ipl-logo

How Is The Murder House Related To Frankenstein

645 Words3 Pages

Scarlett Keene-Connole
March 29, 2023
Writ 102-08
Literature Review

My paper will primarily focus on the parallels between Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and the TV show American Horror Story: Murder House. I want to expand on the ideas of “horror” and how different aspects of the genre greatly affect the overall feeling and meaning of the piece. For example, the surface layer scare of Frankenstein is the tall and brooding monster, with his inaudible sounds and stalky demeanor. However, it could also be argued that the real horror in the story is the deterioration of Victor’s mental being. How his real-life experiences pushed him to create life from death, which in turn caused more death. In AHS, the season touches on many aspects of …show more content…

Steven Lehman’s article on the novel also speaks about how Mary Shelley’s life was reflected in the novel. He states that “Mary Shelley’s grief over the death of her baby is refracted through the obsession of her “mad scientist” protagonist Victor Frankenstein” (Lehman 1). He then explains that Shelley’s primary coping mechanism for her grief was writing Victor to have a happy ending by almost giving birth. However, it was his mother and sister Elizabeth that catapulted the creation of the monster. Because Victor had the take over for his mother after her death to look after Elizabeth, he was left wanting more. He created the monster to fulfill his need to caretake, much like how Shelley used the novel to fill her void. In addition to this, Colleen Hobbs also blames Victor’s upbringing on the creation of the monster. Because Victor suppressed his childhood trauma, he was never able to fully express his emotions to any other being. These two sources both agree that there were many factors as to why Victor is the way he is. I think it's fascinating how neither of them even touch on how scary the monster is, for the true fear in the story should come from Victor

Show More
Related
946 Words | 4 Pages

He has no one to comfort which is why I think he created the monster in the first place to not feel so much alone. 3) Chapter 4, Page 42 " Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime." The isolation being shown here by Victor has now begun to get physical.

Read More
1009 Words | 5 Pages

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, shows how a character who is portrayed as a tragic hero, in the beginning, can become the monster in the end. Victor and the Monster in Mary Shelley’s captivating novel showed how rival enemies share striking similarities. The similarities between the two tragic characters are driven by their dreary isolation from the secluded world. A large difference is that they were both raised in two completely different environments but understood the meaning of isolation. Physical differences are more noticeable rather than their personalities.

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

Elizabeth Pace Doctor Jane Hinckley IHUM 202-001 2 August 2023 Monsters Must First be Seen as Victims Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein contains several elements that comment on the unnatural formation and tragic life of Frankenstein’s monster. There are moments where the reader feels pity for the creature, followed by moments of disgust at his actions. As the reader continues, they are left to ponder if Frankenstien’s creation was constructed as a monster from the beginning or if his monstrous demeanor was developed through choices and unjust segregation from society.

Read More
1691 Words | 7 Pages

Victor doesn't suffer from anxiety. It's adrenaline and instinct as he does what he feels is right. After Victor creates the monster, he is constantly worried about his creation. Its capabilities, abilities and its power. Victor is solely worried about the people of the world and humanity.

Read More
1103 Words | 5 Pages

Psychopathic tendencies in an individual can destroy the lives of many, beginning with those closest to them. The question of psychopathy arises when events of recurring offenses of anti-social behavior are exhibited by a subject. These tendencies, while unusual and alarming, do not always have to be a case of violence. In the case of Victor Frankenstein, an argument can be made on his relation to psychopathy and the non-violent tendencies that come with it. Throughout the novel written by Mary Shelley, the reader witnesses a boy growing into a rich family with an unusual desire for knowledge.

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Keeping that in mind, why did Victor leave his creation, not knowing, if he could harm anyone or thing close by? Victor never thought about the repercussions of his act and acted in defence of himself, leaving the monster to defend for himself and experience things without the help of his creator. All Victor says is, “He might of spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs” (Shelley 36). He fled from his creation leaving the monster by itself before he knew what the monster was doing.

Read More
1439 Words | 6 Pages

“Frankenstein and the Tradition of Realism” Shelly, Mary Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton Critical Edition, 2012. 311-16.

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

Once Victor finally creates the creature, he becomes terrified of the monster. The monster is hideous, and if fulfilled with strength. The monster may have been created with so much strength to indicate that Victor wanted to symbolize the power of knowledge and science through his creation of the

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

He uses the little that he knows to fuel his hatred towards humans and his creator. This shows the exponential growth of the problems that Victor has created as a result of his desire for knowledge. Not only did he create the destructive monster, but now the monster is using a hunger for knowledge, the very thing that created it, to do even more damage. This root cause is linked to everything that is causing Victor’s suffering. The monster also compares his relationship to Victor to that of God and Adam, wishing that he had the same supplication to his creator that Adam did, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his creator.

Read More
1256 Words | 6 Pages

Reanimating the dead has been a plot point in various horror movies and shows. Zombies and the undead are spectacles in such media, but the original horror story is Frankenstein, whose gothic nature set the standard for other horror novels to come, and called into question many moral ideas. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelly emphasizes the ironic nature of Victor’s love of his science and making the creature in contrast to his disdain for the creature in order to demonstrate that man’s pursuit of knowledge is not innately good. This is apparent through Frankenstein’s detailed description of the creature, his symbolic dream, and an allusion to another work of fiction. The imagery of the creature through Victor’s perspective serves to illustrate

Read More
395 Words | 2 Pages

Interestingly enough, the novel resembles Shelley’s own life and can be interpreted as a reflection of her perception of families. Shelley shares many of the same characteristics with most of her characters. As the main character in the novel, Frankenstein’s creature is depicted as “a motherless orphan” who had an “unnatural birth” (Griffith). This correlates with Shelley’s own childhood as she was raised without a mother and her birth was in some ways “unnatural” as mothers are not naturally made to die during childbirth.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

Victor creates the Creature, but there are many situations throughout the novel where the Monster displays as the victim. He seeks love from different people, but everyone treats him bad. His anger towards his father drives him to kill Victor’s family. The Monster later feels devastated for the murders he commits. All the monster wants is love.

Read More
1068 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines how the presence of a mother, negatively or positively, affects the development of a child. Victor’s mother, Caroline Frankenstein, dies while Victor is still a young man (he is about 17 years old), breaking their relationship between mother and son. Because Victor loses his bond with his mother, he is unable to act as a mother would when he creates his creature. Caroline Frankenstein’s absence in Victor’s life creates a disunion between the mother and child bond, which is evident in Victor’s creation and his fragmented relationship with the creature. Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother, portrayed a traditional mother in the Frankenstein household, until her death.

Read More
1242 Words | 5 Pages

Victor also has a very important relationship with the monster. The monster has no relationship with Victor besides a need for revenge. When Victor created the monster, he looked on him in disgust. He abandoned his creation after looking upon the creation with horror. This feels the monster with loneliness and rage, so he goes and lives on Felix’s farm.

Read More

More about How Is The Murder House Related To Frankenstein

Related Topics

Open Document