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Power In Frankenstein

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Paul-Michel Foucault explains “power is only exercised over free subjects, and only insofar as they are free”. Therefore, the idea is that as humans we are products of our society and have limited freedom as we are governed by our social and political regime. Furthermore, the desire of some people to utilize their power and position can lead to negative and at times inhumane outcomes. In literature, writers often present characters who are either villains exerting their power of victims to this power struggle. In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, her protagonist Victor wants to create new life and although he battles his conscious, he allows his desire to overrule his moral compass and religious influences to benefit his self-interests. …show more content…

They use their power as a tool to reinforce independent goals on an extensive scale. In chapter six of the Handmaid’s Tale, Offred lists acts such as beatings, mutilations and executions; as an example of people who have been punished by ‘Gilead’ for failing to comply with their rules. “Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging, by the necks, their hands tied in front of them, their heads in white bags tipped sideways onto their shoulders”. The emphasis on the phrase ‘six more’ allows the reader to imagine how large the scale is and that it is forever growing. Another perspective is that Atwood purposely used the number six to make associations with the devil and highlight the contrast of good and bad with reference to the Bible. Six can denote something as being flawed and impure as it is associated with God’s enemies’. From a Christian perspective christians agree there should be principle of good conduct but they disagree on the forms of conduct in order to gain salvation. From this the reader can infer social agencies in ‘Gilead’ follow the Christian conduct and they believe they’re doing the ‘correct’ thing by punishing and regulating behaviour. Nevertheless, by putting their heads in ‘white bags’ it is ironic because this masks their identities and makes them appear as victims as the colour symbolises purity. These horrific acts highlight cross cultural differences in the society of ‘Gilead’ and western societies

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As I’m sure you are already aware, Elizabeth has been accused of bearing a pact with Lucifer, and she has been taken to the jail upon your word. I know just as well as you do, she is innocent of the evils you have claimed. She is joined by many others you have falsely accused. The calamity you have begun will soon see a sizable number of people hanged in the name of your “divine purification”. I cannot vouch for the purity of this village, but I know that the evils at play here are motivated by your own vendetta against my wife, and not by the wicked hand of some Antichrist.

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Why is it that one of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power? Power can be defined as something that is held within or is wanted. In the novel The Lord of the Flies the author, William Golding, describes how the main character Ralph struggles to gain power by having to deal with the malevolent actions of Jack, a boy who was also stranded on the island. Meanwhile, the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley depicts how Victor Frankenstein, the central character, seeks to diminish his power by trying to relieve himself from his own creation. In both novels, the characters demonstrate a power struggle by having to face their own creations, handling the obstacles brought by the antagonist, and corruption

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Fighting a Mirror In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, self deception eclipses Victor Frankenstein and clouds his judgment. Victor’s passion in breaking the bounds of nature guides him in making the creation, but when Victor regrets giving life to the hideous creature, he deserts it. The abandonment is just the first step Victor takes to introduce the creation to malevolence followed with Victor’s assumptions of evil and lost responsibility in the results of his own zeal. Victor Frankenstein’s self deception not only forges evil into the creation, but also incriminates him for the consequences of Victor’s ambitions.

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In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, it scrutinizes the punishments when a man creates life, and plays the role of God. Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply.

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One of the strongest human drives comes from the human desire of power, and we see this theme occur a lot throughout the book Frankenstein. “I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life, nay more, I became myself more capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” (Shelley 37). This quote explains how Victor Frankenstein wants to turn something that is lifeless into a living thing once again. He wanted to have the power of having life in his own hands.

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Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus : the 1818 Text. Oxford ; New York :Oxford University Press, 1998. The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley primary theme is that when you push the power of man-kind, you are bound to sustain reconcile consequences.

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The Fear Itself "Fear is a powerful stimulant" (Atwood 268). The novel Handmaid 's Tale is a story that takes place in a dystopian society where in order to increase the fertility rate women who are able to have children are distributed across the country and are encouraged to have babies from the Commanders. Like most of the dystopian novels, the focus of the story is how people are oppressed in the name of fear. Fear is used as a controlling mechanism to keep people in check and stop them from rising up. In the book, fear is too strong of a feeling that it creates the base of most of the emotions and actions.

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Power, the one thing everybody desires, plays a major role in the lives of the characters of Frankenstein. Throughout the story, Shelley frequently emphasizes the theme of power and the constant struggle that the characters face to gain power over themselves and others. The two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and The Creature, show the most struggle for power throughout the story, both internally and over each other. They look to gain power of knowledge, power of themselves and power over one another. This struggle for power creates a constantly shifting dynamic amongst characters.

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Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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We all like to think that evil is not born within us, but rather nurtured into us; while this may be true for some, others have evil born directly into them. When man toys with the powers reserved for only God, God strikes back with a wicked evil to show man the power that they truly lack. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains a prime example of a being born of unnatural causes and thus having these evil urges that they cannot control. Frankenstein’s monster is a highly intelligent being, and hence he is very manipulative.

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We often use the bible to establish laws, this is obviously not separation of states. If we continue to express the laws based on the word of the bible, it will be what controls us every day. Throughout the dystopian novel, versus of the bible are shown. Offred goes to buy grocery 's in stores who have biblical names, like "Loaves and Fishes, Milk and Honey, All Flesh, Lilies"(Chp.5). The hotel where the prostitutes are kept is called Jezebel ', to implement it is a bad place; as Jezebel in the bible was a bad

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Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a cautionary tale of man's dangerous ambition when testing the boundaries of technology. It combines Shelley’s intuitive perception of science with the vast scientific discoveries of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, specifically the discovery of the nature of electricity. In Frankenstein, electricity serves as the technological tool which creates the monster, giving life to an assemblage of lifeless body parts. Medical experiments of the time demonstrated how a dead frog leg would jolted with the injection of electricity. This phenomenon served as a bridge between science (electricity) and nature( biology).

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In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creature, both display a sense of moral ambiguity. Each character has committed both good and evil alike, and neither knew the consequences of what they had done. However, Victor Frankenstein is generally the morally ambiguous character by his treatment of his creation and his own imperious personality. He wanted to be able to help science by recreating life or bringing it back, but at the same time, he did not want to consider the consequences of doing so. Victor tries to prove himself as a good moral character in the relationship between his creation and himself.

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Feminism refers to the broad range of ideas, approaches, and ideologies directed towards gender and sex equality of women, in doing so, there are many misconceptions of women being of servitude to men and that “... women are slaves of the system” (Coad). In “The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Atwood, shows the domestic roles that women play as well as their feminist satire, in the Republic of Gilead. Some people believe, that women are only meant for servitude. For instance, due to “declining births” (Atwood, back cover) the Republic of Gilead tend to give the false impression that “there is no such thing as a sterile man” (Atwood, 61).

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