Wednesday, October 2, 2019

How is the Monster portrayed in chapters 11-16 of the novel Essay

How is the Monster portrayed in chapters 11-16 of the novel Frankenstein? The story ‘Frankenstein’ takes the reader through the daunting re-animation of a creature so beyond comprehension. This newborn-creation, degraded from birth yet mighty in spirit, plays out his painful life in search for what is known as true ‘humanity’ but is shown to ultimately fall to vengeance. Mary Shelley, the author of this novel, had lived days of misery and a life of a misfortunate nature. The figure of death had been a constant companion to her. Many members of her family including her mother and several children had all lost their lives to the deep sleep. Her fantasies delved deeper into the world of restoration and resurrection until she actually found a way to channel all these thoughts. And so was the birth of ‘Frankenstein’. The chapters mentioned in the title (11-16) are significant when the subject of matter is focused on the creature. Details of the creature’s behaviour, thoughts, feelings and actions are all concentrated upon here and so it is relevant to point to these chapters when referring to the creature. These are also the chapters in which the creature itself gives its own personal views of his miserable existence. From reading the former chapters, the reader’s outlook of the creature is in great contrast to what is seen by the end of the story. Dr. Frankenstein begins with his immediate and long-term ambitions. His professionalism in natural philosophy and chemistry urges the reader to be almost encouraging in the creation of the monster. The overwhelming effort and the hardships faced by the doctor is sympathised by the reader in supporting him to even go as far as ‘playing God’’. When the ... ...g on to his society and ‘belong’ somewhere. Isolation is not preferred by most. People opt for ‘walking with the herd’. It is only a natural desire but a corrupt society full of evil, injustice or misunderstandings does evidently change a person away from his ‘natural’ behaviour. I do not feel as though Mary Shelley gave much expression of fear of science. From her biographies and life-accounts, it can be seen that such things were not a ‘scary’ topic for her. She wanted to restore her children if she could and she believed science was the only possible answer. I think the general people at large felt a certain degree of fear at science. Yet as she disregarded religion and opposed it much as her parents had done so, she would not have seen science as a problem. However, she may have employed the people’s fear of science to make her story more appealing.

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