Paper No.8 cultural studies
Course: M.A (English)
Topic: Study of Frankenstein…
Semester: 2
Unit: 2
Roll.no:5
Paper no.:8
Email Id: artivadher10@gmail.com
Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,
Smt: S.B.Gardi
Introduction of Writer:-
Frankenstein or a modern Prometheus is
a novel which is written by British author Mary Shelley. She was
born on 30 – August 1797 in Somers Town, London. Her father William Godwin was
the political philosopher. Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft was the philosopher
and feminist. Her mother died of puerperal fever ten days after Mary was born.
The influence of her mother could found much and she got inspiration by her
mother to contribute in Literature. She was novelist, short story writer, and
dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic
novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus. Mary and P.B.Shelley began
meeting each other secretly at Mary Wollstonecraft's grave in St.Pancras
Churchyard, and they fell in love — she was nearly seventeen, he nearly
twenty-two Mary Shelley's
last years were blighted by illness. From 1839, she suffered from headaches and
bouts of relists in parts of her body, which sometimes
prevented her from reading and writing. On 1 February 1851, at Chester Square,
she died at the age of fifty-three from what her physician suspected was a
brain tumor. According to Jane Shelley, Mary Shelley had asked to be buried
with her mother and father; but Percy and Jane, judging the graveyard at St
Pancreas to be "dreadful", chose to bury her instead at St Peter's
Church, Bournemouth, near their new home at Boscombe.
Introduction of Novel: - Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
The
first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818.
Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823. In
the novel, the monster is identified via words such as "creature",
"monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile
insect", "daemon", "being", and "it”. Speaking to
Victor Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as "the Adam of your
labors", and elsewhere as someone who "would have" been
"your Adam", but is instead "your fallen angel."
Frankenstein is
infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic Movement and is
also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. it
should be considered the first true science fiction story, because unlike in
previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science
fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and
"turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic
results. It has had a considerable influence across literature and popular
culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays.
The
novel has many characters. Among all character the character of Creation of
Victor Frankenstein is an antagonist of novel. The antagonist is Frankenstein –
Monster. Victor created the Frankenstein and after seeing, Victor frightened
and did not accept. So hatred of master and society made the Frankenstein as a
Monster.
Let’s look at the
birds view at the characters of Novel.
There are many
characters which are related with Monster or Frankenstein.
The
Monster: Frankenstein
is a creation of Victor Frankenstein. He is 8feet tall. Scientist Victor
Frankenstein creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific
experiment. Just because of his ugly shape and size, he is the true outcast of
society, and though he has the intelligence of man, he isn't allowed into
society
Robert Walton:
Walton is the first
narrator of the story. He wrote letter to his sister
Margaret. He
first explained about his desire to explore North Pole. Then he narrates the
story of Victor Frankenstein.
Victor
Frankenstein: Victor is the protagonist, narrator and main
character of the novel. He is the curious to know the secrets of life.
Eventually he finds the secrets of life. After many attempts and
experiment Victor is finally create the Monster.
Alphonse
Frankenstein: Mr. Frankenstein is Victor's father.
Caroline
Beaufort: Caroline Beaufort
Frankenstein is Victor's mother. She comes from a poor but
dignified family, and agrees to marry Alphonse after her father dies and
she is left alone to fend for herself.
Elizabeth:
She is the poor orphan girl who eventually is adopted by the
Frankenstein’s family.
Henry
Clerval: Henry is Victor's best
friend and school peer. Unfortunately, he too is murdered by the
beast near the end of the story.
M.
Waldman: This man is
science professor at Ingolstadt. He is largely responsible for
leading Victor away from alchemy and towards genuine chemistry.
Felix:
Felix is the young man who lives in the small cottage near the monsters
Hovel.
Agatha:
Agatha is Felix's
sister and De Lacey's daughter. She, too, is forced to
leave with the family when they are found guilty in French court.
De Lacey:
De Lacey is the old,
blind man of the cottage. He's the father of Agatha
And
Felix.
Safie:
Safie is the daughter
of the Turk and a Christian Arab. She falls in love with Felix after he manages
to free her father from prison. Through trickery, she eventually reunites with
her lover at the cottage.
Brief synopsis of the novel:
The
story starts with the narration of story. Victor starts story from his
childhood. He was born into Geneva. Victor grew up into rich family. As a young
boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories that focus on
simulating natural wonders. He likes to study nature and super natural
strength. When Victor is four years old, his parents adopt an orphan, Elizabeth
Lavenza. They lived happily in the family. Then victor fall in love with
Elizabeth then he married to her.
Victor
went to study at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. Before he leave he
saw, witnessing a lightning strike on an oak tree inspires Victor to harness
its power for his experiments. His mother dies of scarlet fever, creating
further impetus towards his experiments. At university, he excels at chemistry
and other sciences, soon developing a secret technique to reanimate dead
tissue, which eventually leads to his creation of the Monster. It was very
difficult to replace small parts of human body, so victor has decided to use
big and large part of human body. So his creation became 8 feet tall. As a
result, the beautiful creation of his dreams is instead hideous, with yellow
eyes and skin.
After
creating monster, victor saw him and shocked. Creature ran away from laboratory
with books and clothes of victor. Because of monster’s ugly shape and look victor
frightened from monster and fainted. As fainted, Victor falls ill from hard
work of experience. He nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry
Clerval. After four – month recovery, he returns home in Geneva. Then he came
to know about the murder of his bother William. Justine, William's nanny, is
hanged for the crime after William's locket is found in her pocket. Victor
visit at the crime scene when murder tool place. Then he came to know
that monster would have killed the William. Ravaged by grief and guilt, Victor
retreats into the mountains. Here he met with Monster and monster narrate the
whole story that how he lived, and how he has treated by society. He told that
when he went out from Laboratory he go outside. Here people hate him, beaten
him. Because of monster’s ugly shape and size people did not accept his
existence. People have beaten him and throw stones at him. Then he went outside
city, went into forest. While living near a cottage, he grew fond of the family
living there. The Creature learned to speak by listening to them and he taught
himself to read after discovering a lost satchel of books. When he saw his
reflection in a pool, he realized his physical appearance was hideous. Despite
of his ugliness he tried to be friend of that family, but the family member was
frightened and fled their home. The Creature then burned the cottage in a fit
of rage.
Monster has felt that everyone has left him, nobody wants to be his friend,
nobody love him. So he wanted to take revenge from his creator, because his
creator doesn’t care of his creation. So now he felt that it was his master’s
responsibility to take care of him. He also narrate the quotation of
Paradise lost.
“Did I request thee,
Maker, from my clay,
To mould me man? Did I
solicit thee,
From darkness to
promote me? ”
(Paradise Lost, X, 743–45)
The
monster told victor to make a female partner for the company. So that he can
live happily with her. The monster has told that he would never come back and
went far away from Victor. The Creature promises he and his mate will vanish
into the South American wilderness, never to reappear, if Victor grants his
request. Victor accepts it, then he tried again to create female partner for
monster, but he thought that it will be very horrible to see Monster family. So
he did not create the monster Clerval accompanies him to England, but they
separate in Scotland. Victor suspects that the Monster is following him.
Working on the female creature on the Orkney Islands, He destroys the female
creature after he sees the Monster watching through a window. The Monster confronts
him, vowing to be with Victor and Elizabeth on their upcoming wedding night.
The Monster then kills Clerval, leaving the corpse to be found where Victor
lands in Ireland. Victor is imprisoned for Clerval's murder and suffers another
mental breakdown in prison. After that he returns home with his father. In
Geneva, Victor married with Elizabeth. Then Victor has told to Elizabeth to
stay in the room, and went outside meanwhile the monster enter from window and
murdered Elizabeth. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval,
and Elizabeth, Victor's father dies. Seeking revenge, Victor pursues the
Monster to the North Pole; however, he does not kill his creation. Victor met
Captain Walton, and then he died on ship. At the end of novel Monster met with
Victor and went to the North Pole, and never came back.
Orphan:-
The
definition of orphan has a simple meaning; an orphan is a child whose parents
are dead. Child whose parents have left them permanently, that child can be considering
as an orphan child. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is
usually relevant. If she has gone, the offspring is an orphan, regardless of
the father's condition.
If
we took a bird view in our literature, we can find much character who is
orphaned. In literature Orphaned characters are extremely common as literary
protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature. Because of their
situation, no one is ready take care of those orphans. So the lack of parents
leaves the characters to pursue more interesting and adventurous lives.
Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to
develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from the necessity to
depict such an irrelevant relationship; if one parent-child relationship is
important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary
relationship.
All these
characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors
Orphans
characters are common in many literature forms like fairy tales, such as most
variants of Cinderella. A
number of well-known authors have written books featuring orphans. Examples
from classic literature include Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Thomas
Hardy's Jude the Obscure, Among more recent authors, J. K. Rowling's Harry
Potter series, as well as some less well-known authors of famous orphans like
Little Orphan Annie have used orphans as major characters. Almost all the most
popular heroes are orphans: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Robin, The Flash, Captain
Marvel, Captain America, and Green Arrow were all orphaned. So from past many
bunch of years we can say the characterization of orphan has significant role
in literature.
In the novel Frankenstein we can find, Monster as an
orphan, Because of his condition, the theme of orphan-hood is seen in the
monster. The monster has no father, no mother, and no family at all. Even
society has not accepted his existence. Nobody wants to love him and accepted
him. So he became so sad. He felt lonely and become mad. Those spirits draw him
into bad way and that cause reflects into kill innocent people who were his
creators love. He has become completely lost with no guidance and no body to
care for him or love him.
There are different perspective
to see Frankenstein as an Orphan child. We can consider
as an Orphan child.
When
the monster was created, he has Victor as a father, because victor has created
him. But ugly look and size of monster frightened victor. So Victor fainted and
falls down on earth. At some extent we can say that even father didn’t accept
the existence of his own creation. So that way monster may consider as an
Orphan child. At the moment when the
creature comes to life, Frankenstein is not triumphant, but horrified.
Frankenstein turns away from his creature and rushes from the room in disgust
and dismay. After a brief, additional encounter with the creature, he flees
from the house and does not see him again for almost two years.
Monster ran away from the laboratory of
Victor. Now society has seen him, and they came to know about the existence of
Monster. He performs generous deeds in order to aid the family he’s been
observing, yet when he attempts to cross over into their realm, he is rejected
at first sight. Ugly look of Monster makes him horrible. So we can say that
society has thrown out him. When people have seen ugly face of monster, they
started beating him. So, monster feels lonely in the society. Nobody wanted to
pay attention on him. Perspective of society to looking at Monster was cruel,
and that vision makes a creature in Monstrous character. At some extent society
is responsible to felt that Monster is orphan. In the society, Monster has no
friends, no family so we can consider him as an orphan child..
Nature
is equal to all of life, but here the nature is little opposed to Monster.
Monster has horrible face. When monster is created he was just like a new born
baby. He has no vision, no though, no relation and no view of living life. As
he grown up he just learnt how to live life. Even his creator has not accepted
his existence. By nature he was a good creature, but the society that makes him
Monster.
Monster is an abandoned child, a parentless orphan. Monster feels
that nobody wanted to be friend with him. At that time he saw that
everyone man has a female partner. At that time he felt that if his creator
would make am companion for him. With the company of companion, monster can
live happily. After that both of them went to North Pole and never came back.
So Monster felt that he is orphan and nobody liked him. So when he met with
Scientist Victor Frankenstein he told him to make companion for him. Victor
accepted and he starts working on wish of Monster. So Monster can live happily
with partner. During process of making Female Monster, victor thought that it
would be very horrible to see MONSTER FAMILY. So he stopped making female
monster, and destroys all equipment. The victor didn't see that Monster
was looking outside the window. Monster was observed the whole process.
Now he appears and told victor that why he has stopped working on female
monster and why he has destroyed all equipment. Then Monster warned him that he
will meet him on his wedding night. And he ran away. So here we can clearly see
Monster as an orphan. Just for the betterment of the life, Monster
wanted a female partner, victor didn’t create female partner. Wish of
monster to get female partner was right, but that wish has been destroyed by
his creator.
Society didn't accept to live with them with monster, ugly and
different size of monster was a main reason to not allow living in
society. When monster has created he has no vision, that how society will react
at him. When he appeared in front of people, they started beating him. So
monster was not accepted by society. When he lived outside the city in the
forest, here he also tried to be friend with De Lacey family and with an
Old man, at that time old man was blind, so the fearful face is not seen by old
man. So they talked when son of old man came and he saw monster then he found
that monster would harm. So he starts beating him. Then the family left way
from the house. He performs generous deeds in order to aid the family he’s
been observing, yet when he attempts to cross over into their realm, he is
rejected at first sight. When monster see empty house then he became so
angry and turn house into fire. So that incident reflects that monster was just
like an orphan child and nobody wanted his existence near them.
Victor Frankenstein had a hunger of knowledge. He wanted to learn more about
rules of nature and life. His curiosity drew him to create monster. Victor
wanted to know about life and death. He challenged rules of physics. He saw the
professor and his experiment on creating life in laboratory. In one night he
saw lightning strike on an oak tree, then tree turn into ashes. That inspired
victor that those power would be helpful for his experiment. Problem that is
still with us—what are we to do with our creations, especially when they fail
to live up to the promises of their creators? The Monster is, on the deepest
and most personal level, a rejection of Mary Shelley’s Feelings of isolation
and hatred. On a larger scale it serves the same function. An orphan of
science, created and abandoned, the Monster threatens to take out its anger and
rejection on the species of man
After
getting knowledge of reading, speaking etc. from De Lacey family, He reads
Milton's great epic as if it were a "true history" giving the picture
of an omnipotent God warring with His creatures; he identifies himself with
Adam, except so far as Adam had come forth from God a "perfect creature,
happy and prosperous." Finally, of course, he identifies with
Satan:
"I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam;
But I am rather the fallen angel,
Whom thou drives from joy for no misdeed.
Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded.
I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend Make me happy,
And I shall again be virtuous."
When monster is created he was just like a new born baby. He has no vision, no
though, no relation and no view of living life. As he grown up he just learnt
how to live life. Even his creator has not accepted his existence. By nature he
was a good creature, but the society that makes him Monster. When first time
his existence is found in society, people start beating him. At this time
monster could not understand that why this is happening with him. So he was
crying and ran away from there. From birth he was innocent but the refusal of
society makes him Monster. It was effect of society on his behavior. So he
becomes Monster. He was thrown by society. If we criticize from that perspective
we can say that monster is really an orphan child.
In Greek mythology, it is said that Prometheus, who has
stolen fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind, so he was punished by
Zeus, king of the gods. In Roman legend Prometheus also
created mankind with the use of clay.
But contrarily to Prometheus, a good god that brought knowledge and freedom to humanity, the same thing can be found here in this novel like Doctor Frankenstein is a flawed character, neither good, nor evil but certainly blind by his selfish ambition to equal god. Dr. Frankenstein is the archetype of the classical mad scientist but also the embodiment of our scientific age.
In the Greek myth of Prometheus, he had to suffer a lot just for helping mankind. And it was eternal kind of pain that he suffered simultaneously in the novel when monster was helping De Lacey family but due to ugly shape and monstrous look he was neglected by the family. Then after family left the home and monster became lonely. Hence we can say that he is orphan and also consider him as a modern Prometheus
before dying, Frankenstein states,
"Learn
from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous
Is the acquirement of knowledge, and how happier the man is who believes his Native town to be the world,
than he who aspires to become greater than his nature Will allow" (Shelley Ch-53).
Is the acquirement of knowledge, and how happier the man is who believes his Native town to be the world,
than he who aspires to become greater than his nature Will allow" (Shelley Ch-53).
After took birth in laboratory,
Monster had come into possession of
Frankenstein's laboratory notebook and had read the story of his own creation.
In contrast to the creation of Adam, the creature finds the story of his own
creation to be filthy and disgusting. Again the underlying horror is the
realization that he is a merely physical being. Once he went to drink water
near Lake, at that time he saw his own reflection in the water, at the time he
realized that how he was “DISSFORMED” and “GUILTY”. So he thought that he is
different from other human being. Those feelings of made him orphan. Thus the self-realization
and existence of his own makes Monster as an orphan.
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