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Date Posted: 20:01:49 04/15/07 Sun
Author: Leonardo
Subject: Re: Peer Editing
In reply to: Dina Costa 's message, "Re: Task One Group Two" on 18:51:40 04/11/07 Wed

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Who is the Monster? The Narcissist Creation of the Other

In Mary Shelley’s novel, the creature is always mentioned as a monster (P A comma is necessary) and is also called Monster, but he is Victor’s creation and creature. Indeed, (X Take out the comma) the creature is not as monstrously bad as his creator (P A comma is necessary) but he was made to be a reflection of Victor like the reflection of Narcissus that led him to his own destruction.

First of all, the creature was abandoned by his creator in the very beginning of his existence. This abandonment was painful because the creature was led (WW Should it be “Left”?) alone in the world (P A comma is necessary) and without any knowledge of mankind. Even though, the creature tries to become a social being (P A comma is necessary) but his ugly and fearful figure makes ( Bw/e Maybe you could use “Cause” or “Turn out”) his attempts to approach to other people very difficult, or better saying, impossible. Those frustrated attempts to be among people made the creature hate his creator, mainly after finding Victor’s journal of the scientific experience in which the creature was made, and the creature says:
‘I sickened as I read. “Hateful day when I received life!” I exclaimed in agony. “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance.”’ (pages 125-126)

Even though, he was fulfilled with these sad and disgusted feelings, the creature hopes to find a place for him among people (?? Unclear meaning). But he is rejected (P A comma is necessary) and repudiated (P A comma is necessary) so he says to Victor: “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam but I am rather the fallen angel, (…) Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” (page 96) These quotations reinforce the idea that the creature was not bad (P A comma is necessary) but his experiences led (WW Maybe you could use “Made” or “caused” If you use “caused”, remember to use “To before “Hate”) him hate his creator who was really bad to him.

Another important aspect of the novel is the matter of narcissism. Freud mentions in his Twenty-sixth Lecture that the choice of the object is made by replacing the subject’s own ego by another one that is as similar as possible. When Victor starts his experiments, he closes himself (P A comma is necessary) and does not receive anybody, including his best friend Clerval. How to find someone similar to himself? Victor could answer this question saying that the best way to achieve this goal would be by retiring yourself from society (P A comma is necessary) and by (X Take “By” out) creating someone, and he did so.
In the myth of Narcissus, he falls in love with his own reflection in the water surface (P A comma is necessary) but to realize this love he destroys himself drowning into the water. In fact, Victor’s creation is a reflection of him; afterwards (Bw/e you could use “Later”) he realizes that he has to destroy the creature before the creature destroys him. In other words, Victor rejects his creation, and all the suffering caused by this rejection led the creature to destroy his creator exactly like the myth of Narcissus in which both the reflected and the reflection vanish. Victor is destroyed but the creature was (Wvf) destroyed too.

Bibliography
FREUD, Sigmund. Standard Edition, volume XIV. (What about the year of publication? And the city? And the Press?)
SHELLEY, Mary. Frankenstein: or the modern Prometheus. Penguin Popular Classics. England, 1994.

- Your Thesis Statement is not clear;
- The introductional paragraph should be longer, no? You didn’t narrowd down the topic precisely;
- The idea of “narcissism” is not expressed in the Thesis Statement;
- What about the conclusion?

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Replies:

  • peer editing -- Marcela, 15:12:38 04/16/07 Mon
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