The novel dramatizes the clash between the eighteenth-century enlightenment and nineteenth-century romanticism. Shelley targeted the enlightenment idolatry of reason and mechanistic forces by attacking the idea that man was a predictable and rationally controllable machine.

What is the key context in Frankenstein?

Frankenstein's time period was one of significant social change; thematically, the novel is very much about the transition from Enlightenment thinking to Romantic thinking that was going on in Europe at the time. Shelley imbued the work with her own questions about mortality, parenthood, and personal duty.

What are the literary influences in Frankenstein?

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.

What is the setting and context of the novel Frankenstein?

Much of Frankenstein 's story unfolds in Switzerland, the country in central Europe where Mary Shelley was staying when she began writing the novel. However, the novel ranges widely within Europe and across the globe. Frankenstein visits Germany, France, England and Scotland.

What literary form is Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein falls under two different genres of literature: Gothic novel and science fiction. As a Gothic novel, Frankenstein embodies many of the setting and plot elements associated with the genre.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Plot Summary, Characters & Themes Mindmap! | English GCSE Revision!

What is the literary description of Frankenstein's monster?

His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, ...

What type of literary criticism is Frankenstein?

Feminist Critique

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.

What is the theme of Frankenstein?

Frankenstein, by English author Mary Shelley, tells the story of a monster created by a scientist and explores themes of life, death, and man versus nature.

How is symbolism used in Frankenstein?

Shelley uses the so-called biblical symbolism to draw a parallel between what happens in the novel and the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The analysis of the narrative suggests that the Monster links himself to Adam, which makes his creator, Victor Frankenstein, play the role of God.

Why did Mary Shelley write Frankenstein?

In 1816, Mary, Percy, John Polidori, and Lord Byron had a competition to see who wrote the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein after imagining a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made.

Why is Frankenstein important to literature?

A framework for examining morality and ethics. Frankenstein is not only the first creation story to use scientific experimentation as its method, but it also presents a framework for narratively examining the morality and ethics of the experiment and experimenter.

What two literary movement would Frankenstein be associated with?

The form of Frankenstein is a novel – a long work of fiction. The genre. Fiction and non-fiction are two examples of different genres. of fiction to which Frankenstein belongs may be defined as Romantic or Gothic – two separate but linked genres.

What does Frankenstein represent in Frankenstein?

What does Victor's monster symbolize? Victor's monster represents the hubris of thinking one can replace nature. The Creature is a grotesque creation which begins as Adam symbolically, but eventually sees more of Satan in himself.

What point of view is Frankenstein written in?

Frankenstein is narrated in the first-person (using language like “I”, “my” etc.) by different characters at different points in the novel. The shifts in narrator and the alternating points of view are central to the novel's theme of looking past appearances to reflect on what may lie beneath.

How does romanticism relate to Frankenstein?

Among the most important Romantic themes at play in Shelley's novel are the focus on the power of nature, the struggle of the individual against society, and the juxtaposition of the beautiful and the grotesque.

How does Mary Shelley use literary devices in Frankenstein?

Personification is often used in literature to help give life to the descriptions a writer has in their writing. Mary Shelley uses personification throughout Frankenstein many times, making the scenes and ideas she is writing about interesting to the reader.

What are three examples of imagery in Frankenstein?

We also looked at three moments in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that use particularly vivid imagery: Walton's ship in the ice, for which she borrowed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'; the creation of the creature; and the ominous Alps nature scene.

What is an example of imagery in Frankenstein?

In Chapter 10, the novel makes use of sweeping visual imagery as Victor describes climbing Montanvert, a glacier in the Alps: I remembered the effect that the view of the tremendous and ever-moving glacier had produced upon my mind when I first saw it.

What is the main gist of the story of Frankenstein?

Frankenstein - Plot summary

Frankenstein tells the story of gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein who succeeds in giving life to a being of his own creation. However, this is not the perfect specimen he imagines that it will be, but rather a hideous creature who is rejected by Victor and mankind in general.

Who is the real monster in Frankenstein?

This is why Victor constantly claims that he is fighting a being known as the monster but the real fiend, daemon, and monster of the story is just Victor Frankenstein himself.

What is the climax of Frankenstein?

The novel climaxes with Walton finding the monster in the room, gazing at Victor's dead body and weeping. Victor never acknowledges the role he played in creating the chaos and tragedy that resulted in the deaths of several innocent people, as well as the torment of his creation.

Is Frankenstein a literary masterpiece?

"Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley is a novel that explores themes of isolation, the power of nature, and the ethical implications of scientific advancements.

What is the irony in Frankenstein?

Instead of freeing humanity from the terror of mortality, he delivers his family into early and violent deaths. Victor dreams of founding a new species that would bless him as a father and creator. Instead, his creature curses rather than blesses him for abandoning him to a lonely life.

What is Frankenstein's monster a metaphor for?

Although originally it's a novel character, a "Frankenstein's monster" became a metaphor for "something that cannot be controlled and that attacks or destroys the person who invented it." However, are there similar "ruined by own creation" metaphors or poetic expressions in British English?

How is foreshadowing used in Frankenstein?

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.