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Human Being In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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A Being or Not a Being

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessive with his scientific research and decides to put thirty-plus corpses together and bring that “thing” alive. Being Frankenstein fails to satisfy the scientific and legal requisites of human person hood because it acts like an animal more than a human, no record of Being’s existence in any court of law, and namelessness of Being. Although Being does show exemplify emotion and understanding of human nature, it cannot scientifically or lawfully be considered a Human Being. When Victor talks to Being he usually refers to it as: “fiend," “demon," “witch," “thing," and “ogre”; all of which aren't human. Although Frankenstein talks about Being with …show more content…

What did he there? Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother?” (Shelley 163). All of the people who see Being, scream and run like mad men because of its atrocious physical appearance.The monster names itself Being because it is only half human and because of the fact that its “father” constantly berates it with words like “Demon” and “Ogre”. “When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?” (Shelley 280). Being maintains the record of being one of a kind and it has no one else like it on the face of the planet. Even William Frankenstein, Victor’s five year old brother insults Being, resulting in his own death. "Let me go," he cried; "monster! Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces. You are an ogre. Let me go, or I will tell my papa” (Shelley 289). Being Frankenstein fails to satisfy the scientific and legal requisites of human person hood because it acts like an animal more than a human, no record of Being’s existence in

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In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who brings a conglomeration of human and animal parts back from the dead. Despite his logical act of destroying the monster’s bride, Frankenstein still imprints hate, and hunts down his monster, making him the villain of his own story. The first clumsy act of villainy Frankenstein commits is when he first creates the monster. This horrid creature, made of human and animal parts, is born without intelligence, but more importantly is born with the ability to learn.

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In Mary Shelley's Novel Frankenstein, the main character Victor Frankenstein was very interested of life and death, but one day Victor's desire of finding the truth about life was too much so he created a creature. While Victor was working on the creature he went to get the right parts in graveyards to give a man look on the creature. Victor worked hard every day to prove himself that he can give a thing animation. But then when the creature woke up victor was terrified of what he made but also surprised himself of how the skin and hair looked human. Then Victor ran away from the creature abandoning everything even though the creature would live a lonely life in a new world he was brought into.

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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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Many ideas about the requirements of personhood have been circulating throughout Earth’s history. Many relate to religion and spirituality, and many of the others either contribute to the people v. property debate of the abolition movement or the contemporary pro-life v. pro-choice debates. This paper will address a few of these proposed requirements and how they specifically relate to the Monster created by Victor Frankenstein in the popular novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley in a secular and non-endorsing manner. This character will then be juxtaposed with a character of a separate work: Lucky from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

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3120 Words | 13 Pages

As he stated, he ‘was benevolent; (his) soul glowed with love and humanity’ (Shelley 1818, pg 114) - with adjectives such as ‘benevolent’, ‘humanity’, and verbs and nouns such as ‘glowed’ and ‘love’ showing human kindness within him. However, the way in which monsters can be defined is much more widespread.

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1720 Words | 7 Pages

But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature

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1913 Words | 8 Pages

Unfortunately, this ambition fails when a child, later revealed as William Frankenstein, simultaneously threatens it and calls the Monster a disgusting wretch: “Hideous monster! Let me go. My papa is a syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he will punish you. You dare not keep me” (Shelley 171). This is the catalyst where the Monster surrenders and loses control of its feelings of bitterness and mistreatment.

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764 Words | 4 Pages

The being then becomes a monster both externally and internally, ultimately confirming society's previously assumptions. The monster moves from one horrid act to another, indulging in evil. First, he kills William. Then he frames Justine as the murderer and she is hanged for his crime. He warns Victor that "if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear;" (Shelley 125) and "if I have no ties and affections, hatred and vice must be my portion" (Shelley 126).

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987 Words | 4 Pages

An unsatisfied need for a sense of belonging transforms Frankenstein’s creature into the monster it ultimately becomes. Therefore, I argue that the predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the need for social belonging

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Although the process of dehumanization begins when Victor procures various parts for the Creature from the slaughterhouse, it is made poignant when the Creature remains a nameless entity. Dehumanization is known as “a psychological process whereby opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration” (Maiese). Without a name, the Creature is unable to be claim relation to societal humanity—even domesticated dogs have names —but as the term ‘monster’ persists, he moves further into the territory of fear. “’Great God…who are you?’”(Shelley 148) exclaims the

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1533 Words | 7 Pages

The novel “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley tells the story of a man named Victor Frankenstein, who decides to go against the laws of nature by bringing to life a being constructed with decaying body parts. Victor believes in natural philosophy and science, which leads him to the idea of creating this Creature. Although this novel can be interpreted in many ways, I believe that Mary Shelley is shining a light on the harmful and dangerous impacts that prejudice and assumptions can have on people who are considered different. Shelley may be suggesting that humanity is the true 'monster ' due to its socialized ideologies that make ambition, self-greed and rage fulfilling. Even to this day society is known to shun those who we do not see as equals.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

But where was mine?” (112). The monster is trying to point out that if God was his creator he would have known God. Experiencing reason, pain, anger, growth, and being made by God are just some of  the qualities of being human. Even though the monster experiences the human qualities of reason, pain, and anger, he lacks the most important human qualities: growth, and being made by

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1179 Words | 5 Pages

Monsters are often classified based upon their appearance and inhumane characteristics. In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein tears apart graveyards for the formation of a new being, which is brought to life with electricity. Frankenstein was fascinated with life itself and wanted to create this being through the dead with the use of science. After multiple years of suturing this new being together Victor succeeded in bringing this creature to life. Although realizing what he had just created Victor is repulsed by this new being and calls him a Monster.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

The monster in Frankenstein is the one who is hated because of his ugliness. His form is unpleasant, but his spirit may be human. There are two-sided about this. Most people consider that the monster in the story is not a human, in my view he is true human. Most people consider that the monster in the story is not a human because of his birth and vitality.

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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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