Hey guys, I'm Lisa, welcome back to Lisa's Study Guides. Today, we're going to be talking
about Frankenstein and breaking down an essay topic for it. So in the past, I've done plenty
of videos looking at different types of essay topics and breaking them down by looking at
keywords and then going into the body paragraphs and looking at those ideas. This time round,
the takeaway message that I want you to leave with is understanding what types of evidence
you should be using inside your body paragraphs. Specifically, I wanted to talk about literary
devices or metalanguage. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein uses so many literary
devices that it's impossible to ignore. If you are somebody who is studying this text
or other texts that you use and are heavily embedded with literary techniques, then it's
really important that you don't just use dialogue as part of your quotes, but actually reading
between the lines. I'll teach you on how it's not just about finding dialogue, which you
include as quotes inside your body paragraphs, but reading between the lines, so looking
at literary devices like metaphors, symbols, imagery, so let's get started.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein constitutes escaping critique of the prioritization of scientific
advancement over human welfare and relationships. Dr. Frankenstein is fascinated with science
and discovery, he is consumed with the idea of a new and more noble race by stitching
up dead body parts from a cemetery. He feverishly works away at his experiment until one day
the creature is born. Frankenstein is horrified at the living thing he has made and completely
rejects the creature, leaving it without a parental figure. The creature is left alone
to look after himself. He educates himself and on repeated occasions tries to approach
people in society, however, is rejected every time because of his monstrous appearance.
As a result, the creature becomes enraged at humanity and Frankenstein's unfair treatment
towards him and consequently exacts revenge on Frankenstein and his family.
The essay topic we'll be looking at today is, Our sympathies in this novel ultimately
lie with the creature. Discuss. So in previous videos, we've looked at keywords, how to identify
them and how to define them. Since it's pretty straightforward for this essay topic, I thought
I would skip that part and then go into the more nitty gritty with the body paragraphs.
But, if you are unfamiliar with these steps, then I'll link them in the card above and
also in the description below so you can have a look at how I went ahead and did the keyword
section in my planning, now back to the prompt. Unequivocally within Frankenstein, Shelley
portrays sympathy as spread throughout the text through depicting the creature as innately
human through his desire for relationship and the challenges he faces at the hands of
the prejudice enlightenment society he's born into, Shelley elicits sympathy for his situation.
However, through the notable absence of the female gender throughout the text, Shelley
portrays those silent within society as most deserving of sympathy.
So, with this in mind, here are the potential paragraphs in response to this prompt. Paragraph
one, Shelley's depiction of the creature as innately human motivates support for his challenges
at the hands of a prejudice society. The action of the creature to open his dull yellow eye,
symbolic of his nature as a human being alongside a green wrinkled on his cheeks, with one hand
stretched out, indicates his simple desire for paternal connection. Through constructing
the creature's actions as innately human Shelley acts proleptically of the inequitable experiences
the creature will experience throughout the structural architecture of the text. And through
doing so, depicts his character as worthy of support.
Similarly, through the metaphor of fire, Shelley explores the duality of progress and innovation
of which the creature desires. The fire, one that gives light as well as heat, yet also
causes a cry of pain, indicates the hardships of the creature in his isolation, whereby,
he's forced to withdraw from his desire for education. Upon viewing himself in a pool,
the creature becomes "fully convinced that I was in reality [a] monster" with the consequent
sensations of despondency and mortification granting the reader the opportunity to sympathize
with the creature in order to indicate the intensely negative social prejudices that
are inflicted upon the creature.
So you can see that we've looked at symbols of the creature's nature and the metaphor
of fire to support our topic sentence. Using literary techniques is what's going to make
the difference between you and another student who might be saying the same thing. Why? Because
when you look at literary devices, it means that you're reading just beyond the lines,
just beyond what's in front of you. You're now introducing your own interpretation, so
you're looking at fire and thinking about what that means in connection to the text,
and why Mary Shelley would use the term of a fire and revolve her discussion around that.
So let's see how we keep doing this in the next body paragraph.
Paragraph two, Shelley indicates the significance of relationships as a key element of human
nature that the creature is denied, motivating affinity from readers. In replacement of human
relationships, the creature rather seeks comfort within the natural world. The metaphorical
huge cloak that the creature takes refuge within indicates this, illustrative of an
ecosystem, the forest allows the creator to surround himself with life. The subsequent
attempts to "imitate the pleasant songs of the birds" reveals the desperate urge of the
creature for companionship as he is abandoned by the paternal relationship represented by
Victor Frankenstein, which forms a core of human relationships. Again, here we've discussed
the metaphorical huge cloak and its connection with the forest, I strongly encourage you
to have the goal of discussing at least one literary device per body paragraph. And no,
there is no such thing as talking about too many literary devices because it's really
just about whether or not your argument is concise and whether or not you're backing
that up with evidence.
Paragraph three. However, it is Shelley's depiction of the submissive female sex within
Frankenstein that becomes most deserving of sympathy. Each female character is characterized
as passive, disposable, and they're serving a utilitarian function, namely as a channel
of action for the male characters within the text. Notably, the complete lack of absence
of Margaret Saville, functioning only as an audience for Walton's letters exemplifies
this. Margaret's role within the text is simply to enable Walton to relay the story of Frankenstein
and as such were the most necessary character of the texts whilst the most distant. This
ironic dichotomy enables Shelley to exemplify the difficult role of the female within society,
arising sympathy from the readership. Here, even the purposeful emission of a character
is discussed as a language technique. So, this type of literary device definitely tops
the cake because you're literally looking at what's not even there. That's definitely
reading between the lines.
Frankenstein is a very complex novel, and sometimes that's what makes it a difficult
text to study. But, it lends itself to many unique interpretations and it's heavily dressed
with heaps of literary devices or metalanguage, however you want to call it. So, that's what
makes it an absolutely fantastic text for high school students to study. If you wanted
to find out more on how to nail a Frankenstein essay, then I'll link you to my blog just
down below, because there are definitely more tips there to help you excel in this particular
text. Thank you so much for watching, and especially even if you're not studying this
text, I hope you've been able to take something away from this video. And I'm confident that
you have because talking about literary devices is definitely a topic that isn't necessarily
the fore front of discussion in classrooms, and it's something that a lot of people struggle
with. So, I hope you are able to walk away with a new goal in sight in order to improve
your English essays. So, I will see you guys next time, thank you so much for joining me,
see you guys soon. Bye.