Essay One

INTRODUCTION

A timeless moral as relevant today as it was in the 19th century, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein addresses the overarching tensions between knowledge and progression, and nature and emotion.¹ Thus, in exploring the plight of Enlightened antagonist Victor Frankenstein, Shelley facilitates an important discussion pertaining to the influence of ambition and human endeavour on our ability to show compassion. Ultimately, she seeks to demonstrate that whilst compassion does not dictate whether an individual may be human or not, it is a critical attribute of the human spirit to ensure a successful coexistence within humanity.²

1. The introduction immediately establishes a social, cultural and historical context, proving to assessors that you understand the author’s background and the circumstances that shaped the writing of the text.

2. You want the introduction to give the assessor a really clear sense of the direction you will take. This essay successfully outlines a clear interpretation and directly addresses the topic.

PARAGRAPH 1

Initially, Shelley attempts to reveal the manner in which an unbridled pursuit of knowledge can lead individuals to sacrifice their sense of compassion and empathy towards others.³ As a result, she promotes consideration surrounding the importance of tempering personal desire within acceptable boundaries. Through her embedded narrative structure⁴, Shelley enables insight into Victor’s perspective as he recounts his journey of building his Creature.⁵ In this manner, readers are encouraged to understand the extent to which Victor lacked compassion. As he narrates the night of his Creature’s inception, upon seeing the “dull yellow eye” of the Creature open, he was filled with a “breathless horror and disgust”⁶ that urged him to run away and hide from the very species he had brought to life. This stands in stark juxtaposition to the “inexhaustible stores of affection” that his parents⁷ bestowed upon him and prompts the audience to pity Victor who apparently lacks the empathy to draw an association between his own experience as an “innocent and helpless Creature,” and his creation’s situation. Shelley attempts to denounce Victor’s senseless “ardent curiosity” as the reason for his lack of compassion, highlighting that the “summer months passed whilst he was engaged” and that he “shunned the face of man.”⁸ In this manner, Shelley⁹ evidences the loss of romantic attributes including an appreciation of nurture and companionship, as catalysing Victor’s eventual demise into the “shadow of a human being,” who can no longer “begin life anew.” Thus, through her depiction of Victor’s downfall she signifies that lacking compassion prevented him from being able to successfully participate in society. Shelley emphasises the significance of Romantic attributes to warn the frightened individuals of her own era to control their ambition and prevent it from exceeding the boundaries of mankind, in an ultimate effort to implore them to uphold their compassion for others in society.¹⁰

3. This topic sentence both relates to the topic, and clearly states the intention of the paragraph.

4. Try to reference as many structural features of the text as possible, provided they’re relevant to your discussion!

5. It’s okay to have sentences with a bit of summary if you need to contextualise and explain your examples. However, you should immediately follow this up with analysis to ensure you get marks for this explanation.

6. Make sure your essays include embedded quotes like these to facilitate efficient analysis.

7. Shows textual knowledge by referencing minor characters, and exploring Shelley’s purpose in employing these characters.

8. The continued use of embedded quotes demonstrates a great amount of textual knowledge. It’s important that quotes are meaningful, rather than one-word quotes such as “monster.” If they don’t contribute to the analysis, then leave them out!

9. Constantly using the author’s name ensures you don’t get lost in re-telling the text because it reminds you to consider how and why particular events, characters, or language were used.

10. Always remember to go ‘micro-macro.’ What this means is at the end of each paragraph, consider the implications of your discussion on the wider world. This final sentence does a great job of relating the text to Shelley’s society.

PARAGRAPH 2

However,¹¹ Shelley also demonstrates that compassion in and of itself does not constitute what makes up a human being, but rather acts to confirm an individual’s internal sense of humanity. The Creature’s inception mimics the concept of Locke’s tabula rasa,¹² as Shelley aims to underline his reliance on sensationalism as the Creature “saw... felt... and heard, all at the same time.” She aims to portray the Creature to her readership as an embodiment of the intrinsic tendencies of mankind. Critically, this concept of the noble savage reveals the Creature’s raw willingness to favour compassion over malice; in observing the De Lacey family he adopted an “ardour for virtue,” committing to doing jobs such as gardening and food collection, and indeed going hungry himself in order to ensure the happiness of the De Lacey family that he “longed to join.” In this way Shelley¹³ intimates that the Creature had the capacity to exist successfully amongst mankind due to his enduring sense of compassion. Even when he had been beaten and abandoned by the De Laceys, he attempted to save a young girl from drowning in the river. However, though her allusion to Milton’s Paradise Lost,¹⁴ Shelley exposes the greater significance of physical differences in contrast to compassion in determining an individual’s ability to successfully participate in the human experience. Claiming that “God made man beautiful,” but he was a “filthy” form of Victor’s, the Creature is himself able to recognise that he was a “blot upon the earth... whom all men disowned.” This simultaneously compounds Victor further as lacking in compassion to attempt to usurp the God complex and create a new species, and expounds the Creature’s true barrier to becoming a member of mankind as being his horrifying visage. Thus, Shelley invites readers to reflect on humankind’s tendency to judge based on appearance rather than internal character, and implores her readership to re-evaluate their judgement of those who do not conform to society’s expectations.¹⁵

11. It’s often a good idea to present and explore both sides of the topic. Don’t adopt too simplistic a view of the text and assume the essay question is right. Instead, think of components of the text that contradict the essay question and explore them too to make your contention more sophisticated.

12. Reference to the use of a nuanced textual device shows that you have done your research!

13. Again, even more continued use of the author’s name means that the essay is shown to be directly analysing her purpose behind writing the text.

14. Though you don’t have to read up too much on the intertextual references within Frankenstein, acknowledging them in context like this add further sophistication and textual understanding, especially when it aids your analysis like it does here.

15. It’s always good to end your paragraphs by ‘zooming out’ to a broader statement about Sheller or the readers’ interpretations. Rather than just ending on a point about a character, we can connect this discussion to the prompt’s core concerns of compassion and humanity, ensuring the assessors understand the relevance of this discussion.

PARAGRAPH 3

Furthermore, Shelley intends to highlight the fact that whilst showing compassion does not necessarily ascertain whether an individual is human, it can influence whether or not that individual is able to successfully participate within human society.¹⁶ This message speaks to both her society of the 19th century, and the modern readership, as she aims to endorse the action of prioritising compassion over selfish pursuits.¹⁷ The use of the doppelganger trope¹⁸ enables Shelley to investigate this idea through Henry Clerval. Unlike Victor, Henry Clerval was “formed in the very poetry of nature,” typified by his tendency toward the romantic study of languages in preference to scientific endeavours. During Victor’s illness – a damning response to the inability he had to show compassion initially to his Creature – Clerval stood by Victor as a “beloved friend,” whose “eyes and feeling were quick in discerning the sensation of others.” Therefore, Shelley paints Clerval in distinct polarity to Victor for his capacity to show compassion to Victor, despite not knowing the reasoning behind his friend’s demise.¹⁹ In pursuing the art of languages, Clerval embodies a true Romantic archetype, studying a concept that enhances his ability to form relationships with others. As such, Shelley attempts to advocate for a balance between Enlightened and Romantic ideals,²⁰ though justifying Clerval as an individual who was able to gain knowledge without sacrificing companionship, and therefore without losing compassion that allows him to temper his behaviour and be perceived as a morally righteous individual. To this end, Shelley speaks directly to the people behind the Industrial Revolution of her own era as she urges individuals to uphold their sense of compassion toward others in order to be able to exist successfully within a human community.

16. The use of conjunctive adverbs (i.e. furthermore, however, moreover, therefore, consequently etc.) helps the piece to flow from one paragraph to the next. It shows the interrelationship between the paragraphs, which is important as you want the essay to come across as a discussion rather than a disjointed presentation of ideas.

17. Purpose beyond the text is clearly established.

18. Try to use new structural features in each paragraph and ensure that they contribute meaningfully to your analysis. Otherwise, it will look like you’re just trying to list all the stuff you know, which won’t help you to do well!

19. Here is a great example of using minor characters to augment a discussion. You don’t have to be able to write a whole body paragraph on Clerval, but it really helps if you can weave secondary characters like this into your analysis to strengthen your points.

20. Demonstrates an intelligent understanding of the social context of the writer’s era and incorporates it smoothly into the analysis.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein serves as a critical commentary on the society of her time, that still stands as relevant to the modern reader. She intends to question what it is that defines humanity through her exploration of Frankenstein’s pursuits, and through the Creature as a simulacrum of industrialised technocracy,²¹ highlights the danger associated with scientific pursuits that cause individuals to lose sight of community wellbeing. She centres her discussion around the integral nature of compassion to suggest that whilst this attribute does not wholly determine our humanity, the ability to show compassion is conveyed to be what enables successful participation in society as a moral human being.²²

21. A very brief summary of the points considered throughout the essay is valuable – just be careful not to waste too much time listing points that should have already been made clear throughout the essay.

22. Don’t try to dance around the topic. Be concise and ensure that your final paragraph draws an insightful and impactful conclusion in the final lines.