Diction In Frankenstein

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M. Shelley uses diction choices that connote suffering, which results from creating beauty unnaturally, while P. Shelley employs calm diction trends to illustrate that worship of natural intellectual beauty brings contentment. In Frankenstein, Victor seeks to form a being “in proportion” (35), having “selected his features as beautiful” (M. Shelley 35). He aims to achieve perfection using scientific principles as his tools and naturally formed, “beautiful” humans as his models. In attempting to replicate natural beauty unnaturally, Victor “deprive[s] himself of rest and health” (M. Shelley 36), exerting “infinite pains”(M. Shelley 35) to create a living creature from human remains. M. Shelley’s use of the word “pains” reveals not only that …show more content…
In “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”, P. Shelley describes the “Spirit of BEAUTY” (l. 15) that “floats through unseen amongst us” (l. 2), manifesting itself in nature through “hues and harmonies of evening” (l. 8) as well as “rainbows o’er yon mountain river” (l. 19). For P. Shelley, beauty in nature calms through its pleasant sensory manifestations. He describes the sights and sound of nature with the alliterative words “hues” and “harmonies,” each starting with a soft, breathy “h” indicative of the soothing breath of loved ones at one’s side and the gentle breeze that cools in summer and heralds in springtime after a long winter. These calm connotations of P. Shelley’s diction suggest the comfort achieved through observation and appreciation of the sounds and colors in nature. P. Shelley additionally depicts the colors in nature through his reference to “rainbows,” a natural representation of all colors in the visible spectrum, unreproducible by a human hand. A rainbow also holds biblical significance, sent by God to comfort Noah in Genesis. P. Shelley thus suggests that by worshipping natural beauty with awe as Noah worships God, humans can receive solace from
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