Description
Frankenstein Essay
Your essay should be 4 pages long and formatted according to MLA guidelines.
Instructions and Essay Topics
Begin by developing a good outline before writing
Formulate a working thesis that responds directly and clearly to the topic of your choice.
Decide which main points (in body paragraphs) will best support your thesis.
Select evidence from the text(s) of your choice in support of your main points.
Write your opening paragraph that introduces the title of the novel and the author. Make sure that your thesis is clear and that your main points are included in your introduction.
Write the rest of your essay and revise at least twice before submitting.
Apply MLA guidelines to your in-text citations
Construct a Works Cited page in MLA style
Edit carefully to correct any grammar or spelling errors. I will reduce your grade if your essay has too many grammar, sentence structure and/or spelling errors.
Use the topic below. Remember that you will have to focus the topic into your own, precise thesis. After your introductory paragraph, each body paragraph should focus on one major point in support of your thesis, and then analyze that point by offering evidence only from the text of Frankenstein –quotes and/or paraphrased evidence. Always aim for clarity and precision. Avoid over-generalized or generic statements, “universal truths” and plot summary. We all know the events in the novel. I am interested in your opinion, interpretation, and your ability to analyze Frankenstein, supported by the specific evidence that you consider important.
The essay should be formatted as follows:
(4 pages long)
Introduction with thesis at the end of the introduction
Body paragraph one about first reason in thesis (Include 2 quotes from the book “Frankenstein” and be sure to site the page number next to it.)
Body paragraph two about second reason in thesis (Include 2 quotes from the book “Frankenstein” and be sure to site the page number next to it.)
Body paragraph three about third reason in thesis (Include 2 quotes from the book “Frankenstein” and be sure to site the page number next to it.)
Conclusion paragraph (Do not use the words “in conclusion”)
This is the question the essay should answer:
Why does Victor abandon the Creature? Does he feel responsible for the consequences of his achievement?
I also included a sample essay. It does not need to be as long but it should be formatted very similarly.
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Silberberg 1
Mitchell Silberberg
Professor Engelmann
English 2
25 April 2018
Blindness in Great Vision: A Study of Frankenstein
A sea captain battles a mighty gale for control of his ship. Icebergs encroach, bringing
subzero temperatures. The smell of a storm fills the noses of the crew. Fishermen and explorers
at sea battle not only the elements but also their internal selves. Their morals and attitudes shape
their reality and a crew must be able to work together in order to survive. The same situation
occurs in civilized society. Individuals’ intentions and actions affect the greater whole; so, they
must correct or temper themselves. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the overly ambitious
explorer Robert Walton risks his and his crew’s lives in the name of polar discovery. He pushes
on despite their being surrounded by dangerous icebergs since his true goal is dearer to him than
life itself – glory. Besides for Walton’s voyage, another extreme enterprise takes place. Victor
Frankenstein, a genius scientist, ambitiously endeavors and succeeds in creating new life.
Foolishly though, he does not create any fail safes to prevent his creature from wreaking havoc.
The creature despises his creator and murders Victor’s loved ones. Walton’s and Victor’s
intentions for extreme enterprise, blind ambition, and pursuit of power and fame are
manifestations of their excessive pride. In looking at Frankenstein, one must examine these
manifestations in Walton’s polar expedition and Victor’s secluded experimentation to find that
elitist worldviews and social structures corrupt the lives of everyone touched by them.
Walton’s blind ambition and desire for glory negatively affect his life and the lives of his
crew and sister. Before beginning his journey, he tells his sister Margaret that he hopes to, “tread
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a land never before imprinted by the foot of man” (Shelley 7). Countless numbers of people
share this innocent goal with Walton, but he naively believes that, “sailing over a calm sea, we
may be wafted to a land surpassing wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on
the habitable globe” (7). His hopes for discovery are beautiful, yet he has not prepared enough to
follow through. For instance, the ocean had by this time, the 19th century, been known as a
dangerous and life-threatening place. Previous explorers of the Arctic told the world of the
dangers lie there. Walton and his crew experience this danger when they are, “still surrounded by
mountains of ice, still in imminent danger of being crushed in their conflict. The cold is
excessive, and many of my unfortunate comrades have already found a grave amidst this scene
of desolation” (154). Walton’s blind ambition for his enterprise and pursuit of fame lead to the
deaths of his fellow crewmates. This is one of the horrible outcomes blind ambition can have.
The archetype of the forest or the desert relate to this. If one walks unprepared into a chaotic
unknown, then one should expect anything and everything to happen to them.
In the meantime, Walton’s blind ambition can act unbridled since he carries elitism
within himself. In one letter, he repeatedly tells his sister about his need for a friend. He claims,
“I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a
capacious min, whose tastes are like my own,” (10). It is natural for a person to desire
companionship; in fact, friends are usually similar in most regards. Here, Walton’s claim is
faultless. Soon after though, he praises his lieutenant, “a man of wonderful courage and
enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory. He is an Englishman, . . . a person of an excellent
disposition,” (11). Walton reveals his true self in this complement by contradicting his previous
claim that he desires a friend. Even in his own eyes, the lieutenant is a man of good quality and
should be worthy of Walton’s friendship. Walton sees himself as a self-taught man and better
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than his fellow crewmen since, “I was passionately fond of reading . . . I often worked harder
than the common sailors during the day, and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the
theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science” (8). Here, the reader sees Walton is
an elitist since he sees the other sailors as lesser than him. This elitism allowed for his ambition
to go unchecked and lead to the death of his crewmates. Elitism also lead to his failure in the end
when he proclaims, “I have consented to return, if we are not destroyed. Thus are my hopes
lasted by cowardice and indecision. I come back ignorant and disappointed” (155). Walton’s
hierarchy worldview did not allow him to lead a safe mission. His elitism harmed one other
person too, his sister Margaret. One of his first statements in the letters is, “an enterprise which
you have regarded with such evil forebodings” (7). He patriarchally ignores that she must wait
painfully for him while he lives dangerously. In the end, Walton’s foul intentions ruin his
mission and negatively impact his crew and sister.
Victor’s blind ambition and power hunger tinge his experimentation, wrecking his life
and the lives of Elizabeth and the creature. Long before his life-giving experiments, Victor lives
a privileged life in Geneva since his, “ancestors had been for many years counsellors and
syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation” (18). He
is the descendent of politicians who, back then, lived a far better life than commoners. He lives
proudly as their descendent. This was the start of Victor’s elitism. He spends years in school
studying multiple subjects, but his study of alchemy “appeared to me treasure known to few
beside myself;” (22). He thinks of himself as special, unique among the masses for studying
alchemy. Once he gets older, he enters university and later, “made some discoveries in the
improvement of some chemical instruments, which procured me great esteem and admiration at
the university. . . . my residence there being no long conducive to my improvements” (31). He
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was an advanced and successful student, yet he takes too much pride from it. Victor decides that
the university is beneath him and that he should leave. His pride quickly grows into hubris when
he begins thinking of himself as a god. Before he creates the creature, he says, “death appeared
to me ideal [imaginary] bounds, which I should first break through . . . A new species would
bless me as its creator and source;” (33). His god complex empowers his elitism, which in turn
empowers his power hunger and blind ambition. A god should be allowed to do whatever he/she
wants without any consequences. No god, Victor does not see the dangerous potential of his
experiment and gets affected by his experiment and its product, the creature. For instance,
Victor’s “cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with
confinement” (33). Not only is his physical health depleted, but also his mental and spiritual
health. Victor calls his experiment “the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my
nature,” (34) because he completely devotes himself to the enterprise. He loses his old self and
loves in the process of creating the creature. For example, Victor no longer “watch[es] the
blossom or the expanding leaves – sights which before always yielded supreme delight,” (35).
Meanwhile, Victor thinks himself an elite who can ignore the pain of others. He
dishonors the dead and hurts living creatures when he “dabbled among the unhallowed daps of
the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?” (33). Not long after these
atrocities, Victor succeeds in completing his creation; but, “the beauty of the dream vanished.
And breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure . . . I rushed out of the
room,” (36). At the moment of his greatest success, Victor experiences at the same time his
greatest failure. His supposedly perfect creation is foul to him, causing him to abandon it. The
creature suffers from this parental abandonment. It wants to know Victor. It fails in befriending
Victor and takes revenge. Victor’s blind ambition and pursuit for glory allow for the creature to
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murder Elizabeth. Victor knows that the creature approaches him and Elizabeth yet leaves her
unprotected. He goes by himself to wait for and kill the creature; but, he then hears “a shrill and
dreadful scream . . . She was there, lifeless and inanimate,” (140). His second blind ambition of
putting down the creature fails when he leaves Elizabeth vulnerable. She is soon murdered by the
creature. Grief stricken, Victor goes to hunt down the creature in the Arctic and meets Walton
there. Victor, weak and decrepit, dies in Walton’s care. Soon after, the creature arrives and
proclaims, “Polluted by crimes, and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in
death?” (161). Besides for harming himself, Victor’s experiment ends up harming everyone
touched by him. The elitism born out of his blind ambition and prideful power hunger directly
caused his demise.
The tragic failures of Walton’s polar exploration and Victor’s life-giving experimentation
shatter their lives. Each is left without a satisfying victory. The icebergs force Walton to return to
England. The birth of the creature destroys Victor’s health, kills Elizabeth, and pains the
creature. The hierarchal worldview Walton and Victor share, elitism, is the source of their
problems. Elitism gives way to dangerous enterprises, patriarchy, and eurocentrism. It also
allows for individuals to act in ways which imbalances the natural order in life. The excess pride
and ambition both men had brought them to their respective downfalls. If they had treated others
as their equals, then they and those they affected might have lived a more peaceful life.
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Works Cited:
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York City, Norton, 1996.
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