Everyone Matters
Mary Shelley utilizes many characters in her novel Frankenstein. Although the reader may believe Elizabeth, Clerval, and Walton are only minor characters, they are actually major characters. Each one fulfills a meaningful purpose in the story. These characters emphasize ideas of theme, plot, and character.
Notably, Elizabeth is Shelley’s way of fulfilling her mother’s and audience’s expectation of creating a novel with a flare of feminism. Elizabeth’s death is the most important detail to Victor becoming full on revengeful like the female creature’s effect on the creature. The death of women leading to men’s evil demonstrates that men need women in order to be civilized. Elizabeth also contributes to the plot. The monster observes that he needs a woman to be happy through watching Victor’s love for Elizabeth. She is the reason for Victor’s joy after most of his family had been murdered, so the monster killed Elizabeth to kill Victor. The death of Elizabeth demolishes …show more content…
He enhances the theme of isolation by being Victor’s friend, contrasting the theme. As Victor first becomes ill after creating the creature, Clerval helps him. He fixes Victor’s temporary isolation. When Clerval dies, Victor is even more depressed about his friend and is more isolated. Clerval also contributes to the plot by being a helping hand to Victor. He allows Victor to feel better from his sickness, so Victor can continue on in his life. Clerval too brings out the humanity in the monster by having the monster sad after killing him. The monster realizes Clerval was innocent, and should not have been killed. Further, Clerval accentuates Victor’s personality by being a foil character. For example, Clerval chooses to study the arts, and Victor studies science. This emphasizes Victor’s desire to figure out nature, which leads to the monster being created in the first place. Clerval reinforces theme, plot, and
Mary Shelley utilizes many characters in her novel Frankenstein. Although the reader may believe Elizabeth, Clerval, and Walton are only minor characters, they are actually major characters. Each one fulfills a meaningful purpose in the story. These characters emphasize ideas of theme, plot, and character.
Notably, Elizabeth is Shelley’s way of fulfilling her mother’s and audience’s expectation of creating a novel with a flare of feminism. Elizabeth’s death is the most important detail to Victor becoming full on revengeful like the female creature’s effect on the creature. The death of women leading to men’s evil demonstrates that men need women in order to be civilized. Elizabeth also contributes to the plot. The monster observes that he needs a woman to be happy through watching Victor’s love for Elizabeth. She is the reason for Victor’s joy after most of his family had been murdered, so the monster killed Elizabeth to kill Victor. The death of Elizabeth demolishes …show more content…
He enhances the theme of isolation by being Victor’s friend, contrasting the theme. As Victor first becomes ill after creating the creature, Clerval helps him. He fixes Victor’s temporary isolation. When Clerval dies, Victor is even more depressed about his friend and is more isolated. Clerval also contributes to the plot by being a helping hand to Victor. He allows Victor to feel better from his sickness, so Victor can continue on in his life. Clerval too brings out the humanity in the monster by having the monster sad after killing him. The monster realizes Clerval was innocent, and should not have been killed. Further, Clerval accentuates Victor’s personality by being a foil character. For example, Clerval chooses to study the arts, and Victor studies science. This emphasizes Victor’s desire to figure out nature, which leads to the monster being created in the first place. Clerval reinforces theme, plot, and