Emma Yang
English 12 3A
Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1816, is one of the most influential novels of science fiction and the gothic genre. Set as a frame narrative, with three distinct narrators, the novel focuses on the story of Victor Frankenstein, a male scientist obsessed with natural science. Throughout the novel, Mary Shelley creates a contrast between the irrationality of Victor’s act, the masculine characteristics, and her Romanticism-impacted interpretation of the story.
The novel embodies many Romanticism-associated values often “characterized by [...]an idealization of women, and an embrace of isolation and melancholy” ("Romanticism In Literature: Definition And Examples"), along with a heavy concentration on exploring
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Before moving for his study, Victor already considered Elizabeth as an object of his own, she was his “more than sister[...]the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupation and my pleasure[...]”(Shelley 29), he fortified his interpretation of Elizabeth by repeating this label in the following paragraph, highlighting his affection and desire for “my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only”(Shelley 29). The inner dialogue of Victor continues when he came back from the University of Ingolstadt to the family he had long neglected. Where his first thought about Elizabeth was a judgment of her body shape, “I saw a change[...] She was thinner and had lost much of that heavenly vivacity that had before charmed me” (Shelley, 185). Through examples illustrating Victor’s inner dialogues with a focus on Elizabeth, Mary Shelley further magnifies issues presented in Victor’s nature along with his inability to accept the outcome of his action. Portraiting Victor as a judgmental person who fails to decide whether the female creature lives, whether Elizabeth is charming, and whether his creature’s action was