Myth and morality in Frankenstein

Assignments paper no 5 (Romantic literature)

Topic- Myth and morality in Frankenstein

Name- Shital D Italiya

Roll no – 31

Submitted to – Smt. S.B .Gardy department of English

                               M.K.University Bhavnagar

Myth and morality in Frankenstein

Introduction:

                            In a lot of ways this wasn’t quite what I expected. I suppose the main thing was that most of the pieces that have based themselves around the Frankenstein story have placed quite a lot of emphasis on the act of creating the monster. The original on the other hand deals with it in just a couple of pages. It is for those who don’t know the basic of the story, Frankenstein gets obsessed with the nature of life, makes a creature bring it to life and reject it. The monsters then spend the rest of the book utterly destroying his life by praying on those around him, while simultaneously blaming Frankenstein for facing it to be that way.

                     For the most part it’s well written, though there are times when you can see impatience in ties nineteen year old writer. The instant hate of Frankenstein for his creating doesn’t strike me as entirely convincing while the ability of the thing to miraculously track down those around him doesn’t quite work either. The center of the story is more the monster’s motivation than it is the actual mechanics of vengeance. It is evil because it was created that way? It is evil because of repeated rejection do human concept of morality even applies to something non human?

                       It raises some intriguing about the role of other people in making us who we are. The monster, cut off from other and abandoned, is left without a moral compass. As, it might be argued, is Frankenstein, who slips into solitude well away from his family while working on the thing. When the monster wants to destroy him, moreover, it is not Frankenstein he attacks but those around him. I suspect on the whole, that its book not about what it means to make a monster, but about what other do to keep us human.

Myth into the novel

                          Fact+ fiction = Myth

                        “Myth is symbolic projection of people’s hopes, values, fears and aspiration”.

              Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is lauded as one of the earliest examples of science fiction literature. Telling the story of the talented but misguided Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the hideous monster he creates, Shelly’s novel is recognized as one of the most engaging horror stories even written. The creation myth within the book has served as inspiration for modern films graphics novels, songs and even horror themed episodes of numerous television shows.

According to Alan w. watts

“Myth is to be defined as a complex of stories, some no doubt fact and fantasy which is for various reasons. Human being regards as demon station of the inner meaning of the universe and of human life.”

                Myth critic concerned to seek out those mysterious elements that inform certain literary work and that elicit with almost uncanny force, dramatic and universal human reaction study of myth reveals about the mind and character of people.myth also reflects more profound reality.

William Black – myth is fundamental, the dramatic representation of our deepest instinctual life, or primary awareness of man in the universe capable of many configuration, upon which all particular opinions and attitude depends.”

           In the novel we can find the selfishness and immature ego of monster and it leads the result of this devilish mind. Here, monster himself becomes the myth of the novel how? Let’s see

1) His name is “Frankenstein”

                  Many critics believes that the monster’s name to be Frankenstein, he is actually never refer to by any name in the book. Dr .Frankenstein does call him other hateful names such as devil and fiend. According to Chris Baldric

“In Frankenstein’s shadow; myth, monstrosity and nineteenth century writing”

2) He is green with bolts in his neck.

             In the novel, especially chapter 5 of the book, victor describes the monster as having been designed to have limbs that were in propitiation and I had selected his features as beautiful.beautifil! Great god! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair of a lustrous black and flowing his teeth so a pearly whiteness the monster was definitely not as hideous s popular culture has updated his look to be!.

3) He died at the end of the book.

                  While many assume that the monster dies after off I to the frozen arctic wasteland after his creature dies, it is never specified whether the monster survives in the harsh wilderness, as noted by mental floss.

4) He lacked intelligence

                 Through the book the monster is portrayed as both sensitive and intelligent. He lacks only the companionship another being just like him, and his only acts of rage and cruelty come as a result of his loneliness. So there you have it, the monster was both compassionate and knowledgeable not some heartless creature.

5) The monster is longer than any human being.

              The monster was actually eight feet tall in the book. Thus here, have been living human beings who could look him in the eye. None the less he would still stand among the world’s tallest humans, so that definitely warrants recognition.

Frankenstein – The modern Prometheus.

                            In addition to the biblical account of the creation, Adam and Eve and the fall, the Greek myth of Prometheus also like behind the text. The myth says that

Myth behind Prometheus

                        Zeus, the supreme God of the Greeks asked Prometheus to create humanity from mud and water. Prometheus became a great benefactor to mankind, teaching them architecture, astronomy, navigation, medicine and a number of other useful skills. Prometheus later played a tick on Zeus, who retaliated by withholding the gift of fire from mankind. But Prometheus defied Zeus and stole fire from the heaven to bring to earth. As a punishment, Prometheus was bound to a rock and everybody a giant eagle ate his liver, which was miraculously renewed every night. He was eventually rescued from his suffering by Hercules, the Greek hero.

         As a further punishment, Zeus caused the beautiful but thoughtless Pandora to open a jar in which were imprisoned all the ills that afflict humanity illness, old age, the need to labour, insanity and vice.

Mary Shelley’s sources

ü Her reading of Greek literature as a child and young woman.

ü Byron publishes a poem called Prometheus in July 1816.

ü In the same summer, just before beginning work on Frankenstein, she helped Byron by making a fair copy of canto 3 of his poem child Harold, which contains reference to Prometheus during the year 1818 and 1819, and probably discussed the poem with her earlier than this, while she was writing Frankenstein.

Moralistic approach in novel.

         1) Victor Frankenstein committed an act of hubris. He created life. That is the job of God, not man.

2) Once he died create life, he walked away from it without offering nurturing and guidance. That is morally wrong as well.

EXAMPLE; we are responsible for our children. It is our job to raise them and care for them until such time as they are ready to live independently.

Victor simply walked away from his creature which was not only an injustice to the creature but an injustice to the world’s especially his own family on whom the creature sought revenge. Those are the moral issues. Being a gothic novel, one of the requirements is that in the end hr or she pay for their Trans aggressions, victor certainly does pay for his transgressions against God, the creature his family and the world. Society behaves immorally but this is unfixable. Shelly shows it is ethically wrong to treat people so severely and can only lead to further destruction. The justice system is also behaving morally incorrect for condemning Justine to a crime which they had little proof she committed.  

Morality without God

       Throughout Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, knowledge of the existence of a creature has a crippling effect on the on the creature as he struggle to reconcile his own perception of himself with his maddening desire for divine approval and acceptance. In the end, through Frankenstein Shelley conclude that moral and spiritual development the shedding be attained through the dogmatic belief structure, resulting in the eliminate of god towards the attainment of self realization.

Conclusion

Considering the fact that the creature lives outside the bounds of civilized society, and thus lacks the enculturation that contribute to a sense of community to help ease the “awesome” thought and perceived conception of god , it becomes clear that Shelley may be trying to relate the idea that only through society and interaction with others can a human being grapple with the enormity of god.