How does the change in narration to the creature’s point of view affect the reading of the novel? Do you feel sympathy for the creature when he is rejected by humanity?The shift in narration to the perspective of the creature deepens the reader's understanding to not only include the bias of both Walton and Frankenstein, but to truly see the creature for the metaphorical lost, abandoned child he is, since you can now put yourself in his shoes and see the events through his eyes. Frankenstein is so blinded by superficiality that he only saw his creature as a disgusting and terrifying monster, which is what the audience is led to believe, until he is actually introduced and is very eloquent and civil. I feel sympathy for him, because he was all alone for the beginning of his life and had no-one to guide him or teach him how to be a good person. His first interaction with a human, Frankenstein, was scaring him off with his abnormal features. This could foster much anger and resentment towards humanity, where he continued to care for the family in the cottage and develop human emotions, intelligence, and a personality. He only wants to be accepted and feel love, but everyone is too scared by his physical appearance to actually get to know him and understand him for who he truly is. If he wasn't as "ugly" he would have more friends and live better as seen through his interaction with the blind old man, who couldn't see his appearance and was able to relate to and understand the genuine nature of the creature. He is an outsider, and there is nothing he can do to be "normal" and gain the acceptance, attention, and affection that he craves from other people. He is not initially the monster everyone makes him out to be, he just looks like one. However, with his lack of guidance, companionship, and positive social interaction, he becomes very depressed and angry, which is actually what turns him into the monster everyone thought he was.
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You are about to hear the creature’s side of the story. Before that happens, let’s reflect on Frankenstein. How would you describe his character? Is he good or evil? What drives him? Is he a reliable narrator? Do you trust him? Use evidence from the text to tie Frankenstein’s actions to education, credo or power.Victor Frankenstein's character is very obsessive and possessive. I think that he had innocent yet arrogant intentions when making the creature. He doesn't seem like he wanted to hurt anyone or put anyone in danger, but he wanted to demonstrate his power over the laws of nature by creating artificial life. Ultimately, that is veil,however he becomes evil without trying to. However, he also doesn’t try to be inherently good, since he only thinks of himself. The fact that he went two full years not really worried about what his monster was up to also signifies his selfishness and carelessness when it came to other people. He created a life in a powerful body, but doesn’t seem to take in account the great amounts of danger the creature brings with it, especially since Frankenstein did nothing to help build a good moral character for the creature, who is just like a baby, new to life. This is, again, another example of Frankenstein having awful foresight in the book, specifically to the havoc his creature is wreaking throughout Germany. Selfish Frankenstein only seems to care when things impact him directly, and since he got the self-glorification he wanted by creating this masterpiece of artificial life, he couldn’t care less about what happens after to the creature, because it seems to have nothing to do with Frankenstein. He is obsessed with gaining knowledge over everything seen through his intense studies leading up to his creation. Frankenstein's credo is his value of superficiality, because many decisions he makes is because of physical appearance. He loves Elizabeth because she is physically beautiful, and is afraid of his creature because he looks disgusting. This characterizes his relationships with both characters, from love and longing for Elizabeth to complete disregard, disgust, and carelessness for the creature. This also seen through is acceptance of the taller better-looking professor compared to the short fat one.
What message might Victor be missing when he dreams that his kiss turns Elizabeth into a corpse? In Chapter 5, when Victor dreams about Elizabeth, he kisses her, and she dies, morphing into an ugly decayed human comparable to his dead mother. I think that the message Victor might be missing is how the dream is foreshadowing that Elizabeth is going to die just like his mother. Also, since she turns into a corpse when he kisses her, it seems to point towards the idea that Victor will cause her death with innocent intentions. Having this dream immediately after his creation came to life, we, as readers, can infer that the creature will cause her death, which can be a way of balancing Frankenstein’s interruption of nature through the scientific construction of a human being, acting as karma and restoration, where a life is taken for the life Victor supplied the creature. Victor’s attempt to play “God” will definitely reap significant consequences, and most likely the death of many people, even the ones he holds dear to his heart. This can be supported by the immediate contrast of the creation of the hideous creature and the idea of Elizabeth becoming a corpse. Also, with the motif of beauty, in the eyes of Frankenstein, the creature turns from a beautiful body to an ugly monster, when he receives life, whereas Elizabeth turns from being “in the bloom of health” to being “livid with the hue of death” in his dream. Shelley uses a variety of different characteristics in order to juxtapose the difference between the creature and Elizabeth, both of which were obsessed over by Victor, but have different fates due to his selfishness and deep passion for science and extreme capacity for ambition and aspiration to overpower natural laws. His disregard for this dream is one of the many examples of Frankenstein having extremely poor foresight in the novel.
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Cameryn JusonWills Period 2 Archives
April 2017
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