Throughout all of history, people are shown to be most strongly driven by passion. This passion can either be born from negative emotions or positive emotions, which are both extremely powerful. Positive and negative emotions greatly affect how people perceive the world and how they interact with their surroundings. One of the most influential forms of negative feelings is despair: the soul-crushing, everlasting type of sorrow that has no end and beats a person with relentless grief. Despair causes detrimental behavior because it destroys positive interactions. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s character demonstrates how despair makes people become dishonest with themselves and others, creates changes in personality, …show more content…
Such extreme amounts of sadness are usually self-orientated, as portrayed when the monster admits after murdering William and depositing all the blame on Justine, that, “….not I, but she [Justine] shall suffer; the murder I have committed because I am forever robbed of all that she could give me, she shall atone” (Shelly 145). This quote illuminates how the monster is being ignorant and dishonest by putting the blame on another person because he does not believe that anyone will ever love him. The monster is overcome with despair because he feels like an outcast that is unable to be loved, and so he makes the rash decision to shove all of the accusations onto another person just in an attempt to inflict some of the pain he feels onto them. This quote also shows how he is being dishonest with himself and not fully recognizing the fact that he is the true murderer and not admitting that the act he committed is severely horrendous, rather he implies that because of the hardships he experiences that there is some reasonable explanation for his murderous actions. Though his actions are not just, the situation only took place because of how he felt alone and revengeful due to the extreme despair that overcomes him whenever anyone looks upon him in disgust. In this particular situation, the monster’s negative emotions drive him to commit an act of extreme
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818 about the scientist Victor Frankenstein who committed sin-filled crimes of pride for his own personal benefit, but redeems himself by confession. Shelley wrote this novel for the sole purpose to warn “all men make mistakes, But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repair the evil; the only crime is pride” Man should not play God and should apologize for his mistakes committed. In the work, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley drives Dr. Victor Frankenstein to pursue morally wrong, selfish, and prideful crimes that eventually lead to his redemption; however, not without compromising his life, the lives of others, and his immortal soul.
Throughout Frankenstein, nature is considered to be a healing remedy in the process of Victor Frankenstein’s recovery.
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” is a quote from Chinese philosopher, Confucius, that immaculately describes the knowledge the characters in the story of Frankenstein lacked. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, creates a creature whom he abandons soon after. After the abandonment the creature gets treated horribly by other humans, feeling alone in a world where there was no other like him. This causes the creature to feel hate towards his creator, whom he continuously tries to seek revenge from. The desire for revenge transforms the creature into a true monster that has no feelings or aspirations beyond destroying Victor, leading to his miserable death.
“What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?”-John Green, an American author of young adult fiction, such as The Fault in Our Stars, and the YouTube blogger of crash course history. The mythological character Prometheus and Victor from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, try to influence mankind in a positive way, but instead the result is detrimental to society. Victor and Prometheus both want to help mankind, regardless, both overstep their bounds, and are severely punished. Although their true characters are revealed through how they handle their suffering.
In her novel titled ‘Frankenstein’, Mary Shelley employs many innovative literary techniques to elicit feelings of sympathy for the monster, even though the creature’s desire for revenge may render him incapable. Are readers able to respond compassionately to the creature even though he willingly makes Victor’s life miserable by murdering those close to him?
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is filled with death and sorrow. They occur in almost every aspect of the book. The four "squares" of the book, Walter, Victor, the monster, and the cottagers, all suffer from them at one time or another. Some perceive Frankenstein as a horror story; however, in actuality it is a book of tragedy and despair. Every page reveals more misery than the page before. Thus, death and sorrow are inevitable in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, follows the story of Victor Frankenstein, his self-driven seclusion from society due to his fixations on life and death only stimulating his madness: “I paused, examining and analyzing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to life… I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect… that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret” (Shelley 38). Frankenstein always had a passion for gaining knowledge. His feelings and actions were based on reasoning, which deeply contrasted against his more romantic-thinking family. In his years leading up to going to university, he found a new passion for alchemy. While attending the University of Ingolstadt, he became entranced with the studies of alchemy along with natural philosophy and modern sciences. This ardor would eventually be his downfall after his fixation on life and death in relation to science led to the construction of an eight-foot behemoth. Frankenstein exemplifies the effects of
creature is not to blame - it is the creator. For this reason, we feel
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, cruelty is a frequent theme and different acts of cruelty are committed almost every chapter. Victor Frankenstein abandoned his creation because of its grotesque face and destroyed any chance if the monster getting a mate, and the monster kills everyone Frankenstein loves out of spite. In Frankenstein, the different acts of cruelty that are imposed onto Frankenstein and his creation help reveal their true character
Compassion and empathy are often described as human-kind's greatest quality. Yet, many things can distract or overpower our compassion to allow room for things like cruelty, selfishness, and the need for vengeance. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has no compassion for his creation; however, his creation is born with large amounts of compassion, but Frankenstein ignores and abuses his monster. Victor’s lack of compassion towards the monster, makes the monster lose his own compassion in a need for vengeance to make his abuser feel the same pain he does.
Having watched the movie Frankenstein was an experience that truly stirred up emotions in me that I thought was only normal for everyone who knew Frankenstein and be melodramatic for a day, but the chance to really understand the emotions I have felt back as I watched the movie was reading Frankenstein’s book story. Reading Frankenstein in depth made my understanding of its contents more comprehensive and led me to identify the many social issues within. Frankenstein was a tough read for me, but going on through it gets better and more exciting as I got used to the style and the language used therein. Can science have the ultimate power to push the human potential of manipulating life itself as something that man can create and give? The act of playing God usually comes with transgressions done in the field of science including choosing who must and who must not be given life which ultimately results in serious negative moral consequences.
Taking responsibility is “the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management” (dictionary.com). When you decide to take the responsibility of something or someone then do it to your greatest ability and do not leave any stones unturned. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley determines the role of responsibility for the welfare, acts, the deaths and the lives of others. Taking responsibility means being accountable for your actions, accepting the mistakes and taking the ownership of the mistakes that come along with one’s actions. Taking responsibility does not mean that all the actions will go as planned but accepting the consequences even if they do not go
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is a classic novel. Frankenstein is about a man named Victor Frankenstein who set out on a quest after his mother died. His quest was to reanimate a body to learn how to maybe bring back his mother. After years of work and isolation Victor succeeded, but was horrified by his creation. After rejecting his creation the monster swore vengeance. For the rest of the novel the monster haunts Victor, by killing his loved ones and in some cases trying to force Victor into creating another monster. Victor Frankenstein; A young Swiss boy, he grows up in Geneva reading the works of the ancient and outdated alchemists, a background that serves him ill when he attends university at Ingolstadt. There
Victor’s father’s death would be tougher on Victor than William’s, Henry’s, and Elizabeth’s death because they communicated more emotionally with each other then other characters. “What then become of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me.” (Shelley, 189) This quote depicts the lack of sensation Victor faces after the death of his father.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein centers around a creator who rejects his own creation. The plot thickens as Victor Frankenstein turns his back on his creation out of fear and regret. The monster is cast out alone to figure out the world and as a result of a life with no love, he turns evil. Shelley seems to urge the reader to try a relate with this monster and avoid just seeing him as an evil being beyond repentance. There is no doubt that the monster is in fact evil; however, the monster’s evilness stems from rejection from his creator.