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Sympathy In Frankenstein

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The Monster and the Movie
Too many people the Frankenstein monster is an intelligible creature that causes terror among people. That is true in the movies, but what about in the book Shelley’s Frankenstein? Many people believe Frankenstein is the monster, or creature. If people actually read book they would know that Frankenstein is the name of the Doctor that made the creature. The name being Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The creature has no name, but the gender of the creature is male. Somehow the creature has feelings towards himself, Victor, and a female companion. In the movies he is portrayed as an antagonist. A mute meant to scare the audience. However, in the book the creature actually speaks. The creature has feelings. How is it that movies …show more content…

The emotional responses to the Creature’s condition that the novel evokes are illuminated when cast in psychoanalytical light. This article traces how shame and disgust, as theorized by Silvan Tomkins, operate in the novel, and how these responses disrupt or undermine the function of sympathy, as described by Adam Smith. In doing so, the article attempts to show that ethical readings of the novel – readings which participate in both Enlightenment ideas of sympathy and Romantic ideas of the “Other” – remain problematic because of the enduring presence of shame and disgust throughout the novel. The novel remains as powerful as it is partly because of the irreconcilability of the affects of shame and disgust with the ethical operation of sympathyhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10509580701844967

Works Cited

Sympathy In Frankenstein." European Romantic Review 19.1 (2008): 33-49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Heffernan, James A. W. "Looking At The Monster: Frankenstein And Film." Critical Inquiry 24.1 (1997): 133. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Lunsford, Lars. "The Devaluing Of Life In Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN." Explicator 68.3 (2010): 174-176. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Raub, Emma. "Frankenstein And The Mute Figure Of Melodrama." Modern Drama 55.4 (2012): 437-458. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
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