A* Tex, highest in the year, well done!
Tex Royale
English Literature
What does Chapter 5 of Mary Shellys "Frankenstein" reveal about Victors personality?
checkitt:
Chapter Five of Mary Shellys "Frankenstein" is the point in the story in which Victor finally brings life to the inanimate body of the creature. The introductory paragraph sets the scene well, describing the sounds and surroundings with a most dreary and depressing intent. Victor has been slaving over his project for almost two years, distancing himself from friends and family annd depriving himself of liesure and rest. Now, at the end of it all, he has beaten his seemingly impossible goal and the Creature, the rancid collection of miscelanious and murderous corpses, has awoken. The experiment has ended in tears like all romantic obsessions in which it seems so beautifully right to begin with when the finalé is doomed to bring nothing but catastrophe.
Victor clearly is an incredibly obsessive man, for why else would he bar the natural processes of sleeping and eating from his daily routines to perform such an unnatural act as creating life without reproduction, pregnancy, birth or even child hood? H e claims to be doing it for the good of humanity but ask yourself this: what good is life without sex? Why is it nescesary to distance yourselft from those who love and care for you to discover the secret of life when those two elements are perhaps the most vital ingredient? And a man with an ego like Frankensteins may believe that he is doing something for the benefit of every one when in actual fact, even if subconsiously, it is most likely that he is doing it for his own fame and glory. If we think of the Creature as Victors alter-ego, which originally, I believe, Victor wanted for him to be (why else the "beautiful" features he chose?), then maybe we can see why victor hates and fears him so much. Could it be that the Creature is all of the darker aspects of Victors psyche all bundled and stitched up into a most grotesque and disturbing physical form? If Victor is giving this inanimate body life, where is he getting that life from? They didn't have super markets in those days so is it not feasable that, after all those long, rainy nights of hard work, blood and sweat pouring forth, the Creature inherited some fragments of Victors soul? Does it even have a soul? I think so, perhaps even a better, cleaner soul than Victors himself. The creature does, after all , seek Victor out after he so selfishly abandons him on tthe table of his birth. If a baby were born and the docter, or worse - the mother, fused to touch it because it were sticky with blood and screaming, would they not be frowned upon? The Creature comes to Victor whilst he is roaming, lost, in amongst his sleepy thoughts, sickly and grotesque. Could it not be that the Creature senses Victors unease and trouble and goes to aid him, to comfort his father and be comforted? The Creature must've cared, he taught himself to walk when Victor would not, he simply left the Creature in the hopes that it would starve to death or choke on its own jigsaw puzzle puke and return to rotting. The Creature is even smiling with his hand stretched out to help and Victor, the coward he is, flees once again.
The fact that he is trying to create life without the aid of woman hints that he may fear, or at least feel uneasy around, the opposite sex. His dreams also indicate this. Elizabeth, his cousin/fiancé - the "perfect woman", kisses him and then begins to rot, twisting into the form of his dead mother, giving himthe excuse to push her away. This is also ironic as he has just spent so long gracing (or perhaps cursing) the dead with life and yet in his mind those touched by him wither and die, almost like King Midas but instead of loved ones made from gold glittering, their soft and tender living flesh is replaced with something a little more stale. Another indication towards his fear of women is the fact that he'd rather sew together bits of dead men tahn be with the woman whom, apparently, was "sent from the ehavens". I know what I'd rather do.
Clearly a selfish and thoughtless (although at the same time seemingly sensitive and incredibly intelligent), he prays for death upon his Creation, his child and when he finds that the Creature has dissapeared, his prayers apparently answered, he is unabled to contain his sheer glee.
Whilst Mary Shelly gives birth to those who die, Sr. Frankenstein brings life upon the dead. Perhaps a wish of Shellys but a woman of her intelligence must have realised that one must be careful of what they wish for. Why else write this book? Those born from nature should not tamper with it, as it will tamper back ten thousand fold. Earn your parents respect and you rewards shall be sweet. All we have today is concrete.
The people of Shellys time most likely would have seen "Frankenstein" as a blasphemous flight of fantasy, however, little did they know that developments in modern science are now bringing us ever closer to the real Monster.
A* - Superb response here Tex - well done!
English Literature
What does Chapter 5 of Mary Shellys "Frankenstein" reveal about Victors personality?
checkitt:
Chapter Five of Mary Shellys "Frankenstein" is the point in the story in which Victor finally brings life to the inanimate body of the creature. The introductory paragraph sets the scene well, describing the sounds and surroundings with a most dreary and depressing intent. Victor has been slaving over his project for almost two years, distancing himself from friends and family annd depriving himself of liesure and rest. Now, at the end of it all, he has beaten his seemingly impossible goal and the Creature, the rancid collection of miscelanious and murderous corpses, has awoken. The experiment has ended in tears like all romantic obsessions in which it seems so beautifully right to begin with when the finalé is doomed to bring nothing but catastrophe.
Victor clearly is an incredibly obsessive man, for why else would he bar the natural processes of sleeping and eating from his daily routines to perform such an unnatural act as creating life without reproduction, pregnancy, birth or even child hood? H e claims to be doing it for the good of humanity but ask yourself this: what good is life without sex? Why is it nescesary to distance yourselft from those who love and care for you to discover the secret of life when those two elements are perhaps the most vital ingredient? And a man with an ego like Frankensteins may believe that he is doing something for the benefit of every one when in actual fact, even if subconsiously, it is most likely that he is doing it for his own fame and glory. If we think of the Creature as Victors alter-ego, which originally, I believe, Victor wanted for him to be (why else the "beautiful" features he chose?), then maybe we can see why victor hates and fears him so much. Could it be that the Creature is all of the darker aspects of Victors psyche all bundled and stitched up into a most grotesque and disturbing physical form? If Victor is giving this inanimate body life, where is he getting that life from? They didn't have super markets in those days so is it not feasable that, after all those long, rainy nights of hard work, blood and sweat pouring forth, the Creature inherited some fragments of Victors soul? Does it even have a soul? I think so, perhaps even a better, cleaner soul than Victors himself. The creature does, after all , seek Victor out after he so selfishly abandons him on tthe table of his birth. If a baby were born and the docter, or worse - the mother, fused to touch it because it were sticky with blood and screaming, would they not be frowned upon? The Creature comes to Victor whilst he is roaming, lost, in amongst his sleepy thoughts, sickly and grotesque. Could it not be that the Creature senses Victors unease and trouble and goes to aid him, to comfort his father and be comforted? The Creature must've cared, he taught himself to walk when Victor would not, he simply left the Creature in the hopes that it would starve to death or choke on its own jigsaw puzzle puke and return to rotting. The Creature is even smiling with his hand stretched out to help and Victor, the coward he is, flees once again.
The fact that he is trying to create life without the aid of woman hints that he may fear, or at least feel uneasy around, the opposite sex. His dreams also indicate this. Elizabeth, his cousin/fiancé - the "perfect woman", kisses him and then begins to rot, twisting into the form of his dead mother, giving himthe excuse to push her away. This is also ironic as he has just spent so long gracing (or perhaps cursing) the dead with life and yet in his mind those touched by him wither and die, almost like King Midas but instead of loved ones made from gold glittering, their soft and tender living flesh is replaced with something a little more stale. Another indication towards his fear of women is the fact that he'd rather sew together bits of dead men tahn be with the woman whom, apparently, was "sent from the ehavens". I know what I'd rather do.
Clearly a selfish and thoughtless (although at the same time seemingly sensitive and incredibly intelligent), he prays for death upon his Creation, his child and when he finds that the Creature has dissapeared, his prayers apparently answered, he is unabled to contain his sheer glee.
Whilst Mary Shelly gives birth to those who die, Sr. Frankenstein brings life upon the dead. Perhaps a wish of Shellys but a woman of her intelligence must have realised that one must be careful of what they wish for. Why else write this book? Those born from nature should not tamper with it, as it will tamper back ten thousand fold. Earn your parents respect and you rewards shall be sweet. All we have today is concrete.
The people of Shellys time most likely would have seen "Frankenstein" as a blasphemous flight of fantasy, however, little did they know that developments in modern science are now bringing us ever closer to the real Monster.
A* - Superb response here Tex - well done!