence in science takes away his humanity, and he is left with the consequences of these actions without having reasoned out the reality that his experiments may not have the desired effects.
Shelley presents nature as very powerful. It has the power to put humanity back into man when the unnatural world has stripped him of his moral fibre. Victor often seeks to refresh his mind and soul when he seeks solitude in the mountains of Switzerland, down the Rhine River in Germany, and on tour in England. Shelley devotes long passages to the effect that nature has on Victor's mind. He seems to be regenerated when he visits nature; his mind is better after a particularly harrowing episode. Nature also has the power to change man when Victor uses the power of lightning's electricity to give life to dead human flesh. The awesome power of nature is also apparent when storms roll into the areas where clear skies had previously prevailed. Victor ignores all of the warnings against natural law and must pay the ultimate price for the violation of those laws.
Task:1 - MOVIE REVIEW:
I enjoyed this although I thought some of the scenes were a little far fetched. Too fanciful. Yes it was based on Mary Shelley's book so the action could have taken place anywhere but the glacier scene although beautiful was unnecessary. Also Elisabeth setting fire to herself and then the house, again unnecessary. Robert de Niro is always Robert de Niro even under all that makeup. He gave a haunting performance but learning to read & write, becoming so eloquent so fast. A mish mash of ideas, but the acting and the directing was great.
Task:2 - Question-Answers:
Q-1:Why was Victor not able to accept his dream experiment and its result?
Ans:
Victor experiences the two basic meanings of the word responsibility. He creates the creature (he causes it to exist), and therefore he has at least some responsibility for what the creature goes on to do. As the creature’s maker, Victor also has both a duty to others to keep them safe from his creation and, Mary seems to be saying, a duty to his creation to ensure that his existence is worthwhile. We will turn to these two ideas now—responsibility for and responsibility to.
As the story progresses, Victor’s initial emotional reactions to seeing the creature come to life—disgust and horror—are substantiated by the creature’s actions. Victor learns that the creature has killed his young brother William, whose death is then blamed on a family friend, Justine. But Victor knows the truth. He understands that he would be implicated in her execution if she is convicted as well as in the murder of his brother—“the result of my curiosity and lawless devices would cause the death of two of my fellow-beings”. He suffers greatly under this guilt—“the tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom, and would not forego their hold”. But he does nothing to intervene. The girl is unjustly convicted. “I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer”.
Q-2:What made the creature a monster?
Ans:
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, society continually regards Victor's creation as a monster, both physically and psychologically. Though the being has the physical characteristics of a monster, it is only after he is repeatedly rejected by society that he adopts the personality and behaviour of a monster. Thus, society plays a large role in shaping the monster's personality and behaviour. Because society expects him to act like a monster, he inevitably becomes one. The being is clearly a victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, because of the expectations held by an insensitive, hostile society, the being is forced to become a monster internally as well. The creature tries to find companionship many times, but he is only met with fear and hostility. Because the being cannot escape society's expectations regardless of his behaviour, he eventually confirms them and acts accordingly. He completes Webster's definition of a monster as he commits wicked and cruel acts. The being has fallen into a self-fulfilling prophecy, "a groundless expectation that is confirmed because it has been expected".
Q-3:Can appearance overpower reality?
Ans:
Throughout our existence, there is one emotion that we all must have or at least experience and that is compassion. The gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley introduces appearance vs. reality. However, we get to know that Victor Frankenstein comes from a respectable family and ideally good. As time passes he goes on to pursue his education. Frankenstein created what he thought would be beautifully turned out to be horrendous. Then on we notice a reaction from Frankenstein and flees as a result. People judge or judged based on appearance. Like everyone else, we want to be accepted, we want to be of value. The monster yearns for it but being the way that he is, it made it much harder for him to reach.
Appearance Versus Reality in Frankenstein By: Corbin Schmidt “The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully necessary to seem to know something as to know it” -Daniel Webster. One of the most important themes in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is appearance versus reality. This theme comes into fruition throughout the novel, most notably when Shelley provides insight into the characters of the story and how they are immediately judged by their looks in most cases rather than their personalities, such as the adoption of Elizabeth by Victor’s family.
The appearance of certain settings also has an effect on how the characters in the novel feel, this is evident the most in Victor since the book follows him and gives good detail into his thoughts and feelings at every moment. Despite Frankenstein’s creation being called a monster he does not seem to always appear to fit into that title and can be more human than some of the other characters. The monster’s true personality is shown when he is interacting with seemingly random people throughout the story rather than with Victor or those he knows.
Certain images and landscapes also affect the characters’ thoughts and emotions whether this be in a positive or negative manner. The monster may do some cruel things but he may not live up to the title of monster as he also does act in ways that a monster would not. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. ” – Lao Tzu.
Q-4:Who decides what beauty is? Is it for real or superficial?
Ans:
One thing about the monster Victor Frankenstein created is certain: It is hideous. So hideous even that though he has good intentions he gets shunned by society. Due to his ugliness, he has trouble finding a mate and even goes on a murderous rampage in the end which is followed by his suicide. Is the monster driven to this terrible fate by society or is it someone or even something else? In the following, this paper will look at the concept of beauty in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and how it influences the monster as well as society in general.
External beauty is the first thing one sees in another. So initially, for most, that is the catalyst for attraction and determining whether or not one wants to pursue a mate. Obviously if that physical attraction comes with an awful personality, then one will reassess and likely not want to be with the person. But for most of us, some level of physical attraction is necessary in order to be with a partner. That being said, attract tuion is subjective - so what is attractive physically to me may not be to you.
Q-5:villain in Frankenstein.
Ans:
The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor. As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god.
However, the motive behind his actions was not born of a hero, but of a man being remorseful for the mistakes he made by first creating a monster and then abandoning it. Moreover, the fact that he could fathom the idea of making a phantom, an extraordinary creature for no apparent reason, makes him a villain.
conclusion:
This is my understanding and my views about this, your views may be different from me. Thank you so much for reading this blog..
Keep Loving Literature..
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