Free Essay On Frankenstein And Hard Times - Wow Essays

During the 19th century, many changes have occurred in the political, social, and the scientific world. For instance, imperialism and industrial revolution has led to modern methods to change Britain’s industry (Burgan 12). In the literal world, Romanticism and Victorianism have emerged during this period. Romanticism compares reality with imaginative issues and humanity with nature issues. This paper will examine two books by different authors. The first book is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the second book is Hard Times by Charles Dickens. This paper will critical analyze the characters portrayed in two different periods.
Frankenstein is a novel written during the Literal period in the eighteenth century (Burgan 12). The theme of this book depicts a comparison between human and nature. Mary Shelley highlights the theme of scientific innovation in lieu with nature. Hard Times is a novel written during the Victorian period in the middle nineteenth century. This book captures the theme of industrial revolution and changes in the political circles. Charles Dickens focuses on the effect of the industrial revolution to the people of Britain. Shelly and Dickens challenge scientific developments and other inventions that take place in the 19th century (Shelly 4).
In the novel, Shelly (5) says that Victor witnesses the most violent thunderstorm. As Victor stands at the door, his witnesses fire consuming an old beautiful oak tree and immediately light vanishes and only a blasted stump remains. Shelly uses this passage of victor to elaborate the theme of comparison between nature and humans. The passage explains the author’s comparison of nature and science. In essence, science occurring from electricity consumers nature’s beauty, an oak tree. Shelly uses this comparison to analyze and criticize dangerous implication of scientific inventions and the practical results. Shelly studies scientific methods while declining to involve the reader in such creations.
According to Burgan (13), Shelly has an isolated vision of scientific discoveries that are real to predict some of the accomplishments of this method. Shelly uses Victor to elaborate the comparison between scientific methods and humanity. Shelly (5) says that Victor has an obsession towards nature and this makes him ignore social interactions with friends that he longs to visit. In this passage, Shelly attempts to compare good and bad science. The good science has detailed descriptions to depict the workings of nature while the bad science has hubristic manipulation to humans. Shelly (6) observes that Victor uses electricity force in the monster creation. It is clear that Shelly understands the scientific method, but she does not like what she sees. It leads her in making the monster creation uncontrollable. Burgan (13) find Prometheus, the Greek myth in the modern Frankenstein. Prometheus myth has a mud and water creation to compare with religious beliefs of creation of humanity. This story compares with the Greek myth of creation where Prometheus steals fire from the gods to give to his creation. Frankenstein creates a human and rather than using fire, he uses electricity in the creation. Victor succeeds as the modern Prometheus who likes in the Greek mythology steals fire to create own human. Shelly (7) says that Victor experiences anxiety and agony as he collects life instruments to infuse a spark into a lifeless being. Shelly (7) argues that Victor is the modern day Prometheus due to the resemblance with the Greek mythology creation story. According to the claim of Burgan (14), Victor transgresses nature when he uses electricity to spark the lifeless monster. Shelly uses unnatural objects to produce natural life. Hell breaks loose when a man attempts to have a child using unnatural methods. In the passage, Shelly (8) claims that Victor creates the monster and dislikes Elizabeth whom she associates with death and appears in his imagination as her mother’s corpse. It is an indication of Shelly concerning Victor’s creation. This scene depicts killing the scientific role of a woman in the creation process. Shelly (8) argues that Frankenstein goes against nature’s way of creation. In a religious context, Shelly goes against God’s role in the creation story. It is evident when Shelly mocks the mechanism that God adopts to create humans in the world. Frankenstein uses science versus nature in the story of creation since he fights the natural way of creation. Victor experiences monstrous imaginations at the mention of the moral presence of human life.
Burgan (15) observes that while the sky is serene, Victor sees lightning illuminate the spot of William‘s murder. As the light illuminates objects, he can see wretch the demon that he had given life. The monster invokes an analogy between Adam, Satan, and God. A reader can often perceive the role of Frankenstein as God. Shelly elaborates a connection between Victor and God. The Monster portrays Adam while, in the end, the monster succeeds in destroying Frankenstein. Shelly cites that no one can play God with success.
Shelly (10) argues that the dual relationship between humans and God relates with the relationship between science and humans. It helps people observe their own destruction due to worshiping science. Shelly succeeds by giving two sides of the story that gives the reader a glimpse of the relationship between humans and nature, Dickens in Hard Times attacks industrial revolution due to mistreatment of the factory workers. The author in this book is outraged against the use of utilitarian system present in England at time. Compared to Frankenstein Hard Times witnesses the destruction of nature due to exploitation of natural resources used for industrialization. The author notes this book as a parody of the society in England during the nineteenth century. This novel displays an attitude of hatred and distrust towards the English factory workers at the day.
According to Dickens (3), Coke Town is a busy place with many machineries to depict heavy industrial environment. Factories emit smoke and disrupt the natural environment. Impurities from the factories find their way to the river. The fictitious Coke Town in Hard Times depicts the drudgery life perpetrated by the English factory workers.
Dickens does not have any spark of vitalizing genius in Stephen Black pool, unlike Shelly’s Wretch. Hard Times succeeds by thwarting those that desire the working class. Shelly creation of a monster has beautiful ironic limbs. Stephen and Rachael depict the Victorian middle-class in the industry in their chastity, self-denial, and honesty virtues (Dickens 3). Shelly’s Frankenstein uses an unattractive child that is entertaining while Dickens uses a beautiful industrial worker that bores. The silhouetted vivid environment depicts the lifelessness of textile workers in Coke town. The factory town of Coke serves as a demonstration of realism in Dickens Hard Times (Dickens 3). Black pool has a contrast to other earlier characters. Stephen leads a drudgery life of poverty as he attempts to observe virtues such as integrity and compassion. Stephen finds himself in a labor dispute to illustrate the rich and poor people. Dickens and Phillip (15) argue that the industrialization threatens employer and employee relationship to create a social muddle that does not have a solution (Dickens 3). Dickens, unlike Shelly, argues that the adoption of industrialization turns humans to machines and thwarts the development of people’s imaginations. Bounderby exploits workers in his factory since he treats them as emotionless objects. The narrator in the Hard Times depicts humans’ life of drudgery that leads people to become like mechanics. Mr. Gradgrind has mechanizing effects coupled with a philosophy of self-interest. Mr. Gradgrind uses rational rules to measure human nature. School turns children into machine elements due to the use of rational rules. This novel aims to establish the danger of permitting humans to work like machines. Dickens and Phillip (16) argue that life becomes unbearable when people work emotionless. The philosophical life described in the methods of rearing children creates drudgery in the life of Louisa who experiences suffering in her marriage. Louisa has an inner fire to go against her father’s prohibition amidst mechanized existence.Works Cited
Burgan, Michael, Dennis Calero, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Frankenstein. Minneapolis: Stone Arch Books, 2008. Print.
Dickens, Charles, and Philip M. Parker. Hard times. Webster's Japanese thesaurus ed. San Diego, CA: ICON Classics, 2008. Print.
Dickens, Charles. Hard times. New York: Knopf :, 2009. Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus. Waiheke Island: Floating Press, 2008. Print.