Themes
Relationships and loss
Most of the relationships in Frankenstein end in pain and loss. I think that the author is attempting to illustrate that even though there is a chance of pain and loss whenever one enters a relationship, there is also a great benefit.Mary Shelley shows how Victor's father and Beaufort's relationship and how Victor's father stepped in to not only save Caroline but eventually marry her serve to prove that even though there is a risk in any relationship, they are necessary and good.
Playing God
The power of giving and taking away life has always been a sacred one attributed to God. When Frankenstein becomes capable of giving life to lifeless matter, he uses this power to an advantage of his. This gives him the ultimate power, one usually reserved for God. This is where all his trouble begins because of his actions and trying to play the role of God.
Revenge
Frankenstein expresses his desire to seek revenge for the deaths of his loved ones. Frankenstein inflicts harm on those who surround him. This is the critical moment when he devotes the rest of his life, energies, and resources to tracking the pitiful daemon that so mercilessly took the lives of his beloved ones. From this moment on in the book, Frankenstein has the desire to destroy his creation, the creation that destroyed his loved ones.
Most of the relationships in Frankenstein end in pain and loss. I think that the author is attempting to illustrate that even though there is a chance of pain and loss whenever one enters a relationship, there is also a great benefit.Mary Shelley shows how Victor's father and Beaufort's relationship and how Victor's father stepped in to not only save Caroline but eventually marry her serve to prove that even though there is a risk in any relationship, they are necessary and good.
Playing God
The power of giving and taking away life has always been a sacred one attributed to God. When Frankenstein becomes capable of giving life to lifeless matter, he uses this power to an advantage of his. This gives him the ultimate power, one usually reserved for God. This is where all his trouble begins because of his actions and trying to play the role of God.
Revenge
Frankenstein expresses his desire to seek revenge for the deaths of his loved ones. Frankenstein inflicts harm on those who surround him. This is the critical moment when he devotes the rest of his life, energies, and resources to tracking the pitiful daemon that so mercilessly took the lives of his beloved ones. From this moment on in the book, Frankenstein has the desire to destroy his creation, the creation that destroyed his loved ones.
MOTIFS
Humanity
This is one of the central motifs to the novel and a pretty obvious one. It raises the question what does it mean to be human? When the monster is created, his discovery of the world parallels the Biblical creation of the world, he thinks, he reasons, he even desires love, but he is still not considered to be called human; he is called everything other than human such as a monster.
This is one of the central motifs to the novel and a pretty obvious one. It raises the question what does it mean to be human? When the monster is created, his discovery of the world parallels the Biblical creation of the world, he thinks, he reasons, he even desires love, but he is still not considered to be called human; he is called everything other than human such as a monster.
Symbols
Fire
Prometheus was the titan who, in Greek mythology, gave the knowledge of fire to humanity and then suffered severe punishment at the hands of the Gods for his generous actions. Fire appears throughout the novel as a dangerous force used for sustenance and punishment; as when the monster describes demons suffering in the lake of fire in hell.
Prometheus was the titan who, in Greek mythology, gave the knowledge of fire to humanity and then suffered severe punishment at the hands of the Gods for his generous actions. Fire appears throughout the novel as a dangerous force used for sustenance and punishment; as when the monster describes demons suffering in the lake of fire in hell.