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  2.  
  3. PEARSON (PEARSON)
  4.  
  5. English Literature 2015
  6.  
  7. Unit 2 - Prose

Essay

Presentation of Survival in Frankenstein & The Handmaid's Tale
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In this Essay, I explore how surviving is a continuation of existing in difficult circumstances. Mary Shelley and Margaret Atwood powerfully demonstrate this through the trials and tribulations that unravel in their novels. Shelley advocates the catastrophic effects of Victor's actions, as his atte...

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  • May 16, 2023
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  • 2022/2023
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Introduction
Surviving is a continuation of existing in difficult circumstances. Mary Shelley and Margaret Atwood
powerfully demonstrate this through the trials and tribulations that unravel in their novels. Shelley
advocates the catastrophic effects of Victor's actions, as his attempts in being a greater, omnipotent
being , resulted in the characters being forced to survive the lethal creature lurking in the shadows.
Victor's neglection towards the monster, also forced him to survive a society shrouded with prejudice
and brutal physiognomies against him, in a cyclical manner, leaving him to remain ostracised. Victor
mimics Prometheus the Greek God, who is also forced to experience the detrimental repercussions of
his actions. Atwood explores the significance of a patriarchal society in which characters like Offred
are forced to survive and live a monotonous life, being in line with the strangling rules and regulations
of Gilead in order to resist being executed and being publicly hanged as examples, similar to the
victims that were publicly hanged by the Nazis during the world war, as part of Hitler's dictatorial
regime.

Paragraph 1:
Both Atwood and Shelley appear to place a strong emphasis on how their characters had to survive in their own
societies, with Offred being forced to obey the corrupted dictatorship of Gilead in their society and the monster
having to face the judgemental gaze of his society. Shelley reveals the harmful consequences of which survival
can have, when a being is left to nurture themselves and strive in a society where especially you are the outcome
from the discovery of the unknown: Victor’s desire consisted of, to "pioneer a new way, explore unknown
powers", as to him "Life and death appeared to [Victor] ideal bounds, which [he] should first break through, and
pour a torrent of light into our dark world." which inevitably resulted in the development of a creature, left to
survive and suffer on his own, as Victor "unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created, [he] rushed
out of the room", highlighting his first sign of neglection. The creature’s awareness of his isolation and loneliness
is strikingly shown when he is forced to adapt his surroundings, in order to survive - to survive in a world where
he is initially unaware of what is considered as the normalities, yet his feelings and survival instincts leads him to
use his initiative: “I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a
neighbouring wood.” The simplicity behind the creature’s nature is indicative of the innocence which he is born
with, and highlights the parabolic message of how all beings are born with purity, which age into variations of
good and evil; perhaps in the novel, Shelley alludes to paradise lost, as the creature resembles satan the
archangel, who was banished from heaven and left to survive on their own in hell, and romantic like Shelley
herself recognise him as a satanic hero. The recognition deriving from the creature reveals its proprietary nature
and its moral compass, as it was able to comprehend the pain he was inflicting upon the Delacy family, and
switched onto a different route in compiling the necessary food he needed to be able to survive without any
assistance. Arguably, the creature is the antithesis of Victor, who finds that "The world was to me a secret which I
desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature ", whereas the creature desires
for the basic necessities like a mate “with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary
for my being.” forcing us to sympathise for him as unlike Victor’s hubris, he attempts to survive the realisation of
being “an outcast in the world forever” and does not try to attain things beyond limitations; and it is this desire for
a mate which gets rejected, forcing not only the creature to survive on its own, but also the other characters
needing to survive the grasps of the creature itself . Similarly in Atwood’s dystopian novel, characters like Offred
are being forced to endure their suffocating society of Gilead, where their patriarchal nature forbids women to
perform certain actions such as communicate freely with one another, as they are constantly “under the eyes”
causing them to “whisper almost without sound”. The contrast between the extent of freedom which the
characters are in need to survive from, before and after the existence of Gilead, is made evident when Aunt Lydia
states “ there is more than one kind of freedom, freedom to and freedom from”. The interpretation of freedom
being coerced into the young females minds, highlights how its being utilised as a vessel in order to usurp power
over the handmaid’s - and it is this manipulation of freedom that they have to try and survive from and remain
alive in their society ; in the same way during the reign of Ronald Reagan, the americans had to survive his
conservative views. Offred’s narrative consisted of constant flashbacks between her past where she lived a life
with all her human rights and her present where she was aware of being watched: “She is my spy, as I am hers”.
The transition between her utopian past and dystopian present, makes it seem as if “this is a story I’m telling”.
One may suggest Atwood alludes to the second world war, where the nazis favoured the Aryan Race, and those

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