What do you think Mary Shelley’s key meanings and ideas are that she tries to communicate through the text of Frankenstein?<\/p>\n
Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> incorporates many different themes. The core questions revolve around Victor Frankenstein and his monster. There are elements of fatherhood in the relationship, as Frankenstein \u2018births\u2019 the monster, but this is underscored by the rejection he demonstrates. The newborn monster approaches him as a child would approach a parent, but instead of engaging with him, Frankenstein flees the apartment. Some have purported that Frankenstein is based on Shelley\u2019s husband, Percy, inspired by an incident in 1815 in which she gave birth to a premature baby which died two weeks later; Percy displayed no emotion and instead left to conduct an affair with Shelley\u2019s stepsister (Spark, 1951). The creature is never named \u2013 it is referred to as \u2018demon\u2019, \u2018devil\u2019, \u2018fiend,\u2019 etc. \u2013 which strips it of identity. Both Victor and the monster himself express a wish that he had never been created: \u201cI, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on\u201d (p. 185). Another central theme is the idea of knowledge being dangerous; Frankenstein and Robert Walton, another central character, are both in pursuit of knowledge beyond human limitations. The former\u2019s experiment with the monster, and the consequences it brings about, ultimately persuades the latter to abandon his dangerous mission to explore the North Pole, as Frankenstein\u2019s obsession with creating the monster is dramatically reversed upon his success. This revelation causes him to destroy work he had begun on creating a female monster. Finally, the novel\u2019s subtitle, The Modern Prometheus<\/em>, evidences another core theme: Prometheus, in mythology, stole fire from the Gods and was punished, and Frankenstein\u2019s story parallels this. Upon seeing fire for the first time, the monster is excited that it creates light in the darkness, but soon learns that it burns him if he touches it.<\/p>\n Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein. Delaware: Prestwick House.<\/p>\n Spark, M. (1951). Mary Shelley. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What do you think Mary Shelley’s key meanings and ideas are that she tries to communicate through the text of Frankenstein?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nReferences<\/h2>\n