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Similarities Between Frankenstein And Fifth Business

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In society, individuals are very accustomed to the mistreatment of the minority. Antisemitism jokes are of abundance, and women can easily be found to be the victim of gender stereotypes and injustices. Society has an evident lack of consequences for perpetrators of such mistreatment towards minorities, increasing the need for advertisement in favor of the minority. The novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies validates the mistreatment of the minority, whereas the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley opposes such actions. Both authors create characters with sexist characteristics that reflect poorly on women. Characters in these novels also judge the minority solely by their appearance. To begin with, author Robertson Davies creates female …show more content…

To him, femininity is synonymous with weakness, and masculinity is synonymous with power, and he creates his characters accordingly to this belief. Similarly, author Mary Shelley also creates characters in a sexist manner in her novel Frankenstein. She creates female characters who serve little purpose other than to be disposed of by males. This can be seen in the way the Creature values the lives of females in the novel. In an attempt to seek revenge on Victor Frankenstein, the Creature frames servant to the Frankenstein family, Justine, for the heinous crime of murdering Victor’s young brother. Much like Diana’s dedication towards Dunstan, Justine lives her life dedicated to serving the Frankenstein family. The Creature’s decision to frame the beautiful and hardworking Justine for his crime shows how Mary Shelley feels her characters are quite disposable, demonstrating the same lack of value Davies shows for his characters. This sexist character creation can also be seen in Elizabeth’s submissive nature. This can be seen when Elizabeth is writing to Victor, suggesting that he marry …show more content…

One example of this in the novel, is the way Leola is regarded by Dunstan and Percy. Dunstan and Percy both strive to become the partner of Leola solely because she is visually appealing. To them, she is a trophy to be won. Leola wants to be loved, and even finds herself genuinely developing feelings for these two men, and yet they still regard her only as a trophy. This judgement is what eventually drives Leola to attempt suicide. She realizes that she is only a pawn between Percy and Dunstan and cannot cope with the idea that neither men have ever actually loved her. Despite the downfall of Leola, characters Percy and Dunstan see no consequences resulting from their treatment of Leola. Percy continues to be a very wealthy and successful man, finding a new wife after his divorce with Leola, and Dunstan finds himself a comfortable life, working in a school for boys. It is this lack of consequence that exemplifies Davies feelings that it is okay to mistreat minorities such as women. Similarly, in the novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley creates the character of the Creature, who others judge solely by appearance. Everyone shuns the Creature, even his creator, because of his ugliness. Much like Leola’s reaction to Percy and Dunstan mistreating her because of her appearance, the Creature feels very alone in the world that “[sins]

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1140 Words | 5 Pages

Being blind, the man can not hold the looks of the creature against him as everyone else does because he can only hear the kind-hearted nature of him, indicating that if people stopped focusing on how one looks then they would be able to see past perceived ugliness to reveal the goodness within. Such as the blindness of the man allows him to see the goodness of the creature, the son of Peg does not see ugliness or freakishness in Edward, but considers him and his bladed hands to be cool, whereas others see him being ‘straight from the stinking flames of hell.’. They think he is the work of the devil purely because of a negative

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927 Words | 4 Pages

Brave New World serves to affirm traditional views of women by going to opposite extremes of his time, yet still making women seem inferior. Frankenstein in a way affirms traditional views of women by keeping female characters hidden in the novel. However, this does challenge traditional views because usually if there 's no female roles, there isn 't enough presence to be feminine. Nevertheless, Brave New World and Frankenstein, used the limiting role of women challenges the traditional views of them in the novel 's publishing period of time by mocking the absence of women 's roles and indepence in everyday life.

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689 Words | 3 Pages

Society views those who are aesthetically pleasing in a positive way and those who are less pleasant to the eye are immediately judged in a negative way. In the novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley shares the comparison between Victor’s actions and how a man should not sacrifice his humanity in the pursuit of knowledge. Mary gives us many examples as to when Victor did not remain engaged in the real world and how that backfired. Victor’s creation slaughters his cousin, younger brother, and best friend. Victor’s actions become the characteristics of a monster to which he kills the monster’s potential mate and causes the death of the most important people to Victor.

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One character, Justine, is very passive and used as a device to make Victor feel guilty for creating The Creature; as her major contribution to the plot was The Creature framing her for her brothers death and shortly after, being sentenced to death. Another female character, Safie, is used to teach The Creature how to speak: “My days were spent in close attention…and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian…I could imitate almost every word that was spoken… I also learned the science of letters” (Shelley 106). Even the most prominent female character in the book, Frankenstein's lover and wife, Elizabeth, is killed by The Creature on their wedding night, in order to again make Victor regret creating The Creature, and eventually die of his unhappiness. Mary Shelley's depiction of women might be her indicating the roles of women at the time as inferior, a similar thesis brought about by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication on the Rights of Women.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

In James Davis’ literary essay “Frankenstein and the Subversion of the Masculine Voice,” he discusses the oppression of women and the minor roles of females in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein. With a feminist perspective, Davis claims, “He [Victor Frankenstein] oppresses female generation of life and of text; he rends apart both the physical and the rhetorical ‘form’ of female creativity. In fact, all three male narrators attempt to subvert the feminine voice, even in those brief moments when they tell the women’s stories” (307). Throughout his essay, Davis demonstrates the underlying message of Shelly’s subversion towards men and the social consequences of misogyny. Davis draws parallels between the three men, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Victor’s creation, Frankenstein, in which they

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

The gothic fiction novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley describes “what happens when a man tries to have a baby without a woman” (Mellor). In the novel, females are shown with vital feminine nurture and empathy. However, the monster is denied this nurture due to man’s lack of femininity. This absence of nurture leads to the monster’s violence and vengeance. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley employs the monster’s violent tendencies due to lack of nurture as a way to communicate the importance of feminine nurture in humanity.

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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.

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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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By removing blame from Frankenstein, the film negates a core theme of the book: the need to face the consequences of one’s actions. Subsequently, the film looses this level of moral depth. The consequences of Victor’s actions are further negated by the omission of the creature’s murders of William, Justine, and Elizabeth, all of which are the monster’s responses to Victor’s abandonment. Each of these actions has a profound emotional effect on Victor and his family in the novel,

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656 Words | 3 Pages

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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977 Words | 4 Pages

The presentation of women in Frankenstein Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, first published in 1818, was written in a time period where society’s general opinion was that a woman’s role was predominately to be a loving, caring mother and a faithful, docile companion to her husband. This attitude is reflected in Shelley’s portrays of women in her novel as passive, self- sacrificing, loyal, and completely dependent on men. They are a means by which emotions are invoked within male characters and serve only as companions and beautiful possessions. Caroline Beaufort, mother of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein, is an example of the embodiment of this ideal. She is the wife of Alphonse Frankenstein and within the novel plays the role of a perfect daughter, wife, and mother.

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827 Words | 4 Pages

Due to this, Victor Frankenstein can be seen as a villain in Mary Shelley’s text,

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1941 ) makes noteworthy statements in her essay ‘Making a ‘Monster’: An introduction to Frankenstein’. According to her, the entire novel is a consequence of “Victor’s total failure as a parent”. Agreeing to the argument, I would like to point out how the entire novel is based on the relationship of the selfish irresponsible parent-Victor Frankenstein and the abandoned child- The Monster. While Mary Shelley creates a horrific creature to physically contrast it to the entire human race, she provides various character similarities between the creator and the created; this provides a new perspective to view the characters from.

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1213 Words | 5 Pages

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a science fiction story about a creature created from non-living matter, by a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The conflict between society and Frankenstein’s creature is largely perpetuated by a split between those considered attractive, and those who are not. The conflict and language use in Frankenstein demonstrate that most of society judges others based on their physical appearance, which leads to excluding those who fall outside the accepted definition of beauty and sometimes life-threatening consequences for both groups. Frankenstein and his parents demonstrate that they also fall victim to the habit of judging others initially based off of their appearance. The Frankenstein parents first

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722 Words | 3 Pages

By connecting the character of Viktor to Prometheus, and adding an allusion to create a better understanding of the characters Shelley allows the reader to uncover the fate of both characters along with their creations and the punishments that follow. The connection to the greek myth, allows the readers to take on a second perspective when reading Frankenstein. The very prevalent themes enhance not only the authors writing but also the characters themselves. Overall, Shelley’s use of Prometheus as a silent background helped foreshadow the inevitable fate of Frankenstein's creator,

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