Mary Shelley’s mother died days after giving birth. Some of these tragedies would later inspire events in Frankenstein. Mary ran off to France with Percy in 1814. She gave birth to his child in 1815 – but the baby died just 12 days later. Harriet wife of Percy drowned herself in 1816, allowing Percy to marry Mary soon after. After coming up with the idea for her novel in Switzerland, Frankenstein was published two years later in 1818 – Mary was still only 20. Mary’s second son, William, died aged three in 1821. Percy drowned in 1822. Mary was devastated by this, and the loneliness caused by the death of so many of her friends and family. Shakespeare was inspired by his history, his play was inspired by the true-life tales of a shipwreck in the Bahamas in 1609. The Sea Venture a main ship for the powerful Virginia Company, left port in June for the New World, carrying settlers to the new town of Jamestown in Virginia. Nearly two months into the trip, the ship was caught in a hurricane, leading the captain to ground it on the reefs of an island. By crash landing on Bermuda, 150 people and a dog were saved from the storm.
In Act 1 Scene 1, a violent storm has the sailors wrestling with the masts and sails to control their ship, whose passengers were, King Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Ferdinand and Gonzalo and others. s the storm brews more, the ship is wrecked and everyone is scattered in groups King Alonso; Antonio; Sebastian; Gonzalo and others, and Ferdinand by himself who is later found by Miranda and Prospero. In Act 1 Scene 2, Prospero tells Miranda how they were expelled from Milan through the treachery of his brother Alonso, reaching safety of of his island only by the mercy of providence – which has now enabled him, with his magic powers, to raise the storm that we just witnessed. Prospero’s two servants, Ariel and Caliban, are individually presented. Ariel recounts his activities in the shipwreck, and Caliban grumbles about his servitude. As Ferdinand is led by Ariel charms of music commanded by Prospero, too led him towards Prospero and Miranda.
The relationship between Ariel and Prospero are different than Prospero and Caliban because, Caliban is treated as an animal even after all the nurturing from Prospero, Caliban’s instinct or nature will override and cannot be contained even over the years of nurture. On the other hand, Ariel is respected and is a lot closer to Prospero because, he does what he is told and will not fight back to Prospero, Ariel does this because all he wants is freedom. Act 1 Scene 2 Prospero and Ariel discussion about freedom and describing about the shipwreck.In Act 1 Scene 2, Miranda and Prospero visit Caliban, Miranda obviously does not care about control over Caliban, “I do not love to look on,” all she wants is to stay away from him.This is not her only vain moment in the play, Prospero however makes a great show of how much power he has, how he can punish Caliban, yet Caliban is completely used to this form of abusive behavior that he replies with a non-sequitur. He is obviously immune to his punishments by now, this shows he ignores Prospero’s commands and has no control over Caliban also that, Caliban does not see Prospero as a threat.
Prospero calls forth his spirit, Ariel. In his conversation with Ariel, we learn that Prospero and the spirit are responsible for the storm in Act 1 Scene 1, Flying about the ship, making the winds; the waves; the thunder and lightning. When we thought the crew had abounded the ship, as Ariel was asked by Prospero to make sure that they get to shore safely and separated into groups. The rest of the fleet that was on the ship, believing to have been destroyed by the storm, is heading back to Naples. Prospero thanks Ariel for his service, and Ariel takes this moment to remind Prospero of his promise to take one year off of his agreed time of servitude if Ariel performs his services without complaint. Prospero does not take well to being reminded of his promises, and he chastises Ariel for his impudence. He reminds Ariel of where he came from and how Prospero rescued him. Ariel had been a servant of Sycorax, a witch banished from Algiers and sent to the island long ago. Ariel was too delicate a spirit to perform her horrible commands, so she imprisoned him in a “cloven pine”.
In Act 4 Scene 1, this is when Prospero approves the efforts of Ferdinand, and rewards him with a gift of Miranda but adds a stern warning! A masque arranged for the the entertainment and instruction of the young lovers and is interrupted when Prospero remembers the plot against his life. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo approach the magician’s cell and find magic clothing. After he has drank the celestial liquor from Stephano and praises him as a God and plans to kill Prospero as the liquor brings up his anger, after all the torture and as he plots he says that after he kills Prospero he will make Stephano king of the island and show him how to survive on the island as well as know all the island. But as Caliban does not know of, is that Prospero knows his plan and asks Ariel to lure Stephano and Trinculo the low life standard thief’s into a trap consisting of luxury clothes and will make them pay for their work and makes them run in fear as they are ambushed by Ariel and makes them run to the tower as she waits for them.
At the ending Prospero releases Alonso and his companions from their spell and speaks with them. He forgives Antonio but demands that Antonio return his dukedom. Antonio does not respond and does not, in fact, say a word for the remainder of the play except to note that Caliban is “no doubt marketable”. Alonso now tells Prospero of the missing Ferdinand. Prospero tells Alonso that he, too, has lost a child in this last tempest—his daughter. Alonso continues to be wracked with grief. Prospero then draws aside a curtain, revealing behind it Ferdinand and Miranda, who are playing a game of chess. Alonso is ecstatic at the discovery. Meanwhile, the sight of more humans impresses Miranda. Alonso embraces his son and daughter-in-law to be and begs Miranda’s forgiveness for the treacheries of twelve years ago. Prospero silences Alonso’s apologies, insisting that the reconciliation is complete.After arriving with the Boatswain and mariners, Ariel is sent to fetch Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano, which he speedily does. The three drunken thieves are sent to Prospero’s cell to return the clothing they stole and to clean it in preparation for the evening’s reveling. Prospero then invites Alonso and his company to stay the night. He will tell them the tale of his last twelve years, and in the morning, they can all set out for Naples, where Miranda and Ferdinand will be married. After the wedding, Prospero will return to Milan, where he plans to contemplate the end of his life.
In chapter 2 of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Within it, Frankenstein discusses his thirst for knowledge that will help him understand the secrets of the world. He recounts the moment a bolt of lightning hits a tree near his home and how that moment altered sparked his lifelong passion. In chapter 2 the text shows him think about it; “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn”. Then as the storm gets near and he sees the lightning destroy the tree and then see the aftermath of the bright beam of light and sees a blasted stump: “the thunder burst…with frightful loudness from… the heaven… I beheld a stream of fire…from an old and beautiful oak… Soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.” This is link to the Aldini experiment, this experiment involved inducting a charge of volts through dead body or animal and then the animals nerves/muscles react to the shock and parts of the body would twitch.
The theme of secrecy manifests itself in these chapters, as Victor’s studies draw him farther and farther away from those who love and advise him. He conducts his experiments alone, following the example of the ancient alchemists, who jealously guarded their secrets, and rejecting the openness of the new sciences. Victor displays an unhealthy obsession with all of his endeavors, and the labor of creating the monster takes its toll on him. It drags him into Church houses in search of old body parts and, even more important, isolates him from the world of open social institutions. Though Henry’s presence makes Victor become conscious of his gradual loss of touch with humanity, Victor is nonetheless unwilling to tell Henry anything about the monster. The theme of secrecy transforms itself, now linked to Victor’s shame and regret for having ever hoped to create a new life. Victor’s reaction to his creation initiates a haunting theme that persists throughout the novel—the sense that the monster is inescapable, ever present, liable to appear at any moment and wreak havoc. When Victor arrives at his apartment with Henry, he opens the door “as children are accustomed to do when they expect a specter to stand in waiting for them on the other side,” a seeming echo of the tension-filled German ghost stories read by Mary Shelley and her vacationing companions.
The first major moment where Victor relies that he cannot control his the power he has been wanting. In Chapter 5, on stormy night, after months of labor, Victor completes his creation. But when he brings it to life, its awful appearance horrifies him. He rushes to the next room and tries to sleep, but he is troubled by nightmares about Elizabeth and his mother’s corpse. He wakes to discover the monster looming over his bed with a grotesque smile and rushes out of the house. He spends the night pacing in his courtyard. The next morning, he goes walking in the town of Ingolstadt, frantically avoiding a return to his now-haunted apartment of the monster. Victor’s reaction to his creation initiates a haunting theme that persists throughout the novel—the sense that the monster is inescapable, ever present, liable to appear at any moment and wreak havoc. When Victor arrives at his apartment with Henry, he opens the door “as children are accustomed to do when they expect a specter to stand in waiting for them on the other side,” a seeming echo of the tension-filled German ghost stories read by Mary Shelley and her vacationing companions.
Shelley employs other literary devices from time to time, including apostrophe, in which the speaker addresses an inanimate object, absent person, or abstract idea. Victor occasionally addresses some of the figures from his past as if they were with him on board Walton’s ship. “Excellent friend!” he exclaims, referring to Henry. “How sincerely did you love me, and endeavor to elevate my mind, until it was on a level with your own.” Apostrophe was a favorite of Mary Shelley’s husband, Percy who used it often in his poetry, its occurrence here might reflect some degree of Percy’s influence on Mary’s writing.
Chapters 9 and 10 contain some of the novel’s most explicit instances of the theme of sublime nature, as nature’s powerful influence on Victor becomes manifest. The natural world has noticeable effects on Victor’s mood: he is moved and cheered in the presence of scenic beauty, and he is disconsolate in its absence. Just as nature can make him joyful, however, so can it remind him of his guilt, shame, and regret: “The rain depressed me; my old feelings recurred, and I was miserable.” Shelley aligns Victor with the Romantic movement of late-eighteenth- to mid-nineteenth-century Europe, which emphasized a turn to nature for sublime experience—feelings of awe, hope, and ecstasy. Victor’s affinity with nature is of particular significance because of the monster’s ties to nature. Both distinctly at home in nature and un-natural almost by definition, the monster becomes a symbol of Victor’s folly in trying to emulate the natural forces of creation.
In both of this novels they both find out that power is to much to handle and in Frankenstein, Victor dies whilst trying to obtain the power he sees in the first chapter and dies from the havoc he caused from the creation of the monster, and Prospero gets rid of the power as he sees that power can not control others and is to much to handle.
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