Some thoughts on King Lear / Frankenstein


"Justice will prevail."

Justice does not prevail in either piece, and we are only left with the vague hope of better things to come.

In Lear: We hope Edgar will go on to rule the kingdom, and make amends.
In Frankenstein: We hope the Demon dies, and that Victor's notes are lost.

• In Lear justice prevails, but only as the hope and possibility of something better. With Regan and Cordelia dead, Edmund vanquished, and Oswald slain, there are no more apparent causes for Lear's suffering. He knows that his wicked daughters have met their end, and that his kingdom is safe from their tyrannical wrath. In his last lines he (erronously) thinks Cordelia may be alive, and thus he dies happy in his madness.


• Frankenstein is rampant with injustice. William's juvenile death, Justine's unjust hanging, everything seems to be bad until we see Victor safely released from prison, scotch-free. We are left unsure as to whether or not the Daemon dies, and all is left up in the air.


• "Flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport" -Earl of Gloucester
• "The gods are just and of our pleasent vices make instruments to plague us." -Edgar son of Gloucester


• Both pieces are tragedies, where we are to learn from the moral injustices of the characters, and thus walk away purified.

"The most enviable of human gifts is the ability to reason clearly."

Neither King Lear, nor Frankenstein reason clearly; neither character thinks about the consequences of their actions, and are made to suffer the results of their poor choices. Both characters would be envious of someone who have clearer reason.

In Lear: Lear acts on whim and banishes Kent, and disowns Cordelia; leading to his eventual demise.
In Frankenstein: Frankenstein creates monster without first reasoning what it will do in the world.

• Lear banishes Kent, and Cordelia much too fast and doesn't think about what he is doing. He flies into a rage at once and doesn't want to  reason, even with Kent, his trusted friend. Everyone in the court acknowledges how wrong and illsuited this is.
• Everything that Lear does in Act I Scene I comes toppling down on him thourought the rest of the play.
• In Frankenstein, Victor creates his monster without giving a single thought to the reprecutuons of his actions.
• The monster Victor creates in Chapter 4 undoes him throughtout the rest of the piece.

"Freedom is the key to happiness."

Only when entirely rid of obligations, and free from their own concerns and realities, do either Lear or Frankenstein seem happy truly happy.

In Lear: Lear must go mad before he can appear before Edgar and Gloucester joking and happy like a child, senile in his old age.
In Frankenstein: Only when Frankenstein is unburdened by the monster can he truely enjoy himself and see the beauty of nature.



The Skeletal Essay Organizer.

Move from a specific to a topic, to a theme, to a thesis.

Theme, statement about the topic.
Thesis, "an analytic statement about the theme answering a why or how."

#1 - Specifics with page refs.
#2 - The how (How is this connected with the text? Why does it come about?)
#3 - The why (What is the intent of this specific?)
#4 - Why you think the specfic relevant.
#5 - The result of the specfic.
#6 - Significance towards your thesis. Your topic sentence.

#1 - #3 Come from the text.
#4 - #6 Come from your mind.

In laying out your paragraoh, #6 comes first, then #1 - #5.