ipl-logo

The Absence Of Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

1492 Words6 Pages

Frankenstein further speculates that the outside correlates with the inside when believing that the Creature’s distinctive eyes are a reflection of his predatory soul. Deprived of voice, the Creature’s visual characteristics are much more potent, and consequently, Victor’s only impression. Rather than objectively observe his experiment, Frankenstein implicitly interprets the Creature’s “dull yellow” “watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set” in the same superficial fashion as he did Elizabeth’s (43). Whereas Elizabeth’s were translucent, the Creature’s are opaque, mirroring Victor’s reservations about him. To Victor, these unnatural eyes oppose the identification of inner thoughts and …show more content…

When the two are speaking alone, De Lacey tells the Creature, “‘I am blind and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere’” (123). The Creature’s language is on the verge of gaining him protection and compassion and thus speaks of his character. De Lacey’s absence of vision allows him to deeply reflect on the Creature’s words and not stop short at his appearance. This suggests that words and emotions are a more reliable and just judge of character than the groundless evidence gathered by the sense of sight. Ironically, the blind character is the only one who sees the Creature as a “human creature” and has the figurative sight to look past his grotesqueness (123). Thus, De Lacey takes the place of Frankenstein, functioning as a fatherly figure to the Creature because of his nurturing open-mindedness. When the Creature speaks, his humanity climaxes and he can overcome the visual inequity through this mastery of language. However, his appearance hinders his ability to communicate; with his deformities, the Creature cannot open his mouth before judgments are made. Therefore, Shelley uses De Lacey alongside sighted characters to emphasize the different levels of sight, with emotional vision as the most dependable and

Show More
Related
795 Words | 4 Pages

His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” The quote shows significant descriptive imagery to emphasize the deformed monster’s appearance. The use of profound imagery, such as lustrous black, pearly whiteness and straight black lips makes the scenario much scarier than if described with bland adjectives. The purpose of this passage is to reveal the true deformity of Frankenstein 's sought out to be creation of life. This gives off a tone of disgust and terror leaving the reader in awe from what has just taken

Read More
1169 Words | 5 Pages

In Frankenstein, victor’s irrational decision to depart Geneva sees his “spirits and hopes rise” even as he leaves a distraught family, establishing his egocentric ideals and moral fallacy. Meanwhile, shelley depicts the creature as similar to humans through its manner and desire to learn, however, due to his grotesque appearance emphasised through colour imagery ‘yellow skin… and straight black lips’, he is excluded by society and labelled a ‘demoniacal corpse’. This provokes questioning of human morality, and whether the creature is classified as a human. Alluding to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the creature states, ‘I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel’. As an eloquent rhetorician, he employs literary devices such as oxymoron and parallelisms.

Read More
140 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s diction delineates a vivid description of the creature’s characteristics, hence evoking suspense and agitation in the audience. The horrid description of the creature endorses an unsettling feeling in the reader due to the negative connotation employed by the diction selected. For instances, victor emphasizes the creature’s physical appearance by stating “yellow skin… horrid contrast… white sockets… shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”, then later victor states “breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” concerning to the creature’s physical characteristics(35). She strategically manipulates diction to alter the audience perception of the creature and directs them into viewing said creature

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

In the scene where Frankenstein’s monster interacts with Mr. De Lacey and his family, the reader can perceive crucial insights, allowing them to come to a conclusion on the nature of the Creature. These insights are procured from analyzing the Creature’s fixation on sight, his attempt at procuring a fatherly figure, as well as the restraint he showed in the face of persecution. These three moments testify to the transformative moment when Frankenstein’s creation truly becomes a monster, supporting the argument that monster’s are partly victims of

Read More
1218 Words | 5 Pages

The Consequences of Physical Appearance in Frankenstein 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.

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

Foster explains that the blind characters are able to “see the truth” that others might be metaphorically blind to. Mary Shelley uses the sense of sight in her book Frankenstein, to demonstrate that the blind are able to see more cleverly then the sitted. In chapter 14 Frankenstein monster finally builds up the courage to meet a member of the family he had been watching. He goes and eats with the old blind man, De Lacy. The two have a positive relationship until “Felix, Agatha, and Safia arrive” and react by passing out, running away, and by “striking violently with a stick” to rush him out of the cottage (Shelley 135).

Read More
255 Words | 2 Pages

Every decsion ever made always comes from having the knowlege about it, whether it was good or bad. In the classic novel, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, having too much knowledge is dangerous, which can lead to a harmful misuse. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist is seen as a scientist leading as God, due to his abundance knowledge of human and animal science. Primarly, In the novel "Frankenstein" Victor's excessive knowledge was a great dangerous to the people in the Geneva.

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

The abandonment is parent 's choice which include the failure to support their child financially and emotionally. Sadly, parents leave their child uncertain about the future. As the baby develop, kid might grow up outrageous with the feeling of being neglect. The child could resent his or her parents and walk into wrong path as there is no one to educate time about morality. In Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein, the creator abandons his creation undoubtedly uncertain about his invention life in the future.

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

Victor Frankenstein is a young, curious science student who is intrigued by the meaning of life and whether life can be recreated scientifically. He creates a grotesque looking yet extremely emotionally human-like creature in an unorthodox experiment. However, after the creature is brought to life, Victor is ashamed of his creation and refuses to establish any sort of relationship with the creature who desires human interaction. The creature repeatedly states, “Listen to my tale…do hear me…listen to me…” to Victor in hopes of creating some sort of relationship (Shelley 69). Victor is stuck in a clinical gaze when dealing with the creature.

Read More
1066 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, we come to realize that the main theme of the story is based on physical appearance, and this is shown through the fact that the issues that the creature faces throughout the story are mostly due to his outer appearance. Similar to today’s society, many people tend to (or believe) that the issues they face in life are because of how they look on the outside. While this is debatable, physical appearance does affect many of us in different ways, for better or for worse. With or without argument, the reason that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been read until today is because what the story is based on brings enlightenment to others regarding how physical appearance truly affects oneself. Until today,

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

The search of knowledge can help take away the doubt, but it can affect the ones around you. Victor doubts and knowledge cause the death of his wife, best friend, and his brother. Victor should have known that bringing something back to life would had consequences. His relentless search of knowledge did brought him suffering because he involved his family and didn't thought about the consequences. Victor’s passion about learning new things brought him to the creation of an ugly monster.

Read More
819 Words | 4 Pages

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.”

Read More
1363 Words | 6 Pages

Victor Frankenstein, who describes his surrounding in great detail, based on physical appearance. Shelley reflects Victor’s judgement on physical representation based on the environment he is in. Using his situation in the cold and treacherous mountains to a negative and almost deathly environment, conicondently the place where he meets and speaks to the monster, and the beauty and calamity of home, a place where Elizabeth is often located. There is a major contrast in how he describes his lover, Elizabeth, and the monster he created, in which he relates their appearance to their innocence or evilness. When speaking about characters like Elizabeth and Justine, Victor often relates their physical appearance to their innocent behaviours.

Read More
1003 Words | 5 Pages

When writing any piece of fiction, an author 's choice of narrative voice has a huge impact on how readers experience the story. From the slightly less personal yet versatile third-person to the narrow, limited view of first-person, the narrative voice literally provides the voice of literature. It affects which characters the reader really connects with, the opinions that influence them, the knowledge they have, and numerous other aspects. While most authors stick with only one tense, Mary Shelley challenged that standard in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Shelley changes her narrative voice numerous times in order to fully develop all aspects of the story through Walton 's letters, Frankenstein 's story, the Monster 's story, and also the

Read More
1420 Words | 6 Pages

ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

Read More

More about The Absence Of Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Related Topics

Open Document