Victor Frankenstein crosses paths with Walton in the Arctic Sea and upon hearing Walton’s plans, he decides to enlighten the explorer on why his pursuits should be abandoned. Frankenstein is a perfect example of an escapee of the cave, who has returned to tell the other prisoners to escape as well. In the book, he exclaims, “Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me; let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips”(Shelley 13). Victor was at one point just like Walton. He felt the same need to achieve greatness even if it hurt him along the way. In the book, Frankenstein recalls the days he spent following his goal, “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree… and I …show more content…
The difference between him and Walton though was the fact that Victor actually achieves his goal. After the creation of his creature, Frankenstein thinks, “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health… now that I had finished, the beauty of my dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”(Shelley 42). Victor feels disappointment and decides to shun the creature and does not take responsibility for his actions. Victor later reflects on this mistake by saying, “My rage is unspeakable when I reflect that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society, still exists”(Shelley 184). He lets the creature leave, and this ends up amplifying his suffering and causing others to suffer as well. All of the people Victor loves in his life end up dying because of the creature’s actions. He wants vengeance and seeks help from society, but ends up in prisons because he is seen as unstable. In the book, Frankenstein recalls a conversation he had with a Genevan magistrate, “He endeavoured to soothe me as a nurse does a child and reverted my tale as the effects of delirium”(Shelley
Victor's gradual descent towards the dark side of the human psyche is clearly portrayed through Shelley's writing. As stated in previous discussions, Victor's original motivation in pursuing a career in the science field was purely out of love for the world of science and a true passion for acquiring knowledge. However, as the novel continues, we witness his motives go from authentic to impure. As such, we delve into the dark side. His pursuit of knowledge and his creation of the monster are all on the purer or perhaps lighter side of the psyche. It isn't until he abandons him that we begin to see him cross over. His choices to abandon the creature, to let someone else to die for its crimes, to create it a companion only to kill her, to allow the ones he loved to die at its hand, and to still refuse to claim it in the end are all acts
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor and the monster go through a journey filled with love, betrayal, and ambition. However, there are key differences between the two of them. Victor leads a good life, but has an inner spark within him that leads him to rebel against the normal world and seek glory. The monster starts off with derelict beginnings and simply wishes for the basic needs that every human gets to experience such as love, affection, and friendship. Eventually, they both face problems, and as a result, devise evil plans, and yet their motivations and rationale cause the reader to have more sympathy for the monster than Frankenstein.
There is one common thread throughout Victor Frankenstein’s behavior in the novel: he is ruled by his passions. From the beginning of the novel, he is unrestrained and unbalanced, and his major action in the novel is an expression of the fundamentally selfish and presumptuous desire to create life. As he says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source...” (Shelley 55). He wants to be lauded by the world as the first and only man who could create life. This desire to be special and noticed stops him from contemplating that there might be a reason that no one else has created life before. Once the creature has come to life, Victor is overpowered by fear and unable to provide care for him, an action of fundamental irresponsibility that is almost as reckless as his initial creation. He does not even begin to contemplate the ramifications of his act of godlike creation until it has already been done. It is only after he has lost everything that he seems to develop a somewhat more accurate and much more critical view of himself and his actions. In Victor Frankenstein, Shelley shows the folly of allowing your desires to rule over
While Shelley describes Victor as a highly self-absorbed and obsessive scientist, Kenneth Branagh develops a more humane character, whose pain and emotions transform him into a delusional man. In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein often acts out of pure selfishness. For instance, Victor remains silent to save his reputation and lets Justine die on the morrow for a murder she didn’t commit (Shelley 59). He is even convinced that “[the] poor victim . . . [feels] not, as [he does], such deep and bitter agony” (Shelley 59). Because he deflects the suffering on himself, he proves once again that he is self-absorbed. However, Branagh’s Victor is more considerate of the people around him, as he tries to make his way through the villagers to stop Justine’s
..., played God, abandoned his creation, and then hid any relation to the creature. Victor is quite at fault for the murders that take place in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. True, the monster does know right from wrong, the difference is he was not brought up by his parents that way. How to live life is something that is learned and imprinted through experience and guidance. The monster was never fully given the chance to live because upon the day he arrived he was instantly rejected. Victor created the monster physically and emotionally within himself and in turn died by it.
Similarities between Walton and Victor are evident throughout the story. Walton plays an important part in the book because without him, the reader would not know about the tragic story of Frankenstein. Walton offers an alternative perspective on Victor’s life since their decisions and choices lead to separate outcomes (Paul). For Victor, his decision to not confront his creation lead to his sickness and his downfall (211). As for Walton, he let go of his ambition to voyage across the Artic so he would not spiral down the same path as Victor (214). However, despite their different conclusions at the end of the novel, both Walton and Victor express reflections of each other (Paul).
He is so concerned about creating the creature that he puts his loved ones to the side and focuses solely on the creation of the creature. However, Victor eventually regrets his decision of isolating himself. He states “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (Shelley 15). He admits that the effects of his decisions were bad and he doesn’t want Walton to go through what he went through. Victor is so distraught because “Yet even the enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” (Shelley 194). He feels so upset because the devil even has companions and he
I cannot lead them unwillingly to danger, and I must return” (Shelley 294). This displays how through hearing the sorrows that Victor felt from his pursuit of knowledge, that Walton did not want to fall into the same grievance. Therefore, he decided that returning home to where he can find consolation is the brightest thing to do, as he would avoid the risk of death. Therefore, knowledge shifted his fate from becoming honoured for his discoveries, to returning home as a miserable man. Additionally, Victor’s ambition to uncover the secrets of life, ultimately led to his death. The creature, a product of Victor’s knowledge, ensured that Victor lived a life full of grief and he accomplished it by murdering Victor’s loved ones. When VIctor reflected back on his life he thought, “I was cursed by some devil and carried about with me my eternal hell” (Shelley 276). In reality, he brought this spoken curse upon himself by uncovering the secrets of science. The fact that they are secrets suggests that they are forbidden, and therefore Victor was constructing his fate when he uncovered this dangerous
...ogance and selfishness result in the death of anyone and everyone around him and ultimately his own demise. Walton, at the beginning of the novel, was also self centered and obsessed with the fame of doing something never done before, in his case it is traveling to the North Pole. After hearing Frankenstein's story Walton changes his mind and turns around his boat, saving both himself and his crew.
“But when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance” (Shelley 212). It makes sense that the monster would not be happy in this world, he never even asked to be here. He holds Frankenstein responsible for his sorrow as he is the one who created him. To only be seen as a monster despite your attempts at compassion and thoughtfulness can get to someone. Once again, the insight into what the monster is feeling here, envy and rage, makes him more and more human to the reader. The murder the monster partakes in becomes his inclination, “Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen. The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable passion. And now it is ended; there is my last victim!” (Shelley 212). With his creator also dead, he finds his vengeance at an end. The monster does not murder Victor however. He wants him to suffer as much as he has since his creation. The isolation and abandonment inflicted from Victor is the catalyst for the Monster to murder members of his family. Despite this hatred for this man, the monster still views him as a father figure. This is why he weeps and pleas to Walton, the regretful words of a son who has lost his father. Walton is witness to the creature’s deep depression, he wishes he could take back all the pain and suffering caused by both parties. His sense of longing and remorse in his words are
Although “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor and his monster, Walton is the most reliable narrator throughout the novel. However, like most narrator’s, even his retelling of Victor’s story is skewed by prejudice and favoritism of the scientist’s point of view. Yet this could be attributed to the only view points he ever gets to truly hear are from Victor himself and not the monster that he only gets to meet after he comes to mourn his fallen master.
...the downfall of Frankenstein and the monster. Frankenstein found the secret to life, though he applies his gained knowledge and ambition to his own selfish goals, which wind up destroying him and those closest to him. Walton has something in common with Frankenstein; his ambition to achieve something that no man has ever accomplished before. The difference between Victor and Walton is tat Walton decides to turn back. The monster on the other hand never wanted any fame or glory; his ambition was motivated by the thirst for revenge. Ultimately even Frankenstein, on his deathbed, realized the harsh consequences of his actions. Victor states, "Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid ambition..." (Shelley 229).
First, Robert journals all his travels in letters to his sister as he gets ready and sets out for an adventure. “ I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of a man.”(letter) After, finding himself stuck between ice, Walton encounters Victor upon a slab of ice, and brings him aboard the ship. Then, as Walton nurses the dreadful weakened Victor back to help, his vigor for seeking success and the unknown leads Frankenstein to relate the story that led his misfortune. Finally, Walton having learned from Victor's example, how destructive the thirst for knowledge can be. Walton realizes the possible consequences of Frankenstein actions up to now. He decides to turn around on his voyage and end it there.
Therefore, he proceeded in finding the Creature’s whereabouts. This gives the reader the impression that the fate of the Creature will be at the hands of his creator. Victor says that many times he wishes we were dead, but it is revenge that keeps him going. Hours, days, and months pass by and Victor is still in his voyage across the seas to find the Creature. He cannot rest until the Creature is in his grasp. However, Victor becomes ill before he can even find the Creature. This is not an ending that anyone would have imagined happening. One could make the assumption that it was going to be Victor who was going to put an end to his own creation. Mary Shelley does a great job of pinning both main characters to each other and letting the reader decide their fates. Before dying, Victor begged Walton to fulfill his last dying wish. He wanted Walton to kill the Creature for him if he died in the process of killing the Creature himself. Walton is still in shock from the story Frankenstein told him and now this last piece puts everything together for
While the monster gains a feeling of hatred and a desire for revenge after he is abandoned and treated pitifully, Frankenstein continuing reinforces the suffering of his creation, and likewise the suffering of himself. Frankenstein is completely to blame for the misery that he endures. Victor creates a being only for his own fulfillment, and afterwards abandons the great responsibility that he bears for it. To make it worse, Frankenstein intentionally ruins the monster 's happiness and gives him the same horrendous treatment that the rest of mankind gives the monster. Victor 's selfish actions cost him his family, bring him to the brink of insanity, and make a terrible creature out of a loving and compassionate being. Victor Frankenstein is a true