ipl-logo

'The Secret Of Life Depicted In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'

612 Words3 Pages

The novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, seems to be all about telling personal stories. Robert Walton is on a ship to the North Pole. In a series of letters he is recounting his stories to his sister. This is when he meets the weak Victor Frankenstein who when nursed to be healthy again tells of a story about a dangerous creature he created while in the university. Consumed by the desire to discover the secret of life, his plan backfires when what results from his experiment is an ugly creature that causes the death of a trail of people, including Victor’s brother, friend and wife. When he encounters the creature it insists on telling its own side of the story of why it killed all these people. The creature begs for understanding perhaps because it feels like it was justified in …show more content…

From being abandoned by its creator Victor to being feared by the people it realizes how far it is from being a recipient of such kindness as experienced by others. Its obsession with Felix and Safie is due to its hope that one day it might be accepted by others and its creator (Britton, 9). By taking the responsibility for the deaths of William and Henry and emphasizing that Victor listens to its story, the creature has a purpose; it intends to elicit a response from him. With all the hope of being reconciled to its master and have a sense of belonging it tells the story in the hope that Victor will recognize his responsibility to the plight of the creature and the deaths and suggest a remedy (Britton, 10) The monster goes on to spell out its expectations through ordering Victor to create a companion for it. For instance it tells him that it is its right to have a female companion. It does this to reinforce the idea that Victor has a duty towards it given that he created all these problems in the first place (Britton,

Open Document