Saturday, February 8, 2014

In Frankenstein, what impact does the monster's ability to speak eloquently have on the reader?Any help is appreciated. : )Thanks

This is one of the many impossibe but interesting parts of the novel.  In creating a being without any past, without the influence of "nurturing," Shelley allows us to look at a pure moral nature interacting with the "world" then watch the "results."  The creature supposedly learned language from his observations of the DeLacy family, a simple family enjoying the somewhat idealized Romantic life; he learns a "higher" form of English from his readings.  These help him understand his own reality, make it clear to him that he was "born" physically deformed but morally intact.

Without the ability to speak in a language that is clear and sometimes elegant, the reader would not be able to understand the creature's plight as he saw it.  In many ways, it is the means through which Shelley raises the level of sympathy for the creature; it also provides the creature with the means of understanding himself.

For comparison, Huxley does something similar in "Brave New World" where he has John the Savage learn English (and hence his means of understanding and expressing himself) though his reading of Shakespeare.

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