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The Foil Characters In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Like any novel, all characters all have a purpose. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the characters are very significant. Robert Walton and the Monster happen to be my favorite two. They both add to what makes Victor Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein. The three characters go hand in hand… In hand. Robert and the Monster are strong foil characters in the novel. Robert plays a role that is both parallel while at the same time contrasting to Victor's character. Robert is more effective in his role of being a foil character to Victor. He teaches the most important lesson/theme in the novel. Mary Shelley makes clear to the reader that the honor that that comes from ambition and discovery as important to the people you may care hurt. She does this through Robert. Mary Shelley wanted us to see that as most important. She does that by relating the two and then showing what separates the two, which is who actually survives the novel. Mary Shelley foreshadows the motivations, dreams and feelings that Victor will experience throughout the novel in Robert's letters. She later shows us the fate of …show more content…

He is chasing the creation of life! He does this without weighing the pros and cons and just jumps right into it. Was not a very good idea. This is another tool Mary Shelley uses to relate the two. In the end of the novel Robert describes his voyage in a letter to his sister saying, "We are still surrounded by mountains of ice, still in imminent danger of being crushed in their conflict." ( Shelley 264) Victor’s journey ends the same way. In chapter 24 we read "all voluntary thought was swallowed up and lost" (Shelley 249) and "my hopes were suddenly extinguished, and I lost all trace of him more utterly than I had ever done before." (Shelley 257) Both men went on journeys with great ambition but both failed. However one lived and one did not. This starts the separation of the

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