Literary Criticism Frankenstein PDF

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Response to a literary criticism on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley...

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Hannah Shill Period 1 “Wading Through Slaughter: John Hampden, Thomas Gray, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” Iain Crawford, Studies in the Novel

Iain Crawford argues that the allusions to Hampden and Gray in Frankenstein “ ...form[s] an ironic commentary upon Victor's anti-patriarchal revolt…” “Though Hampden was seen by progressive writers as an opponent of political repression and a martyr who died in the cause of liberty, his life and career were also open to interpretation as an exemplar of the ambivalences of revolutionary action”. I never gave the allusion to Hampden a single thought while I was reading Frankenstein . I had no idea who he was. After reading about him in the article, it makes sense that he was alluded in there. Victor attempted something that could be considered “revolutionary action” when he did something no human ever had done before: creating artificial life. “If in Victor's eyes Hampden is a glorious rebel and martyr, a prototype of his own struggle against patriarchal authority, both historical precedent and the text itself remind us of the penalty often exacted for such rebellions”. I’ve viewed this novel as a lesson that teaches that rebellion can be destructive. This quotation just makes me support that perspective of mine even more. But there is quite a difference between Victor and Hampden. Hampden was involved with a civil cause, whereas Victor was basically rebelling for his own benefit, and should not be viewed as a “martyr” just like Hampden was.

“[Victor] also regards himself as a latter-day Hampden…” I’ve always thought Victor was pretty selfish and full of himself. He seems to think highly of himself. Why else would he compare himself to Hampden? He thinks he’s doing this incredible thing that will make him go down in history. “‘If no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed’” “Clearly, if had Victor taken his own advice -- and that of the Elegy  -Elizabeth, Henry, and his other victims would have been spared the consequences of both his virtues and, more importantly, his vices, since rural immolation could have saved them just as it spared Gray's humble villagers…” I view Victor as a hypocrite. And he is. He disapproved of people doing things that could disrupt tranquility, and yet he does the exact same thing with creating the monster and because of the creation, all of his loved ones die....