Good Versus Evil Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley, is a novel that tells the story of a man's scientific endeavors and how through his knowledge bestows life into a lifeless matter which comes to be feared and hated by all. The Tyger, by William Blake, is a poem composed of a series of questions about a tiger that depicts the issues of creation, innocence and experience, and ultimately good and evil . Both pieces of literature describe misunderstood creatures who struggle to define themselves as solely good or evil which then leads to the questioning of their very existence. Through Frankenstein Mary Shelley shows the reader that good and evil are not always easily distinguished, and that human beings struggle with both of these …show more content…
He longs for a companion who will understand him and who will not mistreat him. The last moments of compassion dies within the creature when his creator destroys the companion he promised to create, and the revenge continues from there. Even though the creature commits awful crimes, he also commits acts of kindness. The poem, The Tyger, contrasts innocence and experience, and good and evil. The description of the tiger in the poem is as a destructive, horrid creature. The original drawing on the poem shows a smiling, cuddly tiger which is quite the contrast to the tiger described in the poem. This picture might suggest a misunderstanding of the tiger and perhaps the fears that arouse from the poem are unjustified. This poem contrasts the tiger with a lamb which often symbolizes innocence, Jesus, and good. The tiger is perceived as evil or demonic. Blake suggest that the lamb and the tiger have the same creator and in a way states that the tiger might also have the ability to have the benign characteristics of the lamb. The tiger initially appears as a beautiful image but as the poem progresses, it explores a perfectively beautiful yet destructive symbol that represents the presence of evil in the world. In the poem, Blake writes: " What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry (4-5)." It is hard to determine if the tiger is solely evil or good. Both of these works do
Several fields have studied the relationship between creator and creation. The most significant aspect of this research considers the difference between nature and nurture. Sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and other professionals have tried to pin down the exact distinctions between these two types of upbringings. In literature, the same questions have been asked and studied using fictional characters, most famously in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in 1667, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in 1818. The complexity of the characters in these texts creates the theme of nature versus nurture before they diverge and arrive at differing conclusions.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the tale of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Both Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s creation’s questionable actions lead them both to be considered morally ambiguous figures. Victor is ambitious with good intentions, but his ambition leads to bad results. The Creature is an innately kind and compassionate person who commits abominable actions due to how others treat him. Their moral ambiguity is significant, as it reveals that an obsession with ambition distorts one’s morals.
Victor Frankenstein created life, a monster that was born into this world with no purpose, and no one to love. He did not even have a name, he was called a monster from the start. Just like a normal human baby, he came to life not knowing anything, and had to learn from his surroundings. Just like a person, he watched and learned from others, and tried to understand the world and the people in it. From that, the monster understood that he just wants to find a life for himself, and not be viewed as an evil monster, but there are many things that are preventing that. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the author portrays Frankenstein’s monster as a friend through details in his character and his outlook on life.
The novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in 1818. This gothic romance novel tells the story of a philosopher who discovered how to create life, without the full knowledge that his actions could cause grave consequences. Universal Studios made the film version of this novel in 1931. Unfortunately, the film version of Frankenstein has more differences than similarities to the novel. In the novel, Victor’s mental obsession seems to be more severe than in the film. The character of Victor Frankenstein was portrayed in both the novel and the film as a veriphobe, or one who is afraid of the truth, in this case, the truth of his actions. He
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley combines three separate stories involving three different characters--Walton, Victor, and Frankenstein's monster. Though the reader is hearing the stories through Walton's perspective, Walton strives for accuracy in relating the details, as he says, "I have resolved every night,...to record, as nearly as possible in his [Victor's] own words, what he has related during the day" (Shelley 37). Shelley's shift in point of view allows for direct comparison and contrast between the characters, as the reader hears their stories through the use of first person. As the reader compares the monster's circumstances to those of Victor and Walton, the reader's
I can compare Frankenstein to the movie I saw by Tim Burton, Frankenweenie. They are similar but instead of a human body, it was a dog and the mad scientist was a young boy named Victor Frankenstein. The young Victor Frankenstein brings his dog back to life after being hit by a car for a science fair project while the real Victor Frankenstein wanted to create a real life human. Just like the real Frankenstein monster, the dog brings trouble. In the book, the mad scientist, denies the monster but in Frankenweenie, the young boy convinces his family and friends to like his creation. Some of his classmates had known the young Victor Frankenstein creation and was intrigued to do the same experiment like his but it went out of the standards of
The creature once says, “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us” (Shelley 83). He wonders himself why, in all of his suffering, he has been created at all. He was not even granted the bride he was promised by Victor. This unfortunate existence led the creation to turn to anger and rage. Blind ambition drove his creator, who could not foresee the level of destruction he would give when the reality of his plans was finally realized.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, includes numerous symbols. Frankenstein is an important must-read because it provides real life symbols. These symbols that humanize or dehumanize the monster and Victor to make them relatable to dark and light qualities. In the novel, Mary Shelley employs the concept of light and dark to epitomize the underlying meanings in the text, allowing the readers to take it and escapade it in their minds and take the story to another level rather than the average novel.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is very much a commentary on the Enlightenment and its failure to tame the human condition through reason. The human condition can be defined as the unique features which mold a human being. The creature is undoubtedly a victim of this predicament. He grapples with the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, and the awareness of the inescapability of death. These qualities and his ceaseless stalking of his master conjure up the metaphor that he is the shadow of the Enlightenment. Indeed, the Enlightenment is represented through Frankenstein whereas the creature is the embodiment of everything it shuns. These include nature, emotion, and savagery. The two characters are understood as counterparts and yet strikingly similar at the same time. The creature is considered a monster because of his grotesque appearance. Frankenstein on the other hand is a monster of another kind: his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienate him from human society. He is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation. Both characters also commit primordial crimes. Although rationality pervades through Frankenstein's endeavours, it can be argued that he becomes less human the more he tries to be God. The secret of life lies beyond an accepted boundary from which none can return. By creating life Frankenstein ironically sets the stage for his own destruction as well as that of his family. The
Mary W. Shelley’s brilliant gothic story, Frankenstein, is one that emits the prevalent theme of light versus dark, in which possesses obvious characteristics of a novel written during the romantic era. The novel tells the account of the overambitious Victor Frankenstein, who created a monster in hopes that he’d be known for crafting something human from the body parts of corpses with physical and mental advantages in society, basically playing the part of God on Earth, but through the auspices of science. Instead of creating a “normal” human, his creation ended up being a disfigured creature who he then neglects. Upon his abandonment, the monster seeks revenge on Victor after being cast away by society due to harsh physiognomy in which
as a son. Whereas in the 1957 film he is in a box full of water, and
In Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein: of The Modern Prometheus” there are two main characters who represent the differences between light and dark, good and evil, learned knowledge and acquired knowledge.
The poem is mainly about the creation of a powerful and dreadful tiger. The poem starts with a description on the overall impression of the tiger; Blake admires the tiger’s “burning bright” and “fearful symmetry”. The Tyger's presence in "the forests of the night" further increases the mystery and power of the creature. The second stanza asked where the Tyger was created, and also create an image of “fire of thine eyes” to the reader. The second two lines in the stanza asked the question that where did the inspiration come to create the fire in the Tiger's eyes. Where did God get the courage to create such a powerful and violence beast? The stanza three continue question who/what the creator of the Tyger is. What “shoulder” have the strength
when he felt lonely and when he was hungry there was no one to guide
Blake was known to be a great artist. Throughout his poems, he would add illustrations for tigers, and lambs that can shift the true meaning of the poem. In “The Tyger”, the tiger was illustrated in a way that made this ferocious animal seem harmless. As we know tigers, they are able to kill anyone they lay their hands on. As for most people in the radical era, tiger sighting was a rare scene. His use of imagery forces people into imagining an animal that is deadly, ferocious and nothing like the illustrations