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Character Foils In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley’s horrifying tale of a monster and man of science is known far and wide for its captivating story, complex characters and surprising relatability. However this is where most knowledge commonly ends.. Frankenstein’s t underlying themes of isolation, human connection and balance of nature become evident through Shelley’s use of character foils throughout her infamous tale. In her 1818 novel, the monster serves as a foil to Victor Frankenstein, emphasizing Victor’s greed, poor judgement and lack of true understanding in regards to human emotion. Throughout the novel the audience is allowed to follow both the monster and Victor’s story through firsthand accounts from each, inviting the audience to make observations about the characters, …show more content…

The audience is able to identify the shortcomings in both characters logic while simultaneously understanding their predicament. This format makes the idea of foiling characters seem inevitable; as the monster quickly becomes more intelligent and aware of his situation he feels forced into isolation. “I was dependent on none and related to none. The path of my departure was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation. My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.” (Shelley, 138) As the audience witnesses the monster’s isolation they are subsequently led to question Victor’s isolation. “I saw plainly that he was surprised, but he never attempted to draw my secret from me; and although I loved him with a mixture of affection and reverence that knew no bounds, yet I could never persuade myself to confide in him that event which was so often present to my recollection, but which I feared the detail to another would only impress more deeply.” (Shelley, 70) Throughout the novel the monster finds himself isolated for the fact that he lacks meaningful connections with anyone and is unable to find anyone open to him, yet in contrast Victor

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Character Foils: Victor and The Monster Often in a literary work, authors use minor characters to emphasize specific traits and characteristics of a main character. In Mary Shelley’s best selling novel Frankenstein, the monster is a minor reflection of Victor Frankenstein. Victor’s personality traits from when he was a child, and as an adult, are carried over and placed into his creation unintentionally by Victor himself.

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In conclusion, Mary Shelly uses her great words and flow of her sentences to show how Victor has changed throughout the book. Victor at first seems happy and has a love of nature. In contrast, when the monster completes his revenge Victor is isolated from society and this causes him to have loneliness. Mary Shelly compares Victor to a romantic hero. He has some specific traits that apply both to the romantic hero and himself.

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Many authors choose to incorporate a variety of characters in their literary works as an effort to interest the reader and develop the work as a whole. Frankenstein is no exception to this trend, as Mary Shelley includes various personalities for her characters. She incorporates certain foils in order to emphasize distinctive qualities of the main character. One of these foils, De Lacey, acts as the instrument of contrast for Victor’s overflowing passion for the monster’s rejection and ultimately alters the meaning of the work into an important lesion in judgment.

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The story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has been molded and shaped to create many different types of story plots and characters. There are many different types of media that relate back to the original but then add their own little twist into the mix. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story about a scientist who created another human being, who he then abandons, and now the monster is getting revenge on Frankenstein by inflict havoc on his family. An example of this would be the movie Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron and the relationship between Ultron and his main creator Tony Stark.

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After Victor describes creating his monster, the reader can see that he is extremely disappointed with his results and falls into a deep depression. One day, Victor is out walking and runs into an old friend—Henry Clerval. As the reader continues to read, he or she can see that Victor’s entire aura changes for a little while, but it does not last very long,

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Victor’s Nurture and Responsibility Towards the Monster A. Sympathy for the Monster may come from the understanding on how Victor treated a. Left Monster to care for himself after “birth” when Victor discovered how grotesque and deformed he looked b. Felt limited responsibility towards the Monster c. Killed his companion B. Reader may feel that the Monster’s actions were justified by his

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A dynamic character is somebody that changes his or her personality or attitude. Victor’s creature from Mary Shelley’s novel fits the definition of a dynamic character because he changes his attitude during the novel. The creature in the beginning of the novel starts being a good “person.” He did a lot of kind things for human beings like helping Felix’s family.

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Victor’s first look at his “masterpiece” horrifies him and he proceeds to run away; leaving his “child” all alone. The paths both Victor and the monster will lead will be obvious as the story progresses. Through indirect characterizations, it is obvious that, both characters undergo changes as the story furthers. The author conveys Victor Frankenstein’s change by expressing his actions and feeling throughout

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The novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley depicts certain ideas that can not be described or written within novels. For example, the telling of the story between three different narrators can teach the reader about putting together “pieces of a puzzle” in order to understand the plot of the story. The three narrators in Frankenstein are Victor, Walton, and the Creature, all with very distinct personalities and character traits. Of these storytellers, Victor could possibly be debated as the most extraordinary. The qualities that make Victor pictured as this unique character, that the fact that he is a dynamic character, and that he is an unreliable narrator.

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Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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The Monster is the victim because his creator abandons him, his appearance affects his relationship with the people he meets, and his desire to feel loved. To begin, his creator abandons him. Victor creates Frankenstein, but is afraid of him. “He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed down stairs” (Shelley 44). Victor cannot put up with the sight and deserts him.

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Through her work, Frankenstein, Shelley relays her struggles in life and this is evident in how she portrays the monster. At the beginning of the novel her life parallels more with the doctor,Victor Frankenstein, but once the monster is created and we see how the public reacts to him we see that Mary is more closely related to it than Victor. Frankenstein has many elements that are similar to Shelley’s life, his quest for love, desperation for acceptance, and depression. Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England. Born Mary Wollstoncraft Godwin, she was the daughter of philosopher William Godwin.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic novel that tells the story of scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his obsession with creating human life. This leads him to creating a gruesome monster made of body-parts stolen from grave yards, whom upon discovering his hideousness, the monster seeks revenge against his creator, causing Victor to regret the creation of his monster for the rest of his life. Shelley uses the literary elements of personification, imagery, and similes to give a vivid sense and visualization of Victor Frankenstein’s thoughts and feelings as well as to allow us to delve deeper into the monster’s actions and emotions. Throughout the novel, Shelley uses personification of various forces and objects to reflect the effect in Victor’s actions.

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929 Words | 4 Pages

Isolation and a lack of companionship is the tragic reality for the monster, who was abandoned by his creator and is repulsive to everyone that he comes across. Victor removes himself from society for many months; severing nearly all human contact then renouncing his creation based on the monster's appearance. As the monster matures he begins to understands the relationship the cottagers share with one another, while the monster, “yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. ”(Shelley). Armed with nothing but the longing for a real connection, the monster approaches his unknowing hosts only to be “brutally attacked—by those he trusted...because of their human ignorance.

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Frankenstein In most fiction stories, there are always two characters that do or do not represent different sides of the same character. Frankenstein is a short gothic horror story written by Mary Shelley. Shelley writes about a scientist who created a being from dead body parts. Victor Frankenstein as the protagonist of the story created a monstrous character that was a reflection of himself.

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