Rhetorical Analysis Of Mary Shelley s Frankenstein

A common tactic used by many anti-slavery writers in the Romantic Era is â€Å"in speaking for and/or giving voice to an estranged or silenced other†, by giving the victim of the power struggle the rhetorical devices needed to gain power (Kitson, 519). Shelley gives the creature not just a voice, but an entire Volume of the book. However, she does this in an effort to reinforce the â€Å"moral superiority [which] means that [Frankenstein] will rarely question the validity of his own society’s formation and that he will not be inclined to expend any energy in understanding the worthless alterity of the colonized† (JanMohamed, 65). In other words, the creature’s words only reinforce the struggle of power between the creature and Frankenstein. Instead of giving a voice with which the creature can gain power, Shelley uses this voice to break the monster further by reinforcing the ideas of Frankenstein. Directly, Shelley allows Frankenstein to initially sympath ize with the creature, whose â€Å"words had a strange effect upon me†¦[but] when I saw the filthy mass†¦my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred†¦ I could not sympathize with him,† (Shelly, 103); but eventually, when the reality of the creature as a monster (and not a human) is recognized, Shelley leaves no room for sympathy. Not only does Frankenstein’s perception go against prominent anti-slavery writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s message that â€Å"no man is wicked without temptation, no man is wretchedShow MoreRelatedMetamorphoses Within Frankenstein14861 Words   |  60 PagesThe Critical Metamorphoses of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein You must excuse a trif ling d eviation, From Mrs. Shelley’s marvellous narration — from th e musical Frankenstein; or, The Vamp ire’s Victim (1849) Like Coleridge’ s Ancient Mariner , who erupts into Mary Sh elley’s text as o ccasionally and inev itably as th e Monster into Victor Frankenstein’s lif e, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometh eus passes, like night, from land to land and w ith stang ely ad aptable powers of speech Read MoreInterpretation of the Text13649 Words   |  55 PagesG F I C T I O N MODULE 1 1.1. The fictional world of a literary work Literature is writing that can be read in many ways. We can read it as a form of history, biography, or autobiography. We can read it as an example of linguistic structures or rhetorical conventions manipulated for special effect. We can view it as a material product of the culture that produced it. We can see it as an expression of beliefs and values of a particular class. We can also see a work of literature as a selfcontained