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Also Mary Shelley, English woman writer of eighteenth century, produces a famous novel “Frankenstein” in which the protagonist represents the man who wants to overcome human limits.
Mary Shelley lives in the period of Industrial Revolution; science and technology can give great power (an example is Frankenstein’s capacity of giving life), even if man can’t always control the machines that he makes, because they can get the upper hand ( the monster becomes uncontrollable).
This novel deals with a scientist, Frankenstein, who after many experiments, creates a creature. But it was a monster, because, it was composed of pieces of dead men, with all the best characteristics , but which, once they were put together, gave life to a horrible creature. Here the first failure.
Later on Frankenstein and the monster go through some vicissitudes; the cause of the monster’s problems is his appearance, infact, as he is awful, it is rejected , therefore it escapes. The story can be interpreted through Freud’s psychoanalysis as a case of double personality, because the monster represents Frank’s unconscious.
But in Mary’s novel there are various themes:
- There is the desire of omnipotence against God’s oppressing presence. There is the criticism of the Romantic ideal of being like God, infact Victor’s act of creation represents the failure of concept of man similar to God. An instance is the myth of Prometheus, that is to overcome human limits. Besides, the novel contains atheism because it doesn’t talk about God, but about Victor that seeks glory.
- Victor’s act has two meanings: it is a great experience but it causes great sorrows for him. So, on one side there is the human ability to do wonderful things, while, on the other, there is the punishment by God for this rebellion against human limits.
- Another mistake of Frankenstein : he dominates the matter without thinking about the soul, infact he worries about the body of the monster.
- Then, through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we can interpret the moral ideas of the time. Social injustice for instance, and she represents it with Justine’s death and the monster’s vicissitudes , owing to his appearance.
Also, this story an example of man’s wish to overcome, to go endlessly on, to discover more and more.
 

  


Mary Shelley

 


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