ipl-logo

Victor's Use Of Personification In Frankenstein

480 Words2 Pages

The Storm In the middle of the story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, there is a portion noted as “The Storm” where Victor is fighting a storm in his mind after the death of his youngest brother William. “The Storm'' represents the inner guilt Victor feels affiliated with the letting go of his creation, foreshadowing Victor’s future through the use of figurative language and past information. To begin, on page 78, personification is described as, “Night also closed around and when I could hardly see the dark mountains, I still felt more gloomily”(Shelley 78). As Victor is approaching his home of Geneva, an uncanny storm begins to develop. By including how ‘Night also closed around’ Shelley is including personification to demonstrate how dark and alone …show more content…

This ultimately foreshadows Victor’s loneliness as he arrives back home after his little brother has died, but also with the guilt that it has been merely two years since he let his creature into the wild. Next, to continue this idea, as the storm grows more violent and malevolent, Victor comes across, ¨the wretch, the filthy demon to whom I had given life. What did he there? Could he be…(I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother?”(Shelley, 79). At this point in time, Victor is in the middle of the strongest part of the storm. Lightning, thunder, and heavy rain is pouring on him, and as this occurs, he notices a creature skulking around the trees, almost spying on him. With past information, this creature becomes known as the one he created, increasing his guilt of releasing it into the world, and connecting his brother's death to his release of the creature. So overall, through the use of past information catching up to Victor’s reality, a physical storm is representing the storm of guilt Victor is fighting in his mind. Lastly, after his encounter with his creation, the storm starts to die down. But, something feels unfinished as, “[he] remained motionless. The thunder

Show More
Related
1070 Words | 5 Pages

Shelley could be suggesting that the creation of the monster should be judged harshly as it seems to be by nature, as well as Victor after the abandonment of the second monster, after which he as well as followed with and harmed by storms. The first instance of a storm in the novel after the pivotal creation of the monster is

Read More
1175 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, Victor’s guilt starts to turn into severe depression after he finds out his creation killed his brother William. Victor says, “I was tempted to plunge into the silent river, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever” (Pg.103, Shelley). This extreme despair shows how severe God is punishing Victor’s mind, and that all this could have been avoided had Victor never vandalized Mother Nature. Lastly, due to Victor abandoning Monster, he ultimately leads to the death of his brother William. This is the most significant way in which God punishes him for his sins.

Read More
848 Words | 4 Pages

He hyper focuses on his studies in an attempt to suppress his emotions, and as a result, goes further and further down a lonely path, completely isolated and trapped with his ideas and thoughts. Victor doesn’t feel quite right, but continues to work on his project, but when it is completed, and the creature comes to life, “the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart,” (Shelley 58). Victor completely neglects everything except his creation, due to his prolonged grief, but his devotion blinds him to the monstrosity he has been creating. After Victor abandons his creation, he suffers through a deep depression, unable to reconcile his guilt, grief, and other painful emotions. He struggles to find joy in his life, constantly stricken by the weight of his decisions, unable to forgive himself or take any steps toward stabilizing his mental health.

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

Emily Littles Teacher: Toni Weeden Honors Senior English 17 November 2017 The Story In the novel Frankenstein the creature is a figment of Victor's imagination. Mary Godwin, not Shelley at the time, wrote Frankenstein about a nightmare that she had one night, “The dream was a morbid one about the creation of a new man by a scientist with the hubris to assume the role of god.” (Mary Shelley, Biography).

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the entirety of the novel, nature is presented in a way that allows the characters to be restored and reach a more peaceful state of mind. Using the common style of nature being presented as a maternal presence, Shelley is able to use nature as an external force throughout the novel. One of the vital ways Shelley illustrates nature as an external character is by her use of seasons affecting specific characters in certain ways. Victor

Read More
1868 Words | 8 Pages

After this passage, Victor then moves to exclaim that he would be alright if “Wandering spirits” would “take me...away from the joys of life.” By connecting the daunting and rainy landscape to the feelings of elation and awe that envelop Victor, the reader can interpret that, unlike the beginning of the novel where Victor is accustomed to the sunny bliss of Geneva, he is instead much more at ease within the dark yet powerful landscapes of the mountains. Using the darkness of the rainy day, Shelley helps to paint a picture of the melancholy that begins to take hold of Victor’s

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

He uses the little that he knows to fuel his hatred towards humans and his creator. This shows the exponential growth of the problems that Victor has created as a result of his desire for knowledge. Not only did he create the destructive monster, but now the monster is using a hunger for knowledge, the very thing that created it, to do even more damage. This root cause is linked to everything that is causing Victor’s suffering. The monster also compares his relationship to Victor to that of God and Adam, wishing that he had the same supplication to his creator that Adam did, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his creator.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

What a miserable night I passed! The cold stars shone in mockery, and the bare trees waved their branches above me…”(Shelley 138). After the creature was cast out by the cottagers, whom he loved so much, he went to the woods, where he learned how to survive on his own and without facing humans; since he was alone with nature, he began to feel grateful for nature. “ But the fresh air and bright sun seldom failed to restore me to some degree of composure; and, on my return, I met the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and a more cheerful heart. ”(Shelley 156).

Read More
125 Words | 1 Pages

By utilizing personification to describe fate as an omnipotent deity in chapter 2 of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein vindicates himself, redirecting blame upon fate instead. Victor expunges his culpability in Chapter 2 of Shelley’s Frankenstein by characterizing the battle for his soul as a struggle between “destiny” and his “guardian angel” and by concluding that “Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed [his] utter and terrible destruction” (Shelley 27). By disassociating himself even from the struggle between his fate and his destiny, Victor denounces the perilous potential possibility that he could have changed his own nature. Moreover, he invokes beings such as angels and Destiny such that he seems small

Read More
596 Words | 3 Pages

Finally, Victor shatters his life when he ultimately causes his own death. As a result of his mind being consumed with grief and revenge, he becomes morose, melancholy, and eventually lifeless. Victor allows the monster to rummage his head, and he permits his creation to drive him crazy; consequently, he slowly kills

Read More
1511 Words | 7 Pages

Victor is stirred by his work, but not in a positive manner. He goes on to explain his feelings towards the creature by saying, “… my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred” (136). Victor is so bewildered and repulsed by the creature that he misses key signs of violence, from the creature, that may have saved Victor’s family had he not been so

Read More
766 Words | 4 Pages

He starts his own plan to for revenge against the creature, but this makes him just as beastly as the monster. Victor makes it his life goal, to make the monster pay in any way he can. He wants him to feel lonely and isolated forever. The beast takes a lot out on Victor and makes him feel exactly the way he feels

Read More
322 Words | 2 Pages

In Frankenstein, on Victor’s way home after being away for six years, a key moment in the novel that weather sets the mood is when “It echoed from Saleve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of light dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake making it appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant, everything seemed of pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered from the preceding flash” (Shelley 50). The author, Shelley uses weather to describe the murder of his young brother, William. The weather conditions effect Victor’s mood and convey his emotional feelings of Victor as being scared, sad, or depressed. The imagery in the quote relates to the thunder thus a way to broadcast the murder of his younger brother across the land and

Read More
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
808 Words | 4 Pages

Simultaneously, Victor failing to take responsibility for his own creation leads the creature down a path of destruction that manufactures his status as a societal outcast. The creature's dissolution from society, his search for someone to share his life with, the familiarity with intense anguish, his thirst for retribution, each of these traits coincide with Victor as he is depicted throughout the novel. Victor unknowingly induces his own undoing through his rejection of the creature. Shelley foreshadows his downfall by stating that “the monster still protested his innate goodness, blaming Victor’s rejection and man’s unkindness as the source of his evil” (Shelley 62) The creature essentially places Victor at fault for the creature becoming an outcast of society, by expressing this Shelley constructs a very austere portrayal of man’s contact with outsiders.

Read More

More about Victor's Use Of Personification In Frankenstein

Related Topics

Open Document