Preview

Psychoanalysis of Frankenstein Essay Example

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1115 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Psychoanalysis of Frankenstein Essay Example
Essay 2

Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts ("Psychoanalysis"). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything. Since his article, "Allure, Authority and Psychoanalysis" discusses the meaning behind everything that happens in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" we can also examine "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in the same manner.
"Allure, Authority, and Psychoanalysis" discusses the unconscious wishes, effects, conflicts, anxieties, and fantasies within "Frankenstein." The absence of strong female characters in "Frankenstein" suggests the idea of Victor's desire to create life without the female. This desire possibly stems from Victor's attempt to compensate for the lack of a penis or, similarly, from the fear of female sexuality. Victor's strong desire for maternal love is transferred to Elizabeth, the orphan taken into the Frankenstein family. This idea is then reincarnated in the form of a monster which leads to the conclusion that Mary Shelley felt like an abandoned child who is reflected in the rage of the monster.
After reading the article by Baldick, I immediately thought of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." I was forced to read the story again having an open mind and the idea that everything has an alternative meaning. After doing so, I realized that it contains the same concept of abandonment and anger. In order to keep everything in Omelas prime and perfect one person has to be sacrificed. One child is kept in a broom closet in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    He is passionately committed to discovery and adventure. He wishes he had a friend with the same sensibilities and he says he is self-taught.…

    • 4307 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ as an outlet of her experiences throughout her previous years and to express her feelings of grief, anxiety and shock from her childhood. When Mary Shelley was younger, her own ambition was to have a child to love and care for. This ambition and hope was shot down when her baby died soon after its birth. This could be the inspiration that she used for the creation and the unkind response given by the world to it. We learn much about the protagonist victor Frankenstein and his utterly selfish ambition throughout chapter five. This is the…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    frankenstein essay

    • 1285 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The concept of ‘The Blonde’ has been ever changing over time and across different contexts. Meanings and cultural ideologies associated with blondeness have shifted due to the change in context at varying points of time. Blondeness has been represented and viewed differently from one culture to another where the context and values play a crucial role in these representations. In the movie, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, Marilyn Monroe is portrayed as the archetypal blonde bombshell that uses her sexuality to appeal to rich men and hence portraying her as a ‘gold-digger’. The other text in which the ‘Blonde’ concept is portrayed in a different culture is Boticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus”. It incorporates values from Greek Mythology as well as the context in which it was composed that is the Renaissance period specifically in 1485. The shaping of dominant meanings associated with being blonde is implied differently through the L’OREAL Blonde hair dye commercial as it shows how values and ideologies connected with blondeness have emerged in contemporary Western culture.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    had been so rushed to complete his project he would not have had to deal with…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    1) ”My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn” (19).…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    If you create something should you be able to kill it? The notion of playing god like Victor did with the creatures in Frankenstein is comparative to the same issue the courts have with abortion laws. Various angles of abortion can be quite overwhelming as well as who makes the final decision. Many governments have struggled to strike what they believe to be a balance between the rights of pregnant women and the rights of fetuses. Before life is started, generally, an individual has thought about whether or not they want to create life. All life is created whether it is the creatures in Frankenstein or development of a fetus. Once life has been created choosing to end that life can cause many issues. The struggle of choosing between life and death could be avoided by an individual evaluating the results of creating a life before starting the process.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within Frankenstein, nature plays a key role as it serves as the focal point of both Walton's and Victor's endeavors. As it appears, nature offers the characters comfort and helps restore their peace of mind. Moreover, the "creative force" of nature seems to be the enticement for both Walton and Victor's actions. What's even more significant though, which is in some accord with Romantic ideals, is the message the story relays that nature is not something to be conquered, but rather something to embrace and harmonize with.…

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hsc Frankenstein Essay

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Authors’ desire to convey the meanings of their texts are influenced by the era in which they live. However, the themes about human nature will remain timeless and universal as they examine and critically inquire into the follies of greed, ambition and moral corruption. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illustrates the innate and insatiable appetite for knowledge and the according descent to blindness and self-loathing. In a similar fashion, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner touches on Shelley’s notions of the danger of human enterprise and the uncontrollable impetus of scientific evolution. The two texts, despite having a century in between, similarly exemplify the consequences of playing God, and entice the audience to evaluate what it truly means to be a human being. Both texts vividly demonstrate that the essence of humanity lies not in the desire to achieve a sense of well-being but in the persistent willingness to allow the darker side of human nature to take a hold of one self.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    frankenstein essay

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley's Frankenstein places an emphasis on evil and its origins. Through Victor Frankenstein's monster, Shelley implies that solitude and emotional immaturity, not an innate evil, are responsible for one's wrongdoings. Abandoned at the moment of its creation and forced to raise itself, the monster is incapable of discerning right from wrong as he fosters irrational hatreds and resentments towards mankind without opposition. His involuntary isolation not only serves as an explanation for his homicidal tendencies, but causes his untimely death. Shelley suggests that companionship is imperative to nurture a capable and self sufficient member of society.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster that murders several people, and then flees through Europe to the Arctic Circle. In the beginning of the story, it seems that Frankenstein is simply a scientist chasing a pipe dream of finding the key to eternal life, but closer analysis of the text reveals that Frankenstein is not sane, and possibly suffering from one of many psychology disorders, causing hallucinations and psychosis, it is my contention, that Victor Frankenstein is his monster.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein Essay

    • 717 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to Sigmund Freud, three different concepts, ID, ego, or superego describes a person’s personality and thought process. The concept of the ID is that one’s unconscious psychic energy is constantly striving to satisfy one’s basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress. The ID operates on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification. The concept of the ego is described as when one’s thought process operates on the reality principle. The ego seeks to gratify the ID’s impulses in realistic ways that will bring long-term pleasure. The concept of the superego is when a person, usually a child, begins to develop a moral compass (conscience). The superego focuses on how one should behave. It strives for perfection, judge’s actions, and produces positive feelings of pride, or negative feelings of guilt. Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein’s behaviors, for the most part, seem to be controlled by the ID, and occasionally driven by the superego. The Monster also seems to often be driven by his ID, however there was one prominent occasion where he was driven by his ego.…

    • 717 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein Essay

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is arguably one of the most controversial novels of the 19th Century. It discusses the concept of science verses human conscience in a technological world. The Gothic atmosphere of the novel reflects the dark feelings of society at the time, and Shelley utilised pathetic fallacy, her chosen form and imagery to suggest a twist on the real monster of her story. Shelley uses poetical language and perspective to emphasise how the monster is a model Romaticist, and to express the importance of belonging and communication to a judgemental society. Symbols, contrasts and ‘heavenly’ adjectives are used to portray Victor Frankenstein as a God-like figure; expressing how we must never interfere with nature’s course and take on God’s role to the knowledge-greedy culture of the 1800’s, which was consumed with the Industrial Revolution. Shelley has manipulated her writing to convey her personal ideologies, and to reflect her concern for a loss of ethics in a society fixated on the pursuit for answers.…

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frankenstein: Abandonment

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To demonstrate this theory in Frankenstein, Shelley focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s attempt to create life, which results in a horrid monster or “child”. Victor chooses to create a monster out of his own selfish reasons and leaves him behind in a cruel, unforgiving world. Unlike the monster, Victor had a comfortable childhood. Born to parents who loved him and a wealth of people who supported him, Victor receives excessive attention, allowing him to adjust easily. Frankenstein’s mother died while he was young. She was the only character to die peacefully: “She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death (Shelley, 33).” He saw his mother with compassion and her death infuriated him; he referred to death as evil and fully intended on fixing that. When Frankenstein went away to study in college, his life drastically took a turn of events without the presence of his parents.…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frankenstein Essay

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s science fiction novel, Frankenstein, is a Gothic horror story that captures reader’s attention leaving them with questions of their own morals and of the main characters. The novel arouses questions like, who should be allowed to create life? Is it right to kill for a greater good? Are some secrets best untold? These are all questions of morality and individuals will come up with their own opinions and answers based on their upbringing. In Frankenstein, main characters Victor Frankenstein and ‘The Monster’ are morally put to the test with decisions that will greatly affect their lives. In the end many readers find themselves wondering who are the antagonist and protagonist of the novel; Did Victor do wrong by creating The Monster, or did the Monster do wrong by killing innocent people? In this case both made morally bad decisions but in the end one decision had more of a lasting impact. The Monster’s quest of killing is only justified due to the fact that he was hunting his creator.…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein Essay

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Frankenstein begins and ends with Waltons letters, In this essay I will show you that Mary Shelley did not insert the letters by chance, but that they add a deeper dimension to the novel itself.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays