Examples Of Duality Of Human Nature In Frankenstein

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Every unique human experience and theme in Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley can be related to and learnt from, it has been written as an allegory for the concerns of the time. Everybody has a drive to pursue knowledge, some more than others, but this pursuit can have consequences if it turns into an obsession. Frankenstein’s passion for knowledge and ambitions caused him to obsess over his work, leading to feelings of guilt, revenge and regret. Other messages that Frankenstein story convey to us are, the duality of human nature, the responsibilities of creators and warnings about the power and morals of science. I will be addressing the themes of obsession, responsibility, duality of human nature and the warnings towards …show more content…

. Similarly to Frankenstein, the creature obsesses over knowledge, and spends time with humans to learn, and as he learns, he acquires the human characteristic of duality of nature. “I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the places I had beheld in the village. This hovel, however, joined a cottage of a neat and pleasant appearance”, the tone and mood of the creature demonstrates the duality of his nature. At first the creature is enraged from the spite and hatred humans displayed towards him, but once he found a pleasant, quite, and relatively safe cottage his tone and mood are relaxed, as he contemplated the refuge that he has luckily stumbled upon. Intertextuality is also used to emphasize the creatures intellectual and thoughtful side, “… here the snow and rain could not penetrate; the ground was dry; and it presented to me then as exquisite and divine a retreat as Pandemonium appeared to the daemons of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire.” This suggests to the reader that the creature isn’t necessarily a monster or a fiend, and that there is a different, more enjoyable and reasonable side to him. Throughout the novel the creature is judged on his appearances, judged by “its cover”, when we do this, we miss out on unique opportunities to experience someone, or something different to what we are used to, making life more