Frankenstein

Zehra ZaidiShannon Yap

Our Prompt

The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. “The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By happy endings, I do not mean fortunate events…but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation.

Analysis of the Prompt

This prompt proposes an idea that the best response from the readers come from novels who have a happy ending. Happy endings do not mean fortunate events, but instead some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral development.

How This Prompt Relates

Although Frankenstein doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending (almost everyone dies lol) it does have positive spiritual and moral development. The creature has moments where it seems to develop some great characteristics.

Example

“I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me.” (Page. 101)The quote above depicts the creature starting to feel the emotions which he thought had died off. The emotions gave him pleasure, a sort of happiness.

Thesis

In “Frankenstein”, the despondent creature, who was emphatically misunderstood as malevolent, progressively developed throughout the novel in a positively happy way, not by mere fortunate events, but by transcendent moral development, spiritual reassessment and prevalent personal experiences.

Significant Moment• An important event that is pivotal to the plot is the time when the creature

visits DeLacey’s home. Frankenstein develops his mind and learns to speak. In addition, there is an emotional maturation that takes place in the creature.

• The creature remarks, "Oh, what a strange nature is knowledge." With this spiritual and intellectual growth, the creature feels a need to share his feelings and desires. It is this need for sharing that propels him into the house where the old blind father is alone. A critical event happens here because, when Agatha and Felix return, the creature is met with fear, hatred, and horror--the same reactions of Victor, his creator. So, the creature learns that he is destined to be alone. And, it is because of this realization that he returns to Victor to demand that another creature like unto him be created. In this way, he can share his life with someone and not feel the terrible alienation that he does as the "miserable, unhappy wretch" that he is after his rejection by every human being with whom he has come into contact.

Second Significant Moment

Another significant moment is when the creature helps save the little girl from drowning although he had such hatred for other people. This shows great moral development because the creature’s caring side is illuminated.

SimilePage 44, Chapter 4 "No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success..."Using "like", Mary Shelley manages to compare two aspects in order to illustrate her point. Shelley manages to relate monotonously motivating feelings to a hurricane, which is also quite persistent.

Personification

Page 44, Chapter 4"...dedicated myself; and the moon gazed..."The aspect of the moon gazing truly represents personification because it is virtually impossible for the inanimate object of the moon to do so, so Mary Shelley gave the moon human-like attributes.

Imagery

“I wept like a child. "Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?" (P.49)Mary Shelley used imagery to describe how the creature felt mocked by the beauty of nature when he felt so ugly himself.

CitationsVisuals (In Order)• http://

24.media.tumblr.com/b7cfd52e941256c7195f9e1a595bf68a/tumblr_mlf1yhLU7V1s852lfo1_500.gif

• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Frankenstein's_monster_(Boris_Karloff).jpg

• http://blogs.voanews.com/russia-watch/files/2013/09/Frankenstein1.jpg• http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Something_other_than_Frankenstein.jpg• http://www.shreve-lib.org/index.php/teens/869-mythbusters-frankenstein-edition• http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/B/Bride%20of%20Frankenstein,%

20The.htm• http://www.percivalconstantine.com/2012/10/22/whats-in-a-name-musings-on-frankens

teins-monster/

• http://www.churchofhalloween.com/wp-content/gallery/frankenstein/frankenstein-anto-juricic.png

• http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/B/Bride%20of%20Frankenstein,%20The.htm

• http://antiscribe.com/2012/06/09/frankenstein-the-best-and-worst-the-antiscribe-overview/

• http://www.wicked-halo.com/2010/08/bride-of-frankenstein.htmlBookBloom, Harold, ed. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.