The Role Of The Monster In Frankenstein

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The role of the monster is deprived in a variety of different ways throughout gothic fiction and images of the monster can be found in writings by the prophetic historian and social commentator Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881, both in The French Revolution, 1837, and in his many comments on the growing strength and articulation of the mass of industrial workers and their increasing political demands. The novelist Charles Dickens, 1812-1870, inherited from his reading of Carlyle a strong sense that society was becoming mechanized so that people were beginning to be transformed into a robotic state. In Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein, 1818, creates a phenomenal creature which makes the reader question humanity and the way people are treated. The monster although uneducated becomes eloquent and brave but is still seen as an outcast due to his grotesque appearance and the fact he has had no parenting. The French Revolution, which began in 1789, resulted in the overthrow of the French monarchy and ultimately helped Napoleon Bonaparte to seize control in 1799. Initially, great emphasis must be given to the first appearance of the creature in the novel. It has to be made clear that the narrator in this chapter is Victor Frankenstein himself. The event of the creature's genesis is, therefore, explored from Frankenstein's perspective and does not allow the reader to empathise with the creature. In addition, Frankenstein himself believes that he has created 'a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived'. Therefore, the reader's impression of the creature is biased at this point. Even before the creature is introduced to the reader, the choice of diction in the chapter prepares its entrance. Firstly, the fact that the corpse was brought to life on a 'dreary night of November' underlines its importance in Frankenstein's life. It also implies that Frankenstein was only
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