Danger Monster –Essay Nikita Revenko People are often keen to sympathise with the lonely, socially inapt character, when it comes to a novel or a movie. A perfect example of that type of character is the creature in Mary Shelley’s book: Frankenstein. But when one starts to read in between the lines, it doesn’t seem so obvious anymore. At many points in the story it is clear that the creature is dangerous and extremely violent. Also, it’s being very selfish by asking Victor for more favours, after Victor had already given life to it.
His concealment causes his obsession, a lack of preventative measures against the creature, and his fear of appearing to be mad. The nature of Victor Frankenstein secret derives from pride and the prevention of humiliation. Frankenstein discreetly gives life to a being in an attempt to escape what seemed to be inevitable; death. This hidden creation ultimately turns into a deranged monster who successfully seeks vengeance on Frankenstein and his family. Knowing that he is indirectly responsible for the tragic events that have transpired; Victor Frankenstein
In the novel Frankenstein we see Victor’s technological ambition turn into repulsion as the creation of the monster help him realize the magnitude of his mistakes. “The beauty of my dream vanished, breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”, this shows that Victor was blinded by his ambition and by giving up morality and using technology for his own selfish needs he was not able to foresee the inevitable horrid consequences. On the other hand in Blade Runner the ethical issues of science and technologies are not only portrayed through the creation of the replicants but also by the destruction of nature and its environments. During the beginning of the movie a camera shot from above shows a dark, industrialized city filled with fiery explosions while ominous music is played in the background, the image of the city and non-dijectic sounds portray and emphasise how society has lost sight of what really matters and no longer prioritize
When people go to see a horror movie or read a horror novel, they expect to see, or read about, possibly an infinite amount of gruesome and disgusting creatures. What people most of the time do not realize is that the creature in the story is usually caused by human error and carelessness. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor, the titular character, creates a creature in which he abandons almost immediately and shows no respect for him; which causes the creature to commit chaos in Victor’s life. The problem in this story is not the hate the creature causes, but in the evil of Victor’s selfish mind inability to see the havoc he can prevent. The first fault that causes Victor’s action is his tenacious view on life and how it works.
Mary Shelley demonstrates this concept through Victor’s pursuit for knowledge, caused by the change of values between the Romantic Era and the Age of Enlightenment. As electricity was discovered, Victor’s admiration for the subject of Galvanism provides him a “thirst for knowledge”, reinforced by his “longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”. This sexual allusion emphasises Victor’s loss of Romantic values which ultimately leads to an extremely arrogant attitude where he “bestows animation upon lifeless matter” and creates the “hideously deformed” monster that metaphorically represents the greed that blinds him. Its horrific actions, namely the killing of people closest to Victor, force him to finally realize that they “died by my hands”. Thus, Shelley warns that the destructiveness of Man’s intrinsic desires for knowledge stems from the change in values.
Inhumanity and monstrosity is depicted in Frankenstein, through the characters of Victor and the creature, whom can be perceived as doppelgangers. Initially the creature is seen as physically horrifying, which is expressed through description, the hyperbole “his face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold,” but is initially benevolent until contact with civilisation transformed him into a vengeful murderer. This also evokes Rousseau’s Romantic theory of the noble savage; that man’s existence is superior amongst nature, when he is not exposed to the malicious influences of society. Towards the end of the novel, Victor is also seen to be a monster, as he did not take responsibility for his creation, which leads to his realisation, “I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer.” This is also a similar case for Tyrell in Blade Runner; however, he does not feel guilt for the treatment and injustice of his replicants. “Commerce is our goal,” is his slogan, depicting his greed and inhumanity, which is reflective of the economically driven 20th century.
Such violence is really only the cause of Roy’s pain, his emotions controlling his actions conflicts with our prejudice. Frankenstein's Monster's anguish comes from the rejection he feels from society “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?”. Posing this Rhetorical question highlights the Irony of how the monster while innocent has been judged just as the reader has. Influenced by her father Mary Shelley's story of a monster portrays the idea that to be human goes beyond that of the body. The Monsters vulgarity and the Replicants perfection does not define them their reaction and action and the ability to think morally and ethically makes them human.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, we are introduced to Victor Frankenstein; a man obsessed with discovering the secret to creating life. While his goals appear somewhat benevolent; "wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!" (p. 42), he seeks the fame and glory that would come with
Although sharing little in setting or premise, the texts Frankenstein and Blade Runner share many of the same concerns as they both challenge the values and morals of the societies in which they were set, most notably the notion of what it means to be human, as well as articulating the composers' critique of the advancement in science and technology. Both texts also exhibit the consequences of imprudent creation and the hubris of an individual to rise above and disrupt the natural order. Written in the eighteen hundreds by aggrieved writer Mary Shelley, the novel Frankenstein presents readers with a Romanticist perspective of technology ‘dehumanizing’ mankind as society was not made clear of their indistinct boundaries. Through Victor’s regression, “I, the true murderer, felt the never dying worm alive in my bosom”, the symbols of the ‘worm’ explore the downfall in
Essay: Frankenstein's rejection of his monster can be interpreted to be a representation of man being ironically disgusted at sin - his own sin. Frankenstein can be likened to a man who has condemned fornication in public, but he keeps going to motels and sex clubs in secret. What Frankenstein created in his monster is in one way a mirror of his own soul. The story shows that whatever the monster does is Frankenstein's responsibility, and it in a way mirrors Frankenstein's own deterioration of his humanity. Perhaps Frankenstein's fear at seeing his monster's eyes open was a fear of himself, his own faults.