Thursday, September 22, 2011

Captured by the Limbs of Society

     I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sunk within me  as with Bitter sickness, and I refrained. I saw him on the point of repeating his blow, when, overcome by pain and anguish, I quitted the cottage and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel. (Shelley 151)

      On Page 151, Lynd Ward illustrates the Monster fighting through the forest when he escapes the cottage. Felix, Safie, and Agatha became frightened and startled by the Monster's appearance causing him to escape from the village. The monster is almost too sad to protect himself but feels unwanted so he had to leave the scene. The Monster officially feels like an outsider and an actual hideous Monster instead of a normal human being. The picture shows tree branches crushing the Monster as he is running through the forest.

     The long tree branches are trampling on him portraying society crushing on him through nature. This signifies a struggle between the monster and society showing a sense of entrapment. Being trapped in nature symbolizes the Monster's rejection from mankind. The Monster's body appears to be embedded by the large branches making it difficult to escape. The image shows pain and suffering which complicates the Monster's life and his involvement with nature. His legs look to be in a awkward position where hes struggling and experiencing physical torment. The lines all over the Monster's body indicate scars from either the creation or the beating by Felix. These prominent lines could show the development of his body emphasizing his tight skin and muscles referring to the strength of the Monster. It almost looks like he is trapped in a cage and can never get out.

     Lynd Ward's illustration describes Romanticism, the intellectual time period that correlates to the re-occurring theme of Frankenstein. The idea of the Monster reaching up and trying to transcend itself by reaching up to humanity similarly as Victor attempts to reach God by creating life. The Monster seems helpless in this picture because the limbs look to be toppling over him giving him little room to break away and venture out in nature. After two years of independently learning how to live like a typical human, this is the first time in the novel the Monster seems to need some assistance and is not superhuman.The Monster is experience another new beginning in his life and the challenge of life. Romantics made this idea clear because they focus on emotions which is evident in this picture. The Monster's emotions are being pushed and pulled all over this picture with his and tree branch limbs.

 The illustration represents the limbs of both the Monster and tree branches. Ward uses this idea to show the similarities and differences in both appendages. The tree branches obviously look like they are bombarding the Monster making it difficult to move. The Monster appears to be one with the branches because his arms are in similar proportion to the branches making it more difficult to distinguish the two. The Monster is either pulling or pushing on the "limbs" which shows he could be merging or blending in with the limbs formed with nature not humans. This picture shows the Monster's feelings in terms of him being apart of the wilderness giving the reader a visual representation of the limbs. The limbs are constructed differently indicating the Monster's flexibility with the wind and darkness of himself with his limbs. The picture possibly is portraying how the Monster actually walks to imply the difference between the way humans and the Monster walk. The Monster is in an extreme condition which contrasts to ordinary humans. Guilt can be tied together with the pulling and pushing showing that he is attempting to fight for survival or that he is an outcast of society.

      The illustration on page 151, shows a distinction between nature and the Monster. The Monster is different than any other human in society. He is sophisticated, nice, strong, and brilliant. The Monster's beauty is in the inside but on the outside people see evil, vile, and disgust. This picture depicts society's acceptance of the Monster. The Monster is attempting to protect himself in a society he is being crushed by and needs to escape. The Monster need to continue his journey independently and learn the true meaning behind nature so one day he can be accepted.

    


2 comments:

  1. Elan,
    I think this is a really great blog. I actually had a hard time thinking of constructive criticism. It is organized and focused. One thing you could try to do would be to incorporate the quote more in your essay and elaborate there. Other than that keep up the good work!

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  2. Paragraphs 1, 2, and 4 don't do very much that isn't a repetition of things that were said in class.

    On the plus side, this shows that you were listening. And I'm not denying either that some of the ideas were yours, nor that you might have come up with them independently. But what you need to do when you're really going over something that was done pretty thoroughly in class is *continue* the conversation, not repeat it.

    How to push our collective ideas farther? How to challenge them? How to develop them? Typically, you'd begin with a narrower focus, and try to *develop* the thing which most interests you.

    The 3rd paragraph, where you bring romanticism into this specific image, is an example of continuing the conversation. This section is underdeveloped (of course it is - you'd need a whole essay to handle it!) but it at least shows promise of a new or newish idea which pushes the envelop of what we talked about in class.

    Don't repeat - continue.

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