ipl-logo

The Paradox Of Aesthetics In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

603 Words3 Pages

“The Monster You Made Me”: The Paradox of Aesthetics in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is a classic example of literature that can maintain a vice grip on readers for centuries after its publication. The novel captivates audiences through its employment of imagery and the horrifying descriptions of the consequences for meddling with the fundamental forces beyond our understanding. This Gothic novel explores themes related to knowledge, nature, and the ethics of creation. Although these themes are the most widely analyzed and interpreted, the idea of beauty and its impact on the world is just as important and prevalent within the story.
Through the motivations of Victor Frankenstein and the characterization of his creation, Mary Shelley …show more content…

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my enquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world” (Shelley 25). Through this quote Mary Shelley suggests that beauty is not simply a matter of physical attractiveness, but a complex concoction of inner qualities and external factors.
This idea of a deeper, more complex beauty is further emphasized through the creation of the
“Creature”. Victor’s obsession with creating life is driven not only by his desire to understand the natural world but also his yearning to create something beautiful. While working on this project, Victor exhumes and dismembers multiple corpses to acquire the necessary materials to build his Creature. Instead of simply sewing together the body parts that he has on hand, Victor cuts off specific features from the cadavers that he identifies as attractive. His patchwork golem is not merely a pile of flesh and bone,

Show More
Related

Frankenstein Rhetorical Analysis Essay

608 Words | 3 Pages

Shelley wrote the scene of his discovery in a single sentence that takes up the space of one regular sized paragraph coupled with a rhetorical question to emphasize the lengths that Victor went through to finally reach his glorifying moment of enlightenment and to question what he is striving for. To further elaborate on Victor’s journey to his discovery, Shelley juxtaposes his childhood education to his current endeavors that follow a completely opposite path; “In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition, or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.” The juxtaposition enhances the contrast of the ideas Victor was raised upon, and the ideas he holds deep within himself during the present. Victor’s unconforming ideas and predilection for the mysterious reveal Shelley’s background in Romanticism and the effects that the era holds on her

Read More

Who Is Victor Frankenstein A Victim

554 Words | 3 Pages

In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a monster was created by a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, that leads to the negative consequences of science and knowledge. The monster faces societal rejection which plays a crucial role in developing his personality. Frankenstein believes that by creating the Monster, he can discover the secrets of life and death. He is motivated to attempt these things by ambition. He wants to achieve something great, even if it comes at great cost.

Read More

The Influence Of Perception In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

427 Words | 2 Pages

Kim articulates a metaphor through the motif of snow as seen in the quote: “You see, before he came downhere, it never snowed. And afterwards, it did…” Kim's reflection on Edward's influence on the weather is ametaphor for his impact on the community, demonstrating her acceptance for his uniqueness through a positiveoutlook on his presence. Whilst the majority of society eventually rejected him, a scarce few were able to ignoreexterior appearances and identify the value in Edward's interior beauty. Shelley and Burton emphasise thetheme of isolation with correlation to acceptance, beauty, and perception, employing a variety of languagefeatures to effectively convey these concepts.

Read More

The Consequences Of Physical Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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

Foreshadowing In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

989 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is a novel that exposes many themes and ideas with the assistance of literary and stylistic techniques. Shelley explores certain ideas about good and evil including the idea that happiness is valuable, that through persistent negative inputs someone’s outward character becomes their inside beliefs and that there will be no rest until there remains only one god. These ideas closely interlink with the themes of good and evil which allows for contrast, giving the audience an opportunity to gain their own meaning. Foreshadowing is used to effectively develop the story, while the metaphors are used to give the readers a visual understanding of the storyline. Shelley makes all these components work together to form a

Read More

Examples Of Loss Of Innocence In Frankenstein

1266 Words | 6 Pages

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a thematically engrossing novel that follows the treacherous narrative of protagonist Victor Frankenstein as he submits himself entirely to passion and the fervent desire to acquire natural knowledge and the resulting consequences that follow. The outcome of his ardent frenzy of discovery is a monstrous creation that he instantly regrets creating upon first sight. Throughout the Frankenstein novel, Victor and the monster engage in an everlasting mutual war that sets them at ends with each other through their personal pinings for the things that set them apart. It can be proven that throughout the novel the two protagonists come off as both intriguingly similar upon in-depth analysis and strikingly different on

Read More

Why Does Mary Shelley Use Of Personification In Frankenstein

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.

Read More

Frankenstein Sublime Essay

2055 Words | 9 Pages

He dreamed of creating a new species but gave no thought to the hardships they would endure or the catastrophes they may cause (Oates 548). Victor takes responsibilities for their achievements and imagines his creations seeing him as God, but when he goes through with his plans, Victor does not feel any responsibility towards his first creature and its failings due to its unusual and horrifying appearance. Victor describes that “the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” due to the creature’s looks (Shelley 57). This highlights the unknown and uncontrollable nature of life and death as well as the superficiality of the world in the novel. This may also reflect Mary Shelley’s view of the world and how quickly its inhabitants will turn on someone who does not fit their strict societal

Read More

The Role Of Sublime In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

995 Words | 4 Pages

Victor expected his creation to be magical, but it wasn’t. There was no beauty in the horror he created. Victor was disgusted by his creature at first, but he didn’t try to kill it. He knew that this thing, whatever it was, could be dangerous, but the violence may have been his only link to understanding the monster; one thing that Victor always loved was nature. He often found himself awestruck at the beauty of it.

Read More

Frankenstein Response Paper

279 Words | 2 Pages

He used various seemingly “perfect” body parts found in graveyards to create a new being that would be bound to him and made in his image. The monster that Victor creates is hideous and violent which provides a parallel for his own flaws. I believe that Shelley chose to write this novel to highlight the flaws that are present in our society.

Read More

Beauty And Ugliness In Frankenstein Essay

779 Words | 4 Pages

That all the deeds done by the monster in the novel is totally the fight towards beauty and ugliness. This throws light upon the idea it is not always simple to know about goodness and evilness with regard to outer beauty but it’s the beauty of the soul as the victor was projected as a good and loving human being and the monster evil but we can realize throughout the novel that this might be up turned for both victor and the monster Mary Shelley depicted the phenomena of beauty vs. ugliness of the soul very prominently in the novel Frankenstein .

Read More

Beauty And Ugliness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

1363 Words | 6 Pages

Beauty and ugliness is often used to justify the reaction of others in the novel, Frankenstein; in which the relation between external appearance and internal desires are shown to be related. The theme of how appearance affects judgement is often demonstrated through the characters response to the monster’s physical being. Shelley depicts this situation through Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the Delacey family, and through the monster himself. The use of appearance to determine judgement is shown to be a negative habit. By automatically associating ugliness with evil, and beauty with innocence, society unintentionally develops a negative being in those considered ugly, while at the same creating an illusion of innocence over beautiful individuals.

Read More

The Monster's Alienation In Frankenstein

782 Words | 4 Pages

Having been created from mismatched body parts, the majority of which had been decomposing for some amount of time, the Monster is grotesque and inhuman despite having human parts. With “his yellow skin” and “watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the sockets in which

Read More

Character Development In Frankenstein

1921 Words | 8 Pages

Shelley’s novel encompasses the unknown and how ambition drove Victor’s passions, ultimately leading him to the tragic end with many other bumps in the road along the way. As Victor had been in the study of life and its cause, the death of his mother had catalyzed a movement of grief which had started, “…depriv[ing him]self of rest and health. [Which he] had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation…” (Shelley 35). Even though he knew that he had been raiding graveyards, Victor believed that he created the body with the ‘finest body parts’ available.

Read More

Nature And Romanticism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

758 Words | 4 Pages

In Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel, Frankenstein, Romantic themes are strongly represented in order to propagandize Romanticism over the elements of knowledge and the Enlightenment. In her novel, Shelley uses gothic nature settings to foreshadow dark events that are about to happen in the novel. She also uses nature to intensify the effect that is brought during significant scenes, a strong example being, when Victor Frankenstein’s monster approaches him after a long period of time. Nature and its use to influence mood is one of the most paramount themes of both Frankenstein and Romanticism.

Read More

More about The Paradox Of Aesthetics In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Related Topics

Open Document