Frankenstein Essay Test
Exemplary Examples
2015
6. Their developments mirror each other because they are the reason the other stops
developing. The fear of the growth of the creature drives Victor to obsession and therefor
ends his development; while the end of development in Victor triggers a sense of power
that is new to the creature, ending his development and sending him backwards to his
small bag of construct. Victor is at his prime time of intellectual development when the
creature is “born”. After the creation of the creature, his obsession and paranoia of the
destruction it may cause, slowly pushes Victor to stop developing as an intellectual and
work backwards towards animalistic ways. Victor develops Knowledge, Comprehension,
Application and Analysis. During his Analysis stage, he creates the creature,
demonstrating his ability to break down objects or ideas into simpler parts and find
evidence to support generalizations: “The different accidents of life are not so changeable
as the feelings of human nature” Victor revisits this stage when contemplating the
creation of the female creature where he breaks down the idea to understand “I was now
about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might
become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake,
in murder and wretchedness.” His actual stop in development occurs during this meeting
with the creature where the female creature is created and destroyed. He is not able to
successfully develop through the Synthesis stage (where he would compile component
ideas into a new whole or propose alternative solutions.) after seeing how far his creature
had developed.Even though he starts to feel compassion towards the creature when first
meeting him, he resorts back to the old plan of destruction :“The latter part of his tale had
kindled anew in me the anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful life
among the cottagers” This is where Victor’s development ceases. He is unable to propose
new solutions ( a key part of synthesis), which is what makes it impossible to do anything
but hate and pursue the monster. The creature developed all the way through the
knowledge, comprehension and application stages. He stops developing before the
analysis stage. “‘Shall each man,’ cried he, ‘find a wife for his bosom, and each beast
have his mate, and I be alone?’” This is his previous knowledge and he uses it
(application) as justification for his end of development that was to come. He begins to
reason but then resorts back to his old ways being unable to perform both analysis and
synthesis. He resorts back to the
plan of violence: “‘Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself
unworthy of my condescension.’” This is climax of mirrored development is where the
created becomes the creator and the creator becomes the created.
6. KW: mirror- reflects – reflection is opposite the actions happening in reality
Victor’s emotional development mirrors that of the creature because they
are virtually going through the same processes of progression and regression of
character, mutating into one. Both Victor and the Creature are the reason for the
other’s existence. Victor has regressed from a mature and educated man whose
“revenge is the devouring and only passion” for his soul. By the end of both the
novel and the play, Victor’s sole purpose for living is to kill the creature. By the
end of the play and the novel, the Creature’s sole purpose for living is simply to
bait Victor, remaining alive so that Victor remains alive and tortured by the idea
of his creation still in existence. The Creature reminds Victor of this as he states
“I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am
satisfied”. It is as though Victor is looking into a mirror, the Creature his
reflection, and he sees himself become as wretched as the Creature, the Creature
becoming his master. Their roles are reversed, Victor’s loses sight of his reality as
he is trapped in a cave, where the shadows cast upon him are those that glorify
revenge.
2.
Megalomaniac – obsession with power
Diminish – lessen, lower, decrease, value, power, worth
Archetype – example, original, model
Frankenstein’s obsessive yearn for power inhibits his archetype representation of a 19th
century European aristocrat by inflicting upon himself enemies as a result of greed and
hubris. Frankenstein is an example of a typical wealthy European male in the 19th century
characterized by a snob-like personality, excessive pride in one’s ability and disregard for
their limits. These three components culminate into his megalomaniac driven actions as
he futilely attempts to overstep his boundaries as man. His confidence to “bestow
animation upon lifeless matter” (32) results in his demise as he fails to see the limitations
of his power in comparison to the vast control of nature. In the play, Victor’s mental
instability and irrational actions are much more recognized by figures like Elizabeth, who
abandons the naivety she embodies in the novel. Because Victor is so overcome by a
need for power, he makes himself weak and vulnerable to his surroundings as his failures
dominate his sanity, clearly expressed when he realizes “how dangerous is the
acquirement of knowledge” (35). His greed and excessive pride in the play, as depicted in
scene when he refers to Elizabeth as uneducated, are the reason for his self-inflicted
agony. Thus, Victor builds a barrier between him and the rest of society because by
initially placing himself on a pedestal equivalent to God, he heightens his social status.
Elizabeth in the play isn’t blind to this megalomania and thus, reprimands his powerdriven behavior. He loses the power and control he momentarily held, as represented by
his aristocratic archetype, due to the hubris and greed that characters in the play aren’t
blind towards.
4. sacrificed, permitted, incomplete
sacrificed: killed, murdered, executed
permitted: allowed, accepted, consented
incomplete: unfinished, inadequate, fragment
The play focuses substantially more on the character development of the creature,
therefore the murder of the completed female creature is necessary to create much more
devastating climax in the play. In the play, the monster has an opportunity to "dance" (not
really dancing) with the female creature after showing the audience his dream of dancing
with her alive and no longer being alone. So when the audience sees the monster with the
female creature and then sees his reaction when the female is destroyed, it creates a much
more intense tone of despair and anger because we are very close to the creature's
character development. In the novel, however, it is unnecessary to finish the female
creature because the novel focuses more on Frankenstein's character development and the
different levels of progress on the female do not affect the development of Frankenstein
when she is destroyed. When Frankenstein rips apart the female in the novel, he says, "I
thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and
trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged"(89). This
effectively shows the development of Frankenstein in this scene, and since the focus of
the novel is on Frankenstein, completing the female is not necessary.
3) The act of giving a name is usually done by a parent to a child, or by an owner to a pet.
Giving a name is a very personal act, and would require a lot of thinking and love. The
creature was never given a first or last name because Victor Frankenstein was horrified at
the first sight of his creation. Frankenstein had absolutely no love or caring for his
creature; in fact, he ran away at the first sight of it, describing,”He might have spoken,
but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and
rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, page 35) Usually, when a parent sees their child for
the first time, or when a loving owner sees their pet for the first time, they are overjoyed,
and imagine a future together with their child or pet. This rush of love and joy catalyzes
the act of giving a name, but in Victor’s case, he was disgusted at the first sight of his
(living) creature. Without the same parental love and affection, the creature was never
given a name.
4) In the play, the female creature is sacrificed because the audience can only perceive
Victor’s internal struggle and the creature’s anguish through this visual. Victor’s dilemma
in creating the female creature is very evident, as shown when he contemplates,”I was
moved. I shuddered when I thought of the possible consequences of my consent, but I felt
that there was some justice in his argument. “ (Frankenstein, page 79) Victor is aware of
his crimes against the creature and nature by creating life without analyzing the
consequences for society (and for the creature). However, it is difficult to portray these
emotions in a play unless the female creature is shown as a finished piece, as this gives
the audience a little more hope for a “good end” before halting their short-lived respite. In
the novel, she is only permitted to be incomplete, because it is much easier for the
audience (readers) to empathize with Victor and the creature through Shelley’s incredible
descriptions, like ”I (Victor) looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager
hope, which [...] was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil that made my heart
sicken in my bosom.” (Frankenstein page 88) and ,”Shall each man [...] "find a wife for
his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and
they were requited by detestation and scorn.” (page 89) These words cannot be conveyed
the same way in the play, so the female creature is sacrificed (in order to convey a similar
message).
6) Victor’s emotional development and the creature’s emotional development mirror each
other because while Victor deteriorates from an adult to a child, the creature grows from
a homeless, parentless child to an adult. This occurs because Victor attempts to control
and manipulate nature. When we try to manipulate nature, and do the work of God,
nature will control us, in order to return to the original balance set by it. The Age of
Reasoning (controlling nature) and Romanticism (admiring nature) are in a constant state
of duality, in order to keep the world in balance. Therefore, if one tries to get too
powerful, the other will overpower it. In a similar sense, Victor attempts to control
nature, but the creature ends up manipulating Frankenstein. This is shown when the
creature commands Victor to create the female, ordering,”Remember that I have power;
you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will
be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!" (page 89) Because
Victor defied nature, nature restored the balance by leading Victor to misery, diminishing
him from an intelligent man to a crazy and sick “child”.
6) Victor’s emotional development mirrors to the creature’s emotional development
because the creature that Victor created was symbolically the demonic figure that Victor
created upon himself. The resemblance between both the creatures is what resulted to this
situation, since both characters diminished each other's emotional stability together, like
fire vs fire. Additionally through the feeling of nature, both the monster and Victor feels
the same way when encountering nature. The creature, after feeling envy, jealousy, and
contempt for the relationships he cannot have he explains "My spirits were elevated by
the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present
was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy”
(Shelley 114). Similarly, Frankenstein does the same when his promise made to the
monster to create another disgusting creature fills his mentality with grief; "Even I,
depressed in mind, and my spirits continually agitated by gloomy feelings, even I was
pleased. I lay at the bottom of the boat, and as I gazed on the cloudless blue sky, I seemed
to drink in a tranquility to which I had long been a stranger" (Shelley 158). Both
characters are able to show their peaceful and enraged sides. The juxtaposition between
the two illustrates how both their sinister personalities are able to be controlled through
factors of nature, leading back to the main problem of going against nature and science.
Victor doesn’t realize it, but the similarities through emotional development on losing his
peers and trying to get through it is a mirror of what Frankenstein goes through, already
losing his peers and trying to get through it. This mirror relationship is what makes the
creature symbolically the demonic figure that Victor had created upon himself.
4). The creature yearns for a companion because he craves social interaction after
firsthand experience of seeing the De Lacey family and Saffie. The female creature
would have been the creature’s companion, had it been complete, but in contrast to the
novel, the female creature is complete because the play shows the love and hatred of how
the creature would have reacted had the female creature been created, which is something
that we were not able to see in the play. When Victor creates the female creature in the
play, the creature whispers to himself “She’s beautiful [...]” The creature grasps the
female creature off of Victor’s table and we see the creature slowly brought down to a
tranquil creature, almost as if a baby had been soothed. However, once the female
creature is destroyed, the creature reverts back to its berzerk state. The play shows the
creature’s mind and thoughts. When the female creature was created, the creature feels
love; at least, what would have been love had the companion accepted him. But the
female creature, once completed, is sacrificed to emphasize the hatred that the creature
feels of Victor. What was so close to the creature’s grasp is simply taken away from, and
once more the creature is left alone, which the creature abhors the most. The novel on the
other hand never really shows what the creature would have felt had the creature
complete, except why the creature wanted a companion. He says, “Our lives will not be
happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel.” (79) and when the
female creature is destroyed incomplete, “[he creature’s] countenance expressed the
utmost extent of malice and treachery.” (89) What we didn’t see in the novel, but in the
play, is how the creature would have felt had the female creature been created
Q #1: In the novel FRANKENSTEIN, why is Victor pursuing the shadow of his
father’s approval?
Victor pursues the shadow of his father’s approval because his megalomania overpowers
his rational thought. His feelings towards his father are introduced with his desire to
pursue Alchemy and the scientific field of academia. His father, however, disapproves,
and harshly discourages Victor from pursuing his passions. “My father was not scientific,
and I was left to struggle with a child’s blindness, added to a student’s thirst for
knowledge.”(36) When he is unable to gain his father’s approval, his desire to become a
father, more like a powerful creator, himself, begins to develop as a result. Because he
cannot gain approval from his own creator, he must gain the approval of his own
creation, a mirrored shadow of what would’ve been his father’s approval. “Life and death
appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of
light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many
happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.”(33) Frankenstein hopes to
use his power of knowledge to become the silhouette of a father he never had.
Q #5: Since science is in conflict with romanticism in the novel, why was the choice
made for romanticism to NOT be in conflict with science and the play?
The choice for Romanticism to NOT be in conflict with Science in the play allows the
Creature to be characterized as human. Again, the Creature is a product of Science in the
novel, while, in the play, the Creature is a product of life. This difference changes the
characterization of the Creature. The purpose to change this allows the Creature to
become humanized in the play. The Creature, originally intended to be a product of
Science, is then romanticized. While the ideologies oppose each other in the novel, they
work together in order to harmonize in the play, which the effect is eventually to
humanize the Creature. In the play, the Creature is humanized by his anger, hope, desire
for love from the Delacey’s. In the play, we see every stage of development and learning
the Creature undergoes. In the novel, as paraphrased by Frankenstein, then Walton, the
creature “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human
nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into
an inanimate body.”(58-59). To Frankenstein, the monster is almost an accident, a series
of events that somehow lead to the birth of a scientific experiment. To the audience of the
play, he is no longer an experiment: he becomes a human.
3. At the time of his creation, the monster was considered to be more or less the
unqualified slave of Victor Frankenstein’s, not worthy of a name, let alone a Christian
one. In the beginning of the novel, it became apparent to the readers that the individuals
of higher European descent discriminate towards those of lesser education and class.
Victor respected those with knowledge. Knowledge was considered power and the
monster was denied an education, and thus denied a Christian name. Everyone associated
with Christianity had an education, being one of the reasons as to why the monster can
not be connected with Christianity. When the monster came into contact with the
DeLacey’s, he waited until he had enough knowledge to introduce himself, believing that
he could be accepted with the right amount of education despite his inhumane features. “I
imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle demeanour and conciliating
words, I should first win their favour and afterwards their love.” Without education and
knowledge, the monster is unable to understand the concept of morality, which is one of
the most important factors of Christianity. Victor disregarded his commitment to the
creature he created, not wanting to associate himself to a monster that he believed would
only be identified with sins. The creature’s Christian name was then never given, as he
was declined the education needed to be considered worthy enough to be connected to the
good people of Christianity.
5. In the play, since it is mostly in the viewpoint of the monster’s journey through life, the
audience and the monster, do not come face to face with conflicts involved with science
and romanticism. In the play, the only conflicts that arise are those of the monster’s
identity and acceptance, rather than those of humanistic beliefs. In the novel, readers
engage with the different types of characters that revolve around Victor and the duality of
the characters. The
foils of Victor, especially Henry, are the embodiments of romanticism and the love of
nature and literature. As Victor said in the novel, Henry was into the “moral relations of
things” and wanted to be known for being a “gallant and adventurous benefactor of our
species”. These characters of romanticism had everything to do with the purpose of
Victor’s life and background which was not included in the play. Therefore, as the
monster and his own life was the main focus of the play, it was unnecessary to involve
the conflicts of romanticism and science when it had nothing to do with the troubled life
journey of the monster.