弗兰肯斯坦中的死亡意象.docx

Death in?Frankenstein?Death is a theme running throughout the story of?Frankenstein, indeed most of the books characters meet their ends in one way or another before the final page is turned. Those who do not are either intending to die soon (the Creature) or possibly could (Walton, who has been in the Arctic for months and whose crew is depleted and fed up with him).?It is then ironic that Frankenstein states early on in the novel?Wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!?As a consequence of his actions, most of his friends and fimily end up meeting violent deaths at the hands of the Creature.?Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world... I thought, that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.?Frankenstein wishes to interfere with the natural process of death in a godlike way but this backfires on him. By the end of the book he feels that death is all he has left to look forward to. Shelley is perhaps making a point about the inevitability of death and the repercussions of interfering with nature, even its negative aspects.?The book suggests that a person can die peacefully and not fear death if they are a good person and have resolved all matters in their lives before they die. Examples of this are caroline Beaufort and justine, both of whose deaths are sacrifices.?In order to find a way to overcome death, Frankenstein pillages graveyards, showing a complete disrespect not only for the natural order of things, but for people who have already died.?Two characters in the book are condemned to death by the government; Safies father and Justine. In neither of these cases is the death deserved - Shelley seems t