Compare the ways in which Frankenstein’s monster and Caliban are presented as victims of circumstance in Frankenstein and the Tempest

 

In both Frankenstein and The Tempest the play, both authors have portrayed the fact that Frankenstein’s Monster and Caliban are victims of circumstance. This means that they have no control over what they are doing nor the situation they are in. Mary Shelley the author of “Frankenstein” has used many different language uses to distinguish that the monster is a victim of circumstance, also the play of “The tempest” describes that Caliban is also a victim of circumstance. Many features of both characters add up to their victims of circumstance which I will describe after.

Both texts are rich in historical context. With the book of Frankenstein being wrote in 1818. At this time many political, scientific and social beliefs had changed dramatically leading on to Mary Shelly writing this book. She grew up in a radical period of change which resulted into many creations and inventions both Mary Shelly’s parents where writers and radical thinkers, both had played a huge influence in Mary herself and on her novel. The change in science during this period of time is one of the main ideas of her novel being successful with Frankenstein using knowledge of science and receiving help from scientists to help him create his monster. Mary Shelly was also influenced by the gothic horror, one day when Shelly and a number of other writers were in a house being kept in because of persistent rain, these conditions lead Mary Shelly to write a gothic style to her novel with many parts being related to a gothic and horrific features

In the book “The tempest” the author William Shakespeare during the time of the 16th century regularly visited freak shows which lead him to the character of Caliban which symbolises the freak nature and lack of control over others and his situation, also during this period slave trade between countries were at their peak. This resembles the victim that Caliban is as black people and slaves did not have control of themselves they were made to do work of others, this is the same as Caliban as he is controlled by others and his features including his appearance he has no control over he is a victim of circumstance that has no control over what happens to him

In the book “Frankenstein”, the doctor Victor decides to hunt after many dead body parts after continuous visits of scientists to help him with his creation. Victor visits a graveyard which is full of body parts that is essential to his creation. He ideally wants his creation to have the best body parts in order to make his creation successful, he takes the dead body parts home to begin to construct his creation after many hours he finishes constructing his monster and he takes his time to reflect on what he has produced, victor realises the creation has an absolutely unprepossessing appearance he says “Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of his muscles” in this quote Mary Shelly uses an exclamation mark to resemble Victors shock he refers to God as like he is desperate of in need as only God knows what it is like to create a person, Shelly uses a language feature of sibilance to emphasise the fact that his skin his not of a normal kind and also the tone of the quote is very hateful and abominable, he speaks of him in a really disgusting way. The use of “his” is a pronoun which tells me that he does not refer to him like a close person even though he has just created him it is almost like he is a stranger to him altogether Victor has a hatred for his creation. This further emphasises the victim of circumstance as he had no control over his disgusting appearance, he cannot change his appearance which makes it even worse for him. This is not the monsters fault that he is born like this, it was out of his reach. Similarly in the book of the Tempest the characters Trinculo and Stefano describe Caliban as a monster like person they also describe him as “A most poor credulous monster” in this quote both characters perceive Caliban as a monster because of his ugly appearance, Caliban has scaly skin similar to those of a crocodile he also paints half of his face white to make himself be seen as a monster they describe Caliban as poor this tells me that he is seen as an outsider and a low standard of quality this makes Caliban a victim of circumstance as he cannot control both what other people think about him and cannot control his appearance this parallels the book of Frankenstein as both characters are a victim of circumstance in terms of appearance. The word “most” emphasises the fact that Caliban is the poorest human that both characters have witnessed the author uses the language feature of the rule of three by mentioning “poor” “credulous” and “monster” this language feature is used for a great effect as it emphasises the victim of circumstance that Caliban is. This is similar to the features of Frankenstein, so both are victims of their unprepossessing appearance.

In both texts “Frankenstein” and “The Tempest”, both authors explain the fact that both characters Caliban and the monster in Frankenstein are people who have no sense of belonging this is shown through the fact that the monster had been driven away from the village. This situation clearly defines that the monster is a victim of circumstance as he had only visited the village once and the citizens living their had been amazed by his looks and therefore decided to chase the monster throughout the village, the author Mary Shelly uses this quotation to further emphasise the situation that the monster is in; “some fled, some attacked me” Mary Shelly uses the language feature of repetition to further reinforce the fact that the monster is a victim of circumstance. Shelly uses the word “some” twice to emphasise that many people had chased him out, this tells me that the monster had no control over the situation has an enormous amount of people had wanted to perform physical damage on the monster. this quotation also reinforces the fact that the people had different reactions of the monster but both groups had been effected by the monster. Mary Shelly uses another quotation ” grievously bruised” Mary Shelly uses the language feature of imagery to emphasise that the monster had been physically hurt and also emotionally, so this has made the monster a definite victim of circumstance. Similarly, in the book “The Tempest” William Shakespeare has portrayed as a victim of circumstance, he shows this by Caliban’s island being taken away from him. Shakespeare uses the quotation “Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first thou strok’st me” in this quotation William Shakespeare uses the language feature of repetition by continuously repenting the word “thou” which means you. In this case Shakespeare has used this to effect to emphasise that he is truly angry that his land is taken away from him but he cannot do anything about it as he has no control over it. Caliban is essentially putting the blame on Prospero for his land being taken away from him, as Sycorax his mother had given the land to Caliban but has been taken away from him this further reinforces the that Caliban is a victim of circumstance as he cannot argue the fact that what was rightfully his cannot be claimed any more. This underlines the fact that both characters have no sense of belonging thus both being victims of circumstance. As both authors use the necessary language features to portray both characters the same way.

In both texts, the author portrays both “The monster” and “Caliban” as two characters that are underestimated in their everyday lives. In the Tempest, William Shakespeare shows this when the character Prospero does not expect Caliban to challenge him. Caliban then says to Prospero “You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is I know how to curse” this quotation is referring to when Prospero had taught the Caliban language in order to fit in with people, now Caliban has used the new skills he has been taught on Prospero thus leading Caliban to challenge him. William Shakespeare uses a personal pronoun in “I” this is used for effect because Caliban wants to separate himself from Prospero’s control and he uses it to emphasize that he is challenging his leader by saying “I”. Caliban also says “I know how to curse” this quotation is symbolizing Caliban’s new found power and threatens to challenge Prospero to curse him implying that he has been taught how to curse and will use it on his leader the one who taught him how to curse. Prospero does not expect Caliban to challenge him after he taught him new skills and had helped him out, Caliban is also a slave so does not have the authority to challenge the might of Prospero. Similarly In the book “Frankenstein” the monster is also underestimated due to the fact that he isn’t expected to learn how to read or write. However he has a desire to learn how to beacuse he wants to communicate with the De Lacey family espeacially when a attractive young women named Safie arrives, the monster is determined to learn her language in order to speak to her and pass notes. He also learns how to reads books in order to learn more about feelings of people. He is not expected to read and write due to his physical appearance and the environment he is in. The monster then leads up to writing in his journal that he wants a female mate. The monster then says “no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone.”  In this quotation Mary Shelley uses the language feature of sibilance in order to further reinforce the monster need for a female mate. She also uses a personal pronoun in “I” to further emphaise that he is alone. So both authors use the necessary quotations in order to similarly describe both characters of being underestimated by people above them therefore being victims of circumstance.

Throughout both texts, both authors use a lot of language features in order to explore the fact that both characters “Caliban” and “The monster” are victims of circumstance. both authors use repetition, personal pronouns, sibilance, hyperbole and lastly the rule of three to further reinforce the fact that these characters are under ruling and cannot control what has, or is being happened to them. Both characters suffer from grotesque appearances which they cannot control thus making them apparent to the two characters of being victims of circumstance.