Compare and contrast the presentation of monsters Essay Example

as they too can almost imagine the feeling of cold sickliness emanating from Dracula, which again adds credence to the deceptive and covert nature of the fear Dracula evokes. In contrast to the appearance of the Count, it is interesting to note that the terror of Frankenstein's monster is only skin-deep, and that the creature's actual appearance is based heavily on Frankenstein's bias and the reader's own imagination.

Although the reader is given some glimpses of the monster's features - 'his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness' and 'his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set' much of the monster's description comes from the sensationalism of Frankenstein's language, and ironically, isn't very (physically) descriptive: 'Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch'.

There are no real specifics as to what Frankenstein's monster actually looks like, and as a result, the details are left to the reader's own interpretation, which is constantly influenced by the excessive words of Victor Frankenstein. He states that the monster possesses an 'unearthly ugliness', and calls him a 'vile insect' and a 'devil', which immediately colours him as something heretic and evil in the eyes of the reader. Yet, earlier on in the chapter, the monster is described as having 'bounded over the crevices in the ice'.

Although it is likely that the word 'bounded' is supposed to relate to the creature's size and lumbering movements, it nonetheless holds connotations of a playful dog running to its owner,

or perhaps of a young, carefree child. This gives the reader a small insight into the monster's innocent and gentle persona, and coincidentally, we feel pity for the monster as we suddenly begin to realise his abandonment and sadness at the hands of Dr. Frankenstein - 'I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on'.

However, there are some similarities between the presentations of both monsters. Taken from Mary Shelley's Author's Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Shelley says that 'I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together' and how she saw her prototype of Victor Frankenstein working on 'some powerful engine'. This can be compared to when Dracula grabs Harker's arm in a 'grip of steel', as both suggest a strong idea manmade creation, which only adds to the unnaturalness of both monsters.

In both novels there are constant and reoccurring motifs that somehow link both of the monsters to concepts of the Christian religion. For instance, Count Dracula sleeps in the vicinity of an ancient, ruined chapel. In this and in many other ways, the Count represents a perversion of Christian belief - his diet of blood shockingly parallels the Christian Eucharist, in which believers drink and eat the blood and body of Jesus Christ.

In many ways, Dracula perversely parallels Christ himself: like Christ, he has died and been reborn, but his resurrection is a blasphemy, and a manifestation of evil rather then a miracle. While Christ sheds his blood so that others might have eternal life, Dracula drinks the blood of others so that he himself

might live eternally: 'on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran down over the chin and neck'. His immortality is a mockery of life; he is not truly immortal but 'undead', a term that Stoker himself used.

However, although Dracula can be seen as a mockery of Christ, the symbol of Christianity uncovers a weakness within him - 'his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there'. For the creation of Frankenstein, she uses motifs of Christianity to compare to his relationship with his creator. Through the use of his eloquent language he alludes to John Milton's Paradise Lost, one of the books the monster reads while living in the peasants' hovel.

He entreats Frankenstein to 'remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel'. By comparing Victor to God, the reader empathises with the monster's plight in the face of how Frankenstein neglected to care for his creation. Another reference to Milton's poem is when the monster quotes the lines of the title page, when Adam laments his fallen position: 'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/To mould me Man, did I solicit thee/From darkness to promote me? Like Adam, the monster is shunned by his creator, though he strives to be good.

Although both Count Dracula and Frankenstein's creation are intended to be their respective novels' primary antagonists and classic representations of monsters within literature, neither of the characters are

simple creatures of fathomless good or evil. They are both portrayed as having the capacity to possess human feelings and emotions, though it is needless to say that their motivations and perspectives are ultimately different.

For instance, in Chapter III, when the count discusses with Harker 'the crowded streets of your mighty London', we sense that he lusts for conquest and power: 'I long . . . to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is. But alas! ' In light of this declaration, Dracula becomes more then just a monster of unfathomable evil. Rather, he can be seen as a somewhat sympathetic and more human creation, albeit one with a lust for power and vengeance.

A reader can also understand and empathise with the confusion as it is seen in Frankenstein' monster. Although Frankenstein feels only hatred for his creation, through the eloquence of his speech, the monster shows himself to possess a remarkably gentle and sensitive nature. Even the death of his creator offers the monster only bittersweet relief - joy, because Frankenstein caused him so much pain and suffering, and sadness because Frankenstein is the only person with whom he has had any sort of relationship: 'I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn'.

The reader can empathise with the monster's feeling towards his creator, as it perhaps resembles something akin to a relationship between a father and his son, albeit to a far more extreme degree. In conclusion, there are both interesting similarities and stark differences between the presentation of

Frankenstein's monster and Count Dracula - both are used to elicit feelings of fear and repulsion, one, through the method of quiet, brooding menace and coldly calculating evil, while the other uses loud and obvious imagery to challenge and frighten the reader by rendering a grotesque spectacle of physical difference.

Both monsters are also used to represent and mock certain figures in the religion of Christianity, a theory that is both credible and possible, given the time and context in which both novels were written, perhaps to inspire and dissuade a God-fearing public from going against the tenets of Christianity. But perhaps the most interesting theme that links the novels together is the conflict between nature versus nurture - Dracula is a wholly evil creature; yes, an evil creature with a warped sense of 'justice', but an evil creature nonetheless.

But can the same really be said for the creation of Victor Frankenstein, who is torn between vengefulness and compassion for his creator? The reader feels nothing but abject repulsion and horror towards Dracula, but for the creation of Dr. Frankenstein, we are more likely to feel pity - pity for what has been lost and what could have been, and perhaps even pity for what should never have been at all.