Figurative language conveys meaning beyond the literal words used. It helps the reader form a clearer understanding of elements in a story, often in interesting and imaginative ways. Mary Shelley uses figurative language in her novel Frankenstein in the form of personification, symbolism, simile, and metaphor.
The single biggest influence on Shelley's writing of the novel is of Milton's Paradise Lost, which on some level Frankenstein is in conversation with. The creature learns to read from Milton's work, and likens himself to Lucifer, created but ultimately rejected by God.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is most frequently read and interpreted as a Gothic horror on the dangers of the unbridled optimism of science. Gothic horror is a subset of romanticism as a genre that thrives on the excitement and terror of the mystery of nature and the supernatural.
How does Mary Shelley use allusion in Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley uses allusions in Frankenstein to help the reader better understand her characters and themes. She uses allusions from works such as the Bible, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Dante's Divine Comedy to help the reader connect her characters to known characters and themes from these works.
What literary devices are used in Chapter 5 of Frankenstein?
Personification appears in Chapter 5, cleverly "animating" non-human objects in Victor's laboratory and the surrounding setting. For example, the "rain pattered dismally," suggests that the weather itself is expressing a human emotion.
What devices does Mary Shelley use in Frankenstein?
Lesson Summary. In her book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the literary devices of figurative language and personification to help add meaning and significance to the story she is telling. Figurative language is when a writer uses figures of speech to go beyond the literal or physical meaning of the words.
How does Mary Shelley use juxtaposition in Frankenstein?
Two incongruous ideas appearing side by side. For instance, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature in the story learns English from John Milton's Paradise Lost. Because of this, his elevated and intelligent language is juxtaposed with his grotesque appearance.
Mary Shelley uses irony, or literary contradiction, in her 1818 classic, Frankenstein, to illustrate her Romantic ideals, which cautions against the presumptions of progressive modernity.
Shelley also alludes to the story of creation in The Book of Genesis and in Milton's Paradise Lost. In both of these works, God created Adam just as Victor created his monster. When Victor first sees his monster, he alludes to the monsters in hell in Dante's The Divine Comedy to describe the ugliness of his creation.
The Monster personifies knowledge as something that "clings" to a mind. Of course, knowledge isn't a living thing that is capable of holding onto anything, but someone's awareness of knowledge can feel so overpowering and inescapable that it's as if knowledge were alive.
What imagery does the author use in Frankenstein? Mary Shelley uses imagery throughout her novel. She uses vivid descriptions of the Swiss Alps, the ice that traps Walton's ship, and most importantly, of Frankenstein's creature.
In Chapter 4, Victor uses a metaphor of light to describe his reaction after discovering the secret to life: Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
What literary device is Frankenstein an example of?
Foreshadowing. Throughout Frankenstein there are many examples of foreshadowing. In the beginning of the novel, Walton writes to his sister that he wants to travel to North Pole. Since this is a frame story, his determination to discover the secrets of the Earth foreshadows Frankenstein's actions later in the novel.
The overall structure of the novel is symmetrical: it begins with the letters of Walton, shifts to Victor's tale, then to the Creature's narration, so as to switch to Victor again and end with the records of Walton. In this manner the reader gets different versions of the same story from different perspectives.
What is Mary Shelley's main message in Frankenstein?
The main message that Frankenstein conveys is the danger in the pursuit of knowledge and advancement in Science and Technology. In the novel we see Victor try to push forward the limits of science by creating a creature from old body parts. The creation of the creature backfired on Victor once the monster escaped.
Immediately after the monster comes to life, Victor has a nightmare involving a vision of Elizabeth lying dead, and then transforming so that “I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms.” This vision foreshadows that Elizabeth will die, and that her death is in some way connected to the monster.
What is the story telling device used by Shelley in Frankenstein called?
Frankenstein is also a frame narrative, a form which examines the dark, internalised consciousness of each character that narrates the events of a story in each frame. Unlike in an omniscient narrative perspective, each storyteller is a character with concomitant shortcomings, limitations, prejudices, and motives.
How does Shelley combine two literary devices in this excerpt to develop the novel? She uses flashback to drive character development and foreshadowing to hint at how the character will go bad.
She also uses it in the frame narrative, the outermost story that surrounds Victor Frankenstein's central narration and describes desolation of the icy landscape that inspires awe and terror in Walton. The sublime is used again when Victor meets his monster in a similar icy, mountainous setting.
Why might Shelley use letters as a literary device?
Answer and Explanation: Mary Shelley constructed Frankenstein as an epistolary novel, a story told through letters, for multiple reasons. First, revealing the story through letters allowed her to seamlessly move from one character's perspective to another.
Figurative language in Frankenstein includes personification and similes of natural phenomena. When the inventor sees the monster during a storm, he thinks: “A flash of lightning illuminated the object.” The reader can compare this approach to Victor's insight.
How does Shelley use foreshadowing to create suspense in chapter 20? The monster warns Victor that he will be forced to repent for the injuries he has inflicted. Then, the monster predicts that he will present with Victor on the latter's wedding night.
