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Examples Of Allusions In Frankenstein

705 Words3 Pages

Cathy Chen
Mrs. Weber
AP Lit
11 February 2023
Revision

In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, allusions, a symbol of illness, and his story told to Waltom are used to demonstrate how Victor's gift was both a curse and an advantage to him. Victor is an extremely intelligent man; he was able to create and have studies that others cannot accomplish, but in the end, it caused him pain and regret, which developed his knowledge of danger.
The author uses allusions in the story to show how Voctor's knowledge has become both an advantage and a problem. In the novel, Victor was compared to Prometheus, who was a semi-god who obtained fire and gave it to humans but ended with only the punishment of getting eaten by a bird every day. The author used this …show more content…

Victor gets ill every time a family member dies or something tragic happens. The illness sums up his guilt, as the tragedy that has happened was his cause. The illness shows his knowledge as a burden because the creature he has created has damaged his family to the point where it can never be fixed because they have all died. As a result of his obsession with discovering how to create life and his selfish desire to create with his knowledge, he is never satisfied and leads his studies down a dangerous path. This shows how knowledge can be a very dangerous gift to have when you cannot handle it …show more content…

She then uses illness symbolism to show his guilt for what he has caused. He has fallen ill every time a family member died because of his creation. Finally, she uses the dialogue between Victor and Walton, showing the different choices of using knowledge where Victor's selfish pursuit has caused him pain and sorrow in the end, but Walton ending his journey of wanting to know more of the world could have been what changed his future to be different from Victor, ultimately these literary devices had helped develop the theme, danger of knowledge, the knowledge that may have led to pain death, and dangerous situations when not pursuit

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