Frankenstein Themes
A mindmap of themes in Frankenstein accompanied by quotes and critics opinions.
- Created by: Zoe
- Created on: 04-06-13 11:25
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- Frankenstein Themes
- Birth and Creation
- Victor usurps the role of God
- 'A new species would bless me as its creator'
- Shelley suggests that this is his main crime
- 'supremely frightful would be...any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the creator'
- Victor usurps role of women
- Reveals his rebellion against the normal family unit
- Kept on a 'silken cord' throughout his childhood
- Fear of natural processes of birth
- Echoing Shelley's ambivalence towards childbirth?
- Some critics have read the 'workshop of filthy creation' as the womb
- Ellen Moers implies the description of the newly created monster = newborn baby
- 'shrivelled complexion'
- 'a convulsive motion agitated its limbs'
- Reveals his rebellion against the normal family unit
- Victor usurps the role of God
- Alienation
- Sufferings of both Victor and the Creature caused by their alienation from others
- VIctor's is self imposed
- 'I abhorred the face of man'
- 'I abhorred society'
- Creature's is forced upon him
- 'I am malicious because I am miserable'
- VIctor's is self imposed
- Sufferings of both Victor and the Creature caused by their alienation from others
- Family and Domestic Affections
- Domesticity is idealised
- 'I was their plaything, their idol'
- 'guided by a silken cord'
- No room for imagination and ambition
- Kate Ellis: Shelley is questioning the value of the domestic affections and attacking the family institution
- Strictly enforced artificial role distinctions create passive independent women
- Insularity of the domestic world highlighted: De Laceys
- Functions only by excluding anything that is a threat
- Creature vows to destroy the ideal of domesticity as he knows he can never have it
- Domesticity is idealised
- Double
- 'my own spirit let loose'
- 'gnashed my teeth'
- Creature = Victor's darker side
- Victor's fear of sexuality
- Murder of Elizabeth on the wedding night
- Wedding night is the one time where Victor must face his sexuality
- Ugliness of the Creature
- Murder of Elizabeth on the wedding night
- Victor's fear of sexuality
- Walton and Victor
- Fear of Sexuality
- In creating the Creature, Victor is rejecting normal human sexuality
- THE DREAM
- Victor has incestuous desires?
- Reaction to marrying Elizabeth
- 'horror and dismay'
- Victor's fear of sexuality
- Murder of Elizabeth on the wedding night
- Wedding night is the one time where Victor must face his sexuality
- Ugliness of the Creature
- Murder of Elizabeth on the wedding night
- Critique of Society
- Human injustice repeatedly emphasised
- 'men appear to me monsters thirsting for each other's blood'
- Social institutions seen as corrupt
- The Law
- 'blackest ingratitude'
- The Church
- Creature used a mouthpiece to criticise oppression and inequality of society
- 'high and unsullied descent united with riches'
- 'immaculate beings' sarcastic comment on those who spurned the Creature
- 'Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?'
- The Law
- Human injustice repeatedly emphasised
- The Monstrous and the Human
- Creature is rational and eloquent
- 'I ought to be thy Adam'
- Victor merely insults
- 'Begone!'
- 'Abhorred monster'
- Renaissance: monster interpreted as either signss of divine anger or impending distasters
- Monsters function to define and construct the politics of 'nomral'
- Creature's appearance is a warning of Victor's folly
- Creature is rational and eloquent
- Birth and Creation
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