Kendra Smith
10/14/2011
Laura Cline
English 102
Mirrors Image
Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley about a creature that was born out of experimentation by a doctor who is in fact afraid of his own creation. Dr.Frankenstein has given life to a monster made up of decayed limbs dug up in a graveyard, but is this creature really considered a monster? The gargantuan deformity has no clue about life or the mysteries that surround him. He only knows his creature and that certain feeling of affection that a baby chick has for its mother when it hatches and imprints on the first living being it sees. Heartbroken after being abandoned by his master, he seeks compassion and is led towards the town’s people that emerge fearful of his horrific disfigurement. After being shunned by everything he’s ever know he his self-hatred was reiterated and thus starting his vengeful rage. Had being risen from the dead, Frankenstein the monster had just started his life then and there. Frankenstein is shunned by even his creator, and throughout the entire book tries to prove that what the exterior seems to demonstrate, the inside can truly be a beautiful disaster.
“When I look around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned” (Shelley, pg. 105). This book follows the theme of monstrosity; Frankenstein appears to be a disastrous towering beast sent to earth from the underworld. People run in the opposite direction at the mere sight of this monster.
Baffled by the reactions that the surrounding members of the village had having once laid eyes on the beast. “One of the best of these I entered; but I had hardly placed my feet within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country, and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village” (Shelley, pg.70-71). Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with uncovering the truth about generation and life, so he created a monster whose hideousness made people recoil.
Throughout the process of being rejected and humiliated the monster became lonely. Being the only one of his kind began to take control of the so called monster. People were shunning him, and he was truly alone. “I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create” (Shelley, 129). Desperately seeking companionship and some sort of acceptance, the monster became angry.
“You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormenter, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery” (Shelley, pg 153). After being lonely for an amount of time, the monster began to curse his creator, for he was the reason he was alive and alone. Victor Frankenstein was terrified by the appearance of what he had created that he lived locked away in fear. The two could relate to each other’s emotions, for Victor was use to rejection and lack of companionship. Tragedy was normal to him, so aside from his curiosity he had attempted to create a companion and a friend. Once the monster came alive Victor wanted revenge as well.
Reference
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996
No comments:
Post a Comment