college essay on frankenstein

Frankenstein

Mary shelley, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Frankenstein: Introduction

Frankenstein: plot summary, frankenstein: detailed summary & analysis, frankenstein: themes, frankenstein: quotes, frankenstein: characters, frankenstein: symbols, frankenstein: literary devices, frankenstein: quizzes, frankenstein: theme wheel, brief biography of mary shelley.

Historical Context of Frankenstein

Other books related to frankenstein.

• Full Title: Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus
• When Published: 1818
• Literary Period: Switzerland and London, England: 1816–1817
• Genre: Gothic novel
• Setting: Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, and the North Pole in the 18th century
• Climax: The Monster's murder of Elizabeth Lavenza on her wedding night to Victor
• Antagonist: The Monster
• Point of View: Frankenstein is told through a few layers of first person narratives. Walton is the primary narrator, who then recounts Victor's first-person narrative. In addition, Victor's narrative contains the monster's first person story as well as letters from other characters.

Extra Credit for Frankenstein

A ghost story. On a stormy night in June of 1816, Mary Shelley, her husband, and a few other companions, including the Romantic poet Lord Byron, decided to try to write their own ghost stories, but Shelley couldn't come up with any ideas. A few nights later, she had a dream in which she envisioned "the pale student of unhallowed arts" kneeling beside his creation—the monster. She began writing the story that became Frankenstein the next morning.

The Tale of Two Frankensteins. Shelley published the first edition of Frankenstein anonymously, perhaps due to her concern that such a grim and violent tale would not be well received by her audience if they knew her gender. She revised the novel and published it under her real name in 1831. Some key differences exist between the editions, namely that in the first edition, Elizabeth is Alphonse's niece and, therefore, Victor's cousin. (In the 1831 edition, the more popular version and the one used in this Outline, the Frankensteins adopt Elizabeth from another family).

Essays About Frankenstein: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the greatest works of literature; if you are writing essays about Frankenstein, you can start by reading some essay examples. 

When we think of Frankenstein, we often picture a hulking monster. However, “Frankenstein” refers to one of two things: The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, or Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the scientist who created the great beast. The monster is Frankenstein’s monster, not Frankenstein himself.

Dr. Frankenstein defies nature in the novel and creates sentient body-stitched body parts. Unfortunately, his creation turns on him, and the scientist eventually dies. The novel is a good reminder of our very nature as human beings and our place in the world. 

If you want to write a good essay about Frankenstein, read these essay examples and prompts for inspiration. 

1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Critical Essay by Andrew Eliot Binder

2. suspense in frankenstein by sophie tyler, 3. dr. frankenstein’s three big mistakes by charlotte gordon, 4. frankenstein is a tragedy, not a romantic novel by jennifer n. adams, 5. frankenstein & gender roles by frederick hopkins, 1. why can readers empathize with the monster , 2. is franknstein “the modern prometheus”, 3. the true monster of the story, 4. lessons we can learn from frankenstein, 5. does frankenstein deserve its fame, 6. the influence of frankenstein.

“Shelley immediately likens Frankenstein to his own creation through the word “wretched,” and, in doing so, present an irony. Frankenstein deserts his “wretched” creation, who then becomes hungry and harassed by society. But when the roles are reversed, and Frankenstein is described as “wretched,” he is given “soup,” shelter, and protection from being “tormented.”

Binder’s essay compares the characters of Walton and Frankenstein, showing the importance of human relationships. Despite their similar upbringing and personality, Walton craves companionship while Frankenstein isolates himself; the former survives while the latter perishes. Binder believes that Shelley intends to show the importance of being part of society, for we will not survive without it.  

“The message of the novel is that scientists should have self-control in their work to avoid becoming obsessed, otherwise this will lead to their ‘destruction’ as was the case with Frankenstein. In the novel Captain Walton learned from Frankenstein and decided to put an end to his obsession of reaching the north..”

In her essay, Tyler discusses how Shelley creates suspense in Frankenstein through word choice, the symbolism of darkness, pacing, and short sentence structure. Put together, Shelley evokes a dark, foreboding tone, showing the scientist’s terror as the novel progresses and, consequently, the message that scientists must not overstep their bounds and have restraint in their work.

“Artificial intelligence isn’t likely to kill us all—but the more people work on the problem, the more the odds go down. Frankenstein’s creature did not have to be a blight on society. He devolved into a monster of revenge because he was abandoned by his creator.”

Gordon writes about the rise of artificial intelligence and its similarity to Shelley’s Frankenstein . He describes Dr. Frankenstein’s mistakes, unwillingness to share his research with others, neglecting his creation until it was too late to stop it, and poor design due to inadequate resources. A.I. researchers can learn from these mistakes to ensure that their creations do not prove detrimental to others’ lives, as in Frankenstein or society. 

“What Mary Shelley had written, was a tragedy. Both characters, Frankenstein and the monster suffered great tragedies in their life; Frankenstein suffered from the continuous loss of family and friends from his own mistake and the monster suffered a life of solitude and not having known love, kindness, or friendship.”

Adams poses a theory that Frankenstein is a tragic work of literature rather than a romantic novel. Frankenstein and the monster suffer greatly, and conflict is demonstrated against each other and in their heads. Their actions throughout the novel are a result of their tragedies. Adams does an excellent job of conveying her beliefs and presenting evidence to support her claim. 

“Jane Austen once wrote ‘hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be calm waters all our lives’. This helps to sum up the possible mention of the need for the emancipation for women throughout Shelley’s book. We are introduced to varying female roles throughout the book, from Elizabeth to Safie, the ‘gender roles’ have varied in empowering one character while leaving the other to be the representation of the ‘times’.”

Hopkins’s essay discusses how Frankenstein reflects Shelley’s views on gender roles. For example, the character Justine is a “passive, submissive” woman of the time; she meets an unfortunate end. Safie, on the other hand, is more independent and brings joy to everyone when she is present. These examples, among others, reflect Shelley’s desire for society to change its attitude towards women. 

Prompts on Essays about Frankenstein

A significant aspect of the story is the monster’s “humanity.” Readers can identify with his character and relationship with society. It is interesting to discuss why this could be the case. Delve into the question, “how do we relate to the monster?” Write about the different ways the monster appears more human and “worthy of empathy,” so to speak.

Interestingly, Frankenstein is suggested to be a modern version of the Greek god. Look into who Prometheus was in mythology and consider the similarities between him and Dr. Frankenstein. How is he a “modern Prometheus?” Use sources to support your findings, and create a compelling argumentative essay.

On a surface level, Frankenstein’s creation is the “monster” in the novel. However, some argue that the true monster is Frankenstein, for tampering with the creation of organic life. So who is the monster to you? There is abundant evidence to support either character; for an engaging essay, get quotes from the novel and online sources. 

Behind Frankenstein lies a set of truths about humanity and some values and lessons we can learn from. What do the story and characters reveal about our inherent nature, and what lessons can we apply to our own lives? You can write about one or more, but be sure to explain them in detail.

Frankenstein is regarded as one of the most famous works of literature, on par with Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick, and other classics. Should it be considered “one of the greats?” Based on readings and research, decide on your response and defend your position.

Particularly in the world of horror, Frankenstein has had a tremendous impact. Your essay can discuss the novel’s lasting legacy and its effects on pop culture, the science-fiction and horror genres, and literature. In addition, you should include examples of works that exhibit noticeable influence from the novel and its characters. 

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Frankenstein Mary Shelley

Frankenstein essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

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Frankenstein Essays

Dr. jekyll and mr. frankenstein theoderek wayne, frankenstein.

Both Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein tell cautionary tales of scientists abusing their creative powers to exist in another sphere where they cannot be directly blamed for their actions. Though...

Egotism, Personal Glory, and the Pursuit for Immortality Tiffany Guinan

The desire to make history to discover what remains undiscovered, or to know what remains unknown is a timeless human goal. Although many have failed to realize this dream, a very few have been wildly successful in its pursuit. The immortality...

Frankenstein and the Essence Of the Romantic Quest Tadd Hiatt

Victor Frankenstein, like many Romantics, relies upon his unusual capacity for sensitivity and creativity to aid him in his ambitions. In contrast to Robert Walton, who ventures to the North Pole to find "beauty and delight" (Shelley 15) amidst...

Like Father Like Son: Imitation and Creation Alison Anne Kuhns

Genesis states, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him". Humans, therefore, were created as a likeness to God. <I>Frankenstein</i> describes a similar act of creation in that in the novel, too, the...

Frankenstein's Discovery Theoderek Wayne

In Mary Shelley's <I>Frankenstein</I>, the paradoxical quality of the concept of "discovery" echoes that found in Milton's <I>Paradise Lost</I>: initial discovery is joyful and innocent, but ends in misery and corruption....

Nature As Victor Frankenstein's Physician Debbie Daniel

Setting plays a pivotal role throughout Mary Shelley's Frankenstein . Nature is presented as possessing an immense curative power: the beauty of the natural world heals Victor when he is too miserable to find solace anywhere else. The Arve Ravine...

The Tree of Knowledge Sara Granovetter

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that with the advent of science, natural philosophical questioning is not only futile, but dangerous. In attempting to discover the mysteries of life, Frankenstein assumes that he can act as God. He disrupts the...

Prometheus and Frankenstein: Use of the Myth Steve Kendon

In what ways and for what ends does Mary Shelley utilise the myth of Prometheus in her novel, Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a modern day version of the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus created men out of clay and taught...

Parallels With the Ancient Myths Sunny Hwang

Frankenstein might have been written as a horror story, but the ideas and themes prevalent in the novel are ones men have grappled with for ages. From ancient Greek myths to the Bible, the tale Shelley tells is an old one - one rife with the...

Sour Dreams: Dueling Nightmares in Frankenstein Jeremy Zorn

The question of how to interpret dreams within a novel is one of the most contentious in all of literary criticism. The natural tendency may be to analyze them as though they were real dreams, which includes the implicit assumption that authors...

The Gothic as Portrayed Through Taboo Material in Frankenstein Eleanor Bance

The distinctive features of the Gothic may be defined as a series of strategies, partly evasive, partly revelatory for dealing with tabooed material. Discuss with reference to Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, although not placed within the 'gothic'...

Mary Shelley's Confrontation of Life A. Livezey

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein curdles readers' blood not merely with dreary nights and gruesome murders, but through a tale of man's most morbid undertakings. While the monster itself constitutes the most concretely catastrophic effect of...

The Middle Road to Happiness Carla Rowland

Too much exercise destroys strength as much as too little, and in the same way too much or too little food or drink destroys the health, while the proportionate amount increases and preserves it. The same is true of temperance and courage and the...

The Prometheus Myth and Science in Frankenstein Raylee Bonnell

How does the subtitle "The Modern Prometheus" assist Shelley in pointing out the underlying significance of her story?

Mary Shelley's work Frankenstein is a symbolic representation of the doubts and fears she, and her contemporaries, shared...

Influences on Life and Literature John Aitchison

Frankenstein, recognized as one of the most famous literary works of horror ever written, was the direct result of three brilliant authors challenging themselves to create a story that would incite fear and horror in the reader. Mary Shelley and...

The Resposibilities of Creation Anonymous

The idea of voluntary creation, of giving birth to something utterly original from some established foundation, instantly attracts unanswerable inquiries of morality and the nature of novelty and life. However, when invention is attempted on a...

Break On Through To the Other Side Anonymous

After ten weeks of intently studying a wide range of some of literature's greatest authors and their representative works, one is hard pressed to single out only four of these transcendiary pieces from such a distinguished list. However, four of...

Frankenstein's Paradise Gregory Conley

"Paradise has been lost." Frank Henenlotter's 1990 film, a campy retooling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by the name of Frankenhooker (Wolf 344), tells the tale of a mad scientist who, in order to bring his wife back to life, decapitates,...

Mary's Miswriting: A Misreading of Frankenstein Sujoy Ghosh

The issue of the gender of the writer playing a crucial part in her or his writing has been much discussed in contemporary critical debate. Feminist critics argue that the patriarchal ideology of society makes it imperative for male writers to...

Exploring the Sublime: Burke and Frankenstein's Monster Nathan Ragolia

Nate Ragolia

Professor Jones

English 4564

7 December 2003

Exploring the Sublime: Burke and Frankenstein's Monster

Wholly defining the sublime seems to lead to a near endless compilation of puzzle pieces, all of which fill in only a small portion of...

Mirrors between Victor and the Creature Anonymous

Frankenstein revolves around the conflict between two characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature. At first glance, the discordant enemies appear to be nothing alike since they are adversaries from the first time they see each other. Many...

The Modern Prometheus: Reworked Myth in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Michael Wainwright

The Modern Prometheus: Reworked Myth in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

As the subtitle of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein implies, the tragic tale of Victor Frankenstein and his creation takes elements of classical myth and reinterprets them through the...

Desolate Lives Chase Carhartt

"I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation- deep, dark, deathlike solitude" (74). Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was written during a period known as the Romantic Era. The recognized...

Frankenstein Just Won't Go Away Yiran Guo

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a literary masterpiece that for the past two centuries has fascinated the imagination and interest of diverse readers. The word “Frankenstein” refers to the monster because it is universally accepted that the creator...

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Frankenstein Essays

Being initially developed as a “ghost-story”, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” included numerous issues varying from author’s interpretations of the scientific and social theories to the description of general culture of the time. The story of Frankenstein was told by means of letters, and in the...

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Familial relations are often strained in the world of literature, especially between fathers and sons. However, these strains grow when traditional notions of fatherhood are altered or circumvented; so Hamlet has a difficult time dealing with an uncle-turn-father, and Gregor Samsa’s father is...

Essay on romanticism in Frankenstein All literature is influenced by the time period in which it was written; whether it be war, poverty, or any other social trends. People tend to write commentaries of political events, or just describe the time period. Whether it is intentional or subconscious...

One of the most important aspects of any gothic novel is setting. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is an innovative and disturbing work that weaves a tale of passion, misery, dread, and remorse. Shelly reveals the story of a man's thirst for knowledge which leads to a monstrous creation that goes...

In Kenneth Branaghs film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the director, Kenneth Branagh sticks to the major themes of the original book with minute changes. There are many similarities and differences between the book and Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the book. I believe Mary Shelley...

In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the major character, Victor Frankenstein, evolves synonymously with the character of his monster. The evolution of Victor from a man of good to a man of evil leads to his isolation and eventual destruction. Correspondingly, the monster changes from a...

Analysis of the Novel One may come to assume that Mary Shelley intended u to derive for her novel a lesson that would be important to everyone's existence. In her tale, Frankenstein, she depicts a monster that is hideous and wretched looking. A monster's whose appearance prohibits anyone from...

In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the antagonist and protagonist changes throughout the course of the plot. In the earlier part of the novel nature is the protagonist and man is the antagonist, but as the plot progresses nature is forced to protect herself by becoming the antagonist and...

In the Romantic period of literature, nature was often associated with isolation in a positive way. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley, there is a strong symbolic relationship between loneliness and nature. However, Shelley uses the relationship to show the...

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Frankenstein Versus Prometheus What do a god and a crazy doctor have in common? Nothing right! Wrong! In the stories Prometheus and Frankenstein the protagonists are very alike in many ways. They both tried to play god, steal, and they both get punished for what they did. In the stories Prometheus...

In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, families are a very important part of the structure of the novel. Frankenstein's family is critical because the reason why the monster was created lies within the family. Almost every family mentioned in the novel was either incomplete or was dysfunctional...

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<i>I saw a creature, naked, bestial, <br>Who, squatting upon the ground, <br>Held his heart in his hands, <br>And ate of it. <br>I said, "Is it good friend? " <br>"It is bitter-bitter," he answered; <br>"But I like it <br>Because it is bitter...

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<center><b>The Unjust Isolation of Frankenstein's Creation and Other Reasons to Never Become a Model: Societal Prejudices in Shelley's Frankenstein</b></center> <br> <br>A Swiss Proverb once enlightened, "When one shuts one eye, one does not hear everything"...

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One of the main themes in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the importance of appearance and acceptance in modern society. In today's society, and also in the society of Frankenstein, people judge one often solely on their looks. Social prejudice is often based on looks, whether it be the color of...

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Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in a time of wonder. A main wonder was whether you could put life back into the dead. Close to the topic of bringing life back into the dead was whether you could create your own being, like selective breeding but a bit more powerful. <br> <br>Close to...

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<center><b>Examine the way in which characters are portrayed in the novel. </b></center> <br> <br>In the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the characters have been portrayed effectively. Much of the interactions between characters, and characteristics...

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There are obvious similarities between Victor and his creation; each is abandoned, isolated, and both start out with good intentions. However, Victor's ego in his search for god-like capabilities overpowers his humanity. The creature is nothing but benevolent until society shuns him as an outcast...

The term Gothic refers to a genre that came about in the late eighteenth century. It can be a type of story, clothing, or music nowadays. In this paper it will refer to a style of literature. A very good example of this type of literature is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. There is a sense of...

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As society changes around us, we spot things we never noticed before: high divorce rates, murder rates, and drug use just to name a few. James Riddley-Scott and Mary Shelley noticed and had a fear of child abandonment. In Frankenstein, Shelley explores this subject through the viewpoint of a man...

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In 1818, The British Critic, a British literary magazine, assessed Mary Shelley's new novel, Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus. The reviewer wrote: We need scarcely say, that these volumes have neither principle, object, nor moral; the horror which abounds in them is too grotesque and bizarre...

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The man was always interested in everything mystical. Horrible, fantastic texts are mentioned in the early folklore of different countries, but only partially. Perhaps this is due to a small degree of study of the surrounding world. Everything unknown, all the unusual scares the person, but...

Frankenstein, written in a popular 19th-century form of an epistolary novel, explores human attempts to reveal the secrets of life and whether they are prepared to acquire them. The story revolves around Victor Frankenstein, a passionate and dedicated scientist, and his obsession to become God...

? FRANKENSTEIN In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley gives a new meaning to revenge. It is illustrated in such an intense way. Viewed back and forth from Frankenstein’s and the creature’s perspective. Showing them fully consumed in their revenge, by being driven by it, getting their loved ones...

Plentiful Narrators Many authors use multiple voices to highlight the effect of narrative point of view in their novels. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is ultimately a frame story: a secondary story or stories embedded in the main story (dictionary. com). Frankenstein is just one example in which...

?Cannon Few Mr. Bowen English III H 14 October 2013 The Reflection of Humanity in the Eyes of a Degenerate The monster depicted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has many qualities that make it somewhat of a reflection of humanity. Throughout the course of the monster’s life, we, as readers, can...

“A deeper understanding of disruption and identity emerges from considering the parallels between Frankenstein and Blade Runner” Although both texts are over 200 years apart, with both remaining classics, they both timely create parallels that focus on disruption and how this cause of...

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Frankenstein Oh how has Hollywood changed the story and lost the meanings of Frankenstein, for the themes have been missed by many people that have only seen the movies and not have read the book. One such theme Mary Shelly gives the reader is the power of Fate versus Free Will. Victor is found by...

Introduction Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Voltaire’s Candide illustrates the collapse of a philosophy. This philosophy revolves around the inability of human beings to enclose their lives in accordance to a confined and limited doctrine which is superficially persuasive. The...

While at first sight Voltaire’s satirical masterpiece Candide and Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein have little in common, a closer analysis reveals a pattern of correspondences between the two works. The main idea that animates the philosophical satire, Candide, is also found in the mythological...

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Introduction Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Voltaire’s Candide illustrates the collapse of a philosophy. This philosophy revolves around the inability of human beings to enclose their lives in accordance to a confined and limited doctrine which is superficially persuasive. The nature of...

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Essay

A summary of mary shelley’s “frankenstein”.

“Frankenstein” is a science fiction novel written by Mary Shelley. It revolves around a young boy named Victor Frankenstein who had an obsession with death and through this obsession he was able to create life from nothing. After creating life he is however terrified and disgusted of how it looks and he decides to abandon it without giving it a name as its physical appearance is scary and nothing at all as he expected.

He therefore tries to live a normal life and makes an effort to forget his own creation. Due to the abandonment the monster is left perplexed, annoyed and frightened. After his tiring work of creating human life, Victor falls ill and it takes four months for his youth friend to nurse him back to health. The monster then travels to Geneva and meets a little boy called William in the woods, where he hopes that the young boy who is not yet corrupted by the views of older people and the world will accept him as he is.

The monster is however wrong and when the Frankenstein sees it; he hurls invectives infuriating the monster. The monster however tries its best to talk to the boy but falls on deaf ears, the monster then covers the boy mouth to keep him quiet but this ends in the boy suffocating. Frankenstein receives a letter from his father stating that his younger brother is dead and that he was murdered. Despite the fact that this act was not intended, the monster took this as the first act of revenge towards his creator.

He places a necklace the boy was wearing on a sleeping girl, the nanny to the boy. Justine the boys nanny was tried and found guilty fro the murder and executed. When Frankenstein arrives he saw the creature in the woods and knew that the monster had killed his brother and placed his mother’s locket on the sleeping nanny.

Frankenstein, troubled and heavily burdened by anguish and self reproach for creating the monster that caused so much devastation, he flees to the mountains to find peace. After a while alone, the monster approaches Frankenstein, who tries to kill it. But the monster being physically bigger, stronger and more alert than his creator gets away and gives Frankenstein some time to cool off and compose himself.

The monster tells Frankenstein of its encounters with humans and how terrified it was of them. He spend a year observing a family from a cabin he was living in, this gave him more knowledge and self conscience concluding that his physical appearance was very different from the humans he was observing.

On revealing himself however, the humans rejected him and were horror struck by his appearance and reacted ferociously, a reaction that made the monster angrier and he seeks vengeance on his creator.

The monster demanded that Frankenstein create a female companion for him as it had the right to be happy. The monster promises that they will vanish into the wilderness and not bother any more about humans. Frankenstein however does not create a companion for the monster and destroys all the work he was doing.

The monster witnesses Frankenstein destroying his creation and vows to revenge on it. The monster murders Clerval and implicates Frankenstein. Frankenstein is acquitted and he returns home to marry his cousin Elizabeth, who is murdered on their wedding night by the monster as part of the monsters revenge.

Frankenstein father dies after this tragedy as he could not handle the tremendous loss of William, Justine, Clerval, and Elizabeth. Frankenstein vows to go after the monster and destroy it. They chase each other for several months and they end up in the North Pole where Frankenstein dies form illness and the monster mourns for Frankenstein justifying its revenge and expressing remorse. Afterwards, the monster travels further towards the pole to destroy itself so that nobody never finds out of it existence.

Comparing Shelley’s portrayal of the natural sciences in “Frankenstein” to her portrayal of other types of knowledge in that novel

According to Shelley, Frankenstein believed more in science than he did in humanity. His obsession with death from the time he was a young boy made him believe that he could eliminate death through science. This passion led him to pursue chemistry which became almost his sole purpose in life to use chemistry to create life and eliminate death. In the university, Frankenstein attempts to create life from nothing and he surprisingly manages to do so.

The only thing is his creation turns out not differently than he expected, the creature if gigantic and it horrifies him to look at. He sees it as an eyesore, a disgrace and the creature escape into the society leaving it at the mercy of humanity. The point at which the creature escapes brings in the humanity aspect in the novel (55-56).

However, after escaping into the society the creature is met with human hostility and feels rejected. The rejection forces the creature to vow revenge on his creator by killing all his close and loved ones (97). The creature carries out its vengeance on Frankenstein by killing his brother William, his friend Clerval and his wife Elizabeth (116).

The creature also mourns for Frankenstein after his death showing that it has a sensitive human side and then it goes of to kill itself as it terms and takes responsibility for causing the death of its creator. This shows that science and humanity came together in the creation and shaping of the creature. Science was used to bring the creature to life while humanity was used to shape how the creature interacted with people and how it handled its feelings and emotions. (173)

In Shelley’s view, science and humanities are separated by how they are carried out and how one comes into contact with them. Humanities take root when the creature observes a family from the woods learning to speak and also develop emotionally. If the creature had not observed the family then nurturing of the creature may have not taken place.

Science is preserved and maintained in the laboratory to make life from scratch while the humanities come into play as soon as the creature comes to life. Humanities take centre stage when the creature is first of all rejected by its creator and all other people follow suit.

This makes the creature feel as if he is not good enough and that it is its destiny to be alone without any companionship for eternity. This humanity in the creature forces it to go back to his creator to demand that he creates a companion but this turns out badly as Frankenstein does not go through with it (114). Humanity in this novel is also seen when Frankenstein experiences death of his loved ones that eventually pushed him to the scientific notion of creating life.

Frankenstein’s mother’s death and his father’s professor rebuking him fro reading trash which was in essence lightning that had destroyed a tree, pushed him to learn more about science becoming obsessed with it. If these events had not taken place maybe the creation of the creature would not have taken place leaving a very different story in its place.

In reference to Shelley, sciences have an effect on the people who study them. This is simply because the book shows us how one person’s irresponsibility and ambition can harm other people who are not directly involved on eh science project. Science made Victor Frankenstein create a monster and on realizing that the creature did not turn out to be how he expected, he abandoned and rejected it (73).

This rejection made the creature go on a rampage and kill innocent people related to the creator. The innocent people did not have to die but they lost their lives because of one Victor Frankenstein’s obsession and ambition to create life. Life is scared and surely to attempt to create it from dead body parts of other human beings is most likely than not expected to bring havoc and misery on unsuspecting individuals.

The main point in this book is every person should take responsibility of their actions and not expect other people to pay for their shortcomings. Science is something that every person who practices it should be aware that there is a probability of an experiment going wrong and therefore amply and adequately prepare for the outcomes of the experiment whether good or bad.

Humanities on the other hand are portrayed as how one builds his own personal character among the people around him and the people he encounters. In this novel, humanity is depicted in the loss of loved ones that makes Victor Frankenstein to be obsessed with death and try to find a cure for it.

Humanity is also seen whereby Frankenstein is anguished by the death of his brother, friend, Justine and Elizabeth that he vows to kill or be killed by the monster (Shelley 86). This shows that however much Victor was obsessed with science he also had strong feelings for the people around him and it tore him apart when the creature he created killed them.

Humanity in the creature is shown when he feels dejected by his creator and very other human who sets eyes on him and when he observes a family from a distance learns how to speak and develops emotionally.

The fact that everyone showed a hostile human side to the creature made the creature vulnerable and it went on a rampage killing innocent people (Shelley 208). In this novel the creature displays humanity when he demands for a companion to be created so as he can have someone to share his life with and also when he mourns over the death of his creator and implicates himself as the cause of the death of his creator.

In her novel Shelley portrays the knowledge of humanity more as compared to the knowledge of science. This is seen when she portrays that young Victor Frankenstein got an interest in science after experiencing the trauma of losing his mother. This loss made Frankenstein obsessed with death and he tried to find a cure for death.

Through his quest and ambition to cure death he created the Frankenstein monster from dead decomposing body parts of other human beings that were sewn together and brought to life with the help of science (Shelley 73). Humanities is shown as more valuable and ethical as it forms the basis of how one will be portrayed by the society and how one will react to different things and people in society.

Humanity is portrayed as better than science in this novel as it shows different relationships between different people and how actions of one person adversely affect other people. For example, the decision by Victor Frankenstein to create life from dead body parts that brought for the creature termed as a monster brings serious effects and consequences to his family members not to mention the monster itself.

Humanity allowed the creature to develop emotionally and learn how to speak trough observation and experience kindness from a blind man and while saving a young girl form drowning, however in both instances the creature was reprimanded and driven off as people were not welcoming enough. Science only creates that creature but it is humanity that the creature has to deal with and understand why humans are so hostile towards him.

Similarities between science and humanities in this novel are brought out in that both concepts are interdependent and both of these concepts aim to bring improvements to the society as a whole and reduce human misery. The fact that humanity pushed Frankenstein to look for scientific ways to eliminate death from the society after his other loved ones died shows that these two concepts are correlated and work hand in hand with each other to make the society a better place to live in.

The differences on the other hand are that ethics or the pillars of humanities while blind innovation and creativity is the pillar of science. This is to say that scientists do not take into consideration the effects and consequences of their experiments that at times may have a negative effect in humanity.

This is seen when Frankenstein’s ambition makes him create a monster that is much bigger than the human race that caused havoc and misery among human kind. Humanity is seen when Frankenstein is haunted by his conscience after the monster goes on a rampage killing his loved ones. This shows that humanity has consequences and that people should take intro consideration the feelings of other people before they make decisions.

In conclusion, “Frankenstein” tells of a young boy named Frankenstein who attempted to create life, though he succeeded the experiment turned out to be scary and wrecked havoc.

The novel shows as much as science is innovative and interrelated with humanity, ethical issues should also be taken into consideration for most so that innocent people do not suffer. One man’s decision caused the death of three individuals this is not justified. If Victor Frankenstein had thought of the ethical issues of his creation a lot of suffering, misery and death would have been avoided.

Works Cited

Shelley, Marry. Frankenstein . New York: Norton, 1996. Print.

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The Analysis of Frankenstein

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Published: Apr 29, 2022

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Frankenstein Essay

The Frankenstein story is about a scientist of the same name that somehow creates life by reanimating the dead parts of other humans. He doesn’t create life in the strictest biological sense, but he does create a new creature that he is able to imbue with life. The Frankenstein story has numerous meanings, points and lessons. In my essay, I look to expose some of those meanings and lessons. When you consider the fact that the book was written by somebody that was (in essence) bored at the time.

There is touch of the Christian religion in the story. Jesus was reanimated from the dead, and reanimation happens in the story. One of the fundamental elements of the reanimation is lightening, which is commonly associated with god and god’s power. God is also mentioned in the book, and in a sense, one could say that Frankenstein is playing god’s role, though the comparison is flimsy since a woman is better able to play god and create life than a male scientist is.

The message around differences is a little unclear. It doesn’t say in definite terms that we should celebrate differences, and yet the reader is placed in a position where he or she feels empathy for the monster. Should we therefore shun or embrace children that are born deformed because they are different? Should we too feel sorry for them? The story poses a few ethical and moral questions that it leaves unanswered.

A monster is not born a monster. Even though Frankenstein’s monstrous creation looks like a “monster” in technical terms, it is not created evil. It starts to act badly because of the way it is treated. It is treated like a monster by Frankenstein and so it becomes one. This is a very powerful message because it is also the basis of many peoples’ values. Many believe that a child may be raised to be good or be bad and that no child is born with either good tendencies or bad tendencies.

Dr Frankenstein is unable to give birth like a woman, and yet much of what happens in the story seems to reflect what happens to a woman when she has post-natal depression. Rejection is a big part of this story and Frankenstein appears to be the bad guy because of it, but what if he was suffering with some skewed form of post-natal depression. We do not blame the mothers for their emotional disconnect with their child when they have post-natal depression, so why do so many readers blame Frankenstein for his emotional disconnect and eventual rejection?

Many feminist theories have been thrown at the story of Frankenstein, but one of the more subtle is the idea that people want what they cannot have. In simple terms, Frankenstein wanted to create life because he knew that as a man he could never create life as a woman could. When he eventually creates life, he has what he wants, and ergo doesn’t want it anymore. He doesn’t want it anymore because the only reason he wanted it was because he couldn’t have it. A feminist may say that men envy their ability to give life, but that if men could do it, they would shun and/or dislike it.

Another hidden message was seemingly echoed by Foreign Secretary George Canning just ten years after the abolition of slavery. He said that if slaves were emancipated too quickly that they would rise up and cause havoc the same way Frankenstein’s monster did. The story may not have been written with slaves in mind, but the story itself does suggest that if enslaved/mastered people are given power too quickly that they may use that power to cause chaos.

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Michael C. Jensen, 84, Who Helped Reshape Modern Capitalism, Dies

He heralded stock options and golden parachutes as a professor at Harvard Business School, influencing a generation of Wall Street executives.

By Michael S. Rosenwald

Michael C. Jensen, an economist and Harvard Business School professor whose evangelizing for stock options, golden parachutes and leveraged buyouts helped reshape modern capitalism and empower Wall Street’s greed-is-good era, died on April 2 at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 84.

The death was confirmed by his daughter Natalie Jensen-Noll. She did not specify a cause.

Even before he embarked on a peculiar late-career intellectual partnership with Werner Erhard, the controversial self-help guru who created est, Professor Jensen’s colleagues considered him among the most freethinking and divisive economists of his generation.

“Mike was a kind of born proselytizer,” Eugene F. Fama, a University of Chicago professor and Nobel laureate in economics who collaborated with Professor Jensen, said in an interview. “He was very sure of himself in terms of his ideas being correct and, you know, pathbreaking.”

They were also incendiary.

In his book “ The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite ” (2017), the journalist Duff McDonald called Professor Jensen an “instrument of intellectual violence” who “created a Frankenstein that no one knows how to kill.”

Professor Jensen began his academic career in the late 1960s, when a seismic shift in economic theory was underway. For decades, students studying management — especially at Harvard Business School — were taught that executives (and their companies) should have a social conscience.

Then, in 1970, the economist and free-market theorist Milton Friedman published his groundbreaking essay “A Friedman Doctrine — The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” in The New York Times Magazine.

A business that “takes seriously its responsibilities for providing employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution,” Mr. Friedman wrote, is “preaching pure and unadulterated socialism.”

Professor Jensen, a free-market adherent himself, endorsed Mr. Friedman’s essay. But he detected a hole in the argument, which he explored in a seminal paper, “ Theory of Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure ,” written in 1976 with William H. Meckling while they were both professors at the University of Rochester.

The paper explored the misalignment of interests between managers and the companies’ owners, the stockholders, which they said made it impossible for firms to exist solely for increasing profits.

A chief executive, for example, might value hiring a chauffeur for an easier commute over reducing costs that eat into profits, or hire more employees for the status boost of running a bigger company, or reinvest profits into short-term, sure-thing projects rather than taking on riskier long-term ideas.

“This was the beginning of breaking open the black box of the firm,” Professor Jensen said in an interview published in the Journal of Applied Finance. “Obviously, firms don’t act, only individuals act, but firms have behavior, and this behavior is based on the system as a whole.”

To align the interests of both parties, Professor Jensen encouraged the use of stock options and equity as primary forms of compensation. He endorsed taking on debt to buy other companies because loan payments and reduced free cash flow would force executives to better manage costs. And he blessed golden parachutes — the large payments executives receive if they are forced to leave after a merger or the outright sale of a company.

“Think about the problem in the following way: Top-level managers and the board of directors act as stockholders’ agents in deals involving hundreds of millions of dollars,” he wrote in Harvard Business Review. “If the alternative providing the highest value to stockholders is sale to another company and the retirement of the current management team, stockholders do not want the managers to block a bid in fear of losing their own jobs.”

Executives walk away with their pockets comfortably lined with cash, the theory goes, but so do investors.

“He was clearly some kind of genius,” said Nicholas Lemann, the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, who interviewed Professor Jensen for his book “ Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream ” (2019). “I think he’s much more important in shaping the America we live in now than most people recognize.”

That shaping largely transpired at Harvard Business School, which Professor Jensen joined in 1985, at the height of President Ronald Reagan’s pro-business economic policies. Two years later, in Oliver Stone’s movie “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas portrayed a fictional corporate raider, Gordon Gekko, who declared: “ Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”

Professor Jensen taught his theories in a class he called “Coordination, Control and the Management of Organizations,” one of the most popular electives at the business school.

“Have no doubt about it, the most powerful man at HBS in the early 1990s was Michael Jensen,” Mr. McDonald wrote. “He was much more engaged with students, those students were all going to Wall Street, and Wall Street firms were all sending money back to HBS.”

Michael Cole Jensen was born on Nov. 30, 1939, in Rochester, Minn. His father, Harold, was a linotype operator at a newspaper and drove a taxi. His mother, Gertrude (Cole) Jensen, managed the home. The Jensens struggled financially; Michael’s father drank and gambled heavily.

“The idea that there might be some other way of life for anybody in the family seemed fanciful,” Mr. Lemann wrote. “Mike Jensen assumed that he would be a linotype operator, too.”

A teacher at the vocational high school Michael attended recommended him to a recruiter at Macalester College in St. Paul. He had no plans to attend college, but he asked the recruiter if the school had classes on the stock market.

“Yes, we do, the recruiter said,” Mr. Lemann wrote. “It’s called economics.”

He enrolled. After graduating in 1962, he paid his way through graduate school at the University of Chicago — the intellectual home of Mr. Freidman and other free-market theorists — by working the night shift in the press room of The Chicago Tribune. He earned an M.B.A. in finance and a doctorate in economics in 1968, then moved to New York State to join the University of Rochester.

His marriages to Dolores Dvorak and Toni Wolcott ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter Natalie, he is survived by another daughter, Stephanie Jensen; a sister, Gayle Marie Jensen; and four grandchildren. He had homes in both Sharon, Vt., and Sarasota.

Later in life, after Wall Street had been besieged by corporate stock option scandals and politicians derided excessive compensation packages, Professor Jensen acknowledged that his ideas had spiraled out of control.

He told The New Yorker in 2002 that basing compensation so heavily on options incentivized executives to lie about financial results. Stock options had become “managerial heroin,” he said; what the business world lacked was integrity.

Around 2012, with Mr. Erhard, he founded the Erhard-Jensen Ontological/Phenomenological Initiative . They offered weeklong seminars on leadership, which they taught in far-flung places, typically near beaches. The cost: $3,000 per person. Mr. Lemann attended one in Bermuda.

“I was involved in reorganizing the financial industry,” Professor Jensen said onstage, according to Mr. Lemann’s book. But by then, he said, the world of finance was “staggeringly bad,” adding “I’m sickened by it.”

Embracing integrity was, for Professor Jensen, a profound experience.

“The most wonderful things happen if you have integrity,” he said onstage. “I was incomplete as a human being. Was I successful? Sure I was successful. But I was incomplete.”

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the date of Professor Jensen’s death. He died on April 2, not April 4. It also misstated the name of a class he taught at Harvard Business School. It was “Coordination, Control and the Management of Organizations,” not “The Coordination and Control of Markets and Organizations.”

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