Shelley's Moon

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the moon imagery in Shelley's novel and as it relates to her personal life. By associating these ideas of nature, society and man with their respective symbols of the moon, societal traits and the monster, Shelley connected the story of "Frankenstein" to her life. It shows how the moon is used to pinpoint important ideas of "Frankenstein" in relation to the popular opinions during Shelley's time and to indicate her personal connection to characters in the story.

From the Paper:

"The Romantic authors considered nature to be pure, void of corruption by society. Although society caused corruption, individuals, at birth, were also pure entities. These ideas existed before the Romantic era, delineated by John Locke during the late seventeenth century. Locke addressed a hypothetical situation: "man in the state of nature." He concluded that, before despoiled by society, man's mind is a "tabula rasa" or blank slate (Palmer 307). The monster, when he initially emerges from Frankenstein's house, is the perfect embodiment of purity. When the monster discovers the moon, he exists in a world of indistinct chaos, feeling only "light, hunger, and thirst, and darkness" (Shelley 88). The monster's elemental existence is a reproduction of the ideas of man's untainted state at birth."

More papers on Shelley's Moon:

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• Analytical Essay # 90571 : "Women in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

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