How is chapter 5 significant to the novel as a whole? The significance of chapter 5 to the novel as a whole can be observed through the relevance of the writer’s use of language to describe the setting, character and what it shows about social and historical influence of ‘Frankenstein’. Mary Shelley wrote and conceived of Frankenstein while she and her husband Percy Shelley were […]

In the fourteenth chapter of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein the creature is telling Victor what he has learned from watching the people who live in the cottages. He tells him that they were once very influential citizens of Paris. The father was a Turk who was falsely accused of a crime and Felix risks everything to save him from spending his life in prison for a […]

As I walked through the huge cold rusty door of Frankenstein’s workshop, my nostrils suddenly burned with the disgustingly smell of decaying flesh and dried blood, but still I carried on my journey threw the cold workshop. I looked up and there were broken electrical cables running right to the center of the workshop. Every couple of seconds they gave out a sudden spark of […]

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses symbolism and allegory to depict the actions of the main characters and what their actions truly mean. In How to Read Literature Like a professor, Thomas C. Foster asks his readers what you think a symbol stands for, Foster also writes “[whatever] you think it stands for, it probably does. ” (ninety-seven) Frankenstein contains many symbols, however there is only […]

The Plague and Frankenstein The quest for knowledge is eternal and almost never-ending. People devote their lives to studying and advancing their knowledge, but their advancement is always held in check by society and the people who studied before them. Several novels have been written which explore the effect knowledge and its limitations can have on society. This paper will focus on Defoe’s Journal of […]

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is clearly a cautionary tale that spells the moral and sociological implications of the philosophy of the Enlightenment. There is a tendency to limit the theme of the novel to science, and thereby to ignore the underlying philosophy. But the scientist is only encouraged, or discouraged, by the social and philosophical milieu in which he exists. In this sense the rise of […]

The Power of Frankenstein and Manfred Throughout the novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley clearly illustrates the moral of the story. God is the one and only creator; therefore, humans should never attempt to take His place. Literary critic Marilyn Butler sums up that we aren’t to tamper with creation in her comment: “Don’t usurp God’s prerogative in the Creation-game, or don’t get too clever with […]

Raphael Porras Tabula Rasa Theory: Frankenstein’s Creature The nature versus nurture debate has been an ongoing issue in Psychology. It centres on whether a person’s behaviour is a product of his or her genes or the person’s environment and surroundings. Some well-known thinkers such as Plato and Descartes proposed that certain things are inherited and innate or that they simply occur naturally regardless of human […]

The Isolation of Victor Frankenstein Isolation and loneliness can do great injustices to the human brain. People are programed to function in cohabitation with others of their kind, to form relationships with them. So, when these relationships fail or seem to be absent from one’s life, the aloneness can ache. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the reader sees the developing isolation of Victor Frankenstein, which […]

Frankenstein and Pride & Prejudice Socratic Seminar Reflection This Socratic Seminar made me agree much more with Socrates’ beliefs: that extended discussion and continual questioning facilitate the most meaningful learning experiences. It helped me understand the novel much more than I had before because I got to hear about the book from the perspective of others and how they interpreted the story and discussed what […]