The Theme of Wasted Lives in Frankenstein, and Cold Blood
This essay will be analysing the way in which the theme of wasted lives is portrayed throughout my chosen extracts. My chosen extracts are, an extract from chapter 16 of Frankenstein (FS) by Mary Shelly a gothic novel with features of the Romantic Movement. And an extract from chapter 3 of In Cold Blood (ICB) by Truman Capote, a faction novel (a novel written based on facts). In the F.S extract we are seeing the creature’s view of his killing of William and also his framing of Justine for the murder. Much the same in the ICB extract where it is Perry’s point of view of the murder of the Clutter family. In this extract we also see Capote input thoughts from Dewey, the police officer covering the case. Although both the extracts were written in different time periods, the focus is the same showing how the lack of parental figures, can lead to the destruction of life for something petty.
Throughout the chosen extract for FS the portrayal of the set theme wasted lives is portrayed in great detail. Firstly by having three characters who are seen to have wasted lives and also the murder of one of these characters. The first wasted life we see is that of the creature when we are seeing, the depths that he will sink to, to get his revenge on Frankenstein. ‘Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy – to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’ He thinks that because Frankenstein disowned him that he now has to get his own revenge, cause pain to Frankenstein in a worse way he caused the creature pain. But in many ways this can be seen as the creature being as bad as Frankenstein himself, not caring about the consequences of his actions and the onslaught of pain and terror they will cause. The life of William is also seen to be wasted. The creature believes that when he first see William that he will be innocent ’unprejudiced’ allowing the creature to have a companion. But we see that this is not so. William seems to be brought up in
Throughout the chosen extract for FS the portrayal of the set theme wasted lives is portrayed in great detail. Firstly by having three characters who are seen to have wasted lives and also the murder of one of these characters. The first wasted life we see is that of the creature when we are seeing, the depths that he will sink to, to get his revenge on Frankenstein. ‘Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy – to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’ He thinks that because Frankenstein disowned him that he now has to get his own revenge, cause pain to Frankenstein in a worse way he caused the creature pain. But in many ways this can be seen as the creature being as bad as Frankenstein himself, not caring about the consequences of his actions and the onslaught of pain and terror they will cause. The life of William is also seen to be wasted. The creature believes that when he first see William that he will be innocent ’unprejudiced’ allowing the creature to have a companion. But we see that this is not so. William seems to be brought up in