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Analysis of Allusion (Frankenstein)
Mary Shelley’s reading includes symbolism, allusion, and imagery that are used to communicate the message in the story. These are some of the methods and different techniques in carrying out the plot. The most crucial device that is used by Shelley is the allusion in relating to the themes running the life of a person’s life as coming together with a cost. A suggestion is a figure of speech about a well-known person, place, and literary work (Jan & Hanaa, 2019). There are connections in the works allowing the reader to identify the themes in the book and gaining a better understanding of the occurrences in the text. The first story alluded to is text on the history of Prometheus in 1818. Prometheus is a story about a titan that is most respected and is a god-like figure. He creates the man through clay, water, and also teaching how to live. Prometheus, however, tricked Zeus to having him accept the human low-quality sacrifice merchandise. In response, Zeus confiscates fire from humanity. Prometheus is a caring individual and steals light from Zeus, giving it to humans.
Prometheus is then sentenced to eternal misery and torment by Zeus. Frankenstein, who is the main character in the process of creating creates a new species that end up suffering. He tells the monster that he has created to go and will never hear from him. It is the same as what Zeus did to Prometheus. Later the monster begins murdering everyone that was cared for by Frankenstein Victor. The first intention of the creator was discovering species, but he and the beast are left unhappy at the end (Lacefield & Kristen, 2017). The illusion relates to the theme of doing something you are not supposed to could lead to a very costly mistake as we see Frankenstein and Prometheus suffered as a result of their actions. After Frank stein tells the monster to go away from him, he suffered the killings of the loved ones by the beast. The beast then regrets him by ruining the life of Frankstein as he weeps when he is being killed. He was not supposed to create the monster and abandon it. The price he paid was ultimate death. Prometheus was also not supposed to trick Zeus, but he pays the cost of torture.
The other illusion is the touching of the story of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is a story of a mariner who disregards nature’s rules by slaughtering the albatross and a bird. Afterward, the mariner and the servants get a figure of a ghost that resembles death. The picture kills his men, leaving a curse on the mariner (Shohet & Lauren, 2018). The illusion connects to the events that happened to Victor Frankenstein after creating a monster and sending it away from him.
There is also an illusion to the poem of Paradise Lost, which is biblical. In the poem, God creates Adam and Eve as being the first people on earth. They are very innocent after creation and required to stay away from the tree of God and avoid eating any fruit from the tree. However, they end up eating the fruits, after which they are chased away from the garden. Losing the little Paradise indicates the loss of all they had.
References
Jan, Hanaa. Texts between Two Cultures: Challenges of Cross-Cultural Translation in the Arabic Versions of Jane Eyre and Frankenstein. Diss. University of Northampton, 2019.
Lacefield, Kristen. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Guillotine, and Modern Ontological Anxiety.” Text Matters: a journal of literature, theory, and culture 6 (2016): 35-52.
Shohet, Lauren. “Reading Milton in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Milton Studies 60.1-2 (2018): 157-182.