When a crime is committed, the blame is usually placed on the criminal. This is because a crime cannot take place without a criminal. However, a lawbreaker generally has reasons for his misdeed. For a crime to occur, a criminal must have incentive. Consequently, the causes of a wrongdoer’s motivation are also responsible for the offence. In addition, crimes can be avoided if the proper precautionary measures are taken. Therefore, anyone who could have stopped a crime from happening is partially accountable for it. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature created by Victor Frankenstein kills several of Victor’s loved ones. These murders could be blamed on the creature, but he is not solely responsible for them. The root cause of the murders is Victor’s secrecy. His concealment causes his obsession, a lack of preventative measures against the creature, and his fear of appearing to be mad. Victor’s obsession with the genesis of life prevents him from thinking clearly. Initially, Victor has a strong interest in science. However, during his time at Ingolstadt, when he becomes interested in the cause of the generation of life, he decides to create and animate a human being. He completely neglects his family and friends because his sole focus is on his creation. Victor prioritizes the creation of his creature over his own health and happiness. Since he works in complete secrecy, there is nobody to help him stop his obsession. In addition, there is nobody who can monitor the aesthetic quality of his creation. He is so fixed on completing his project that he fails to notice how ugly it is. As soon as the creature comes to life, Victor is so horrified and disgusted with it that he runs away. He feels like “the beauty of [his] dream [va... ... middle of paper ... ...t the monster, so there is no one who can back up his story. At the trial, Justine is found guilty and she is sentenced to death. Since Victor does not speak up at Justine’s trial, her death is the result of his silence. As a result of Victor’s secrecy, he becomes completely fixed on the creation of his creature, he does not inform anyone of the danger posed by the monster, and he is unable to tell anyone about the creature for fear of not being taken seriously. Victor’s secrecy during and after the creation of his monster indirectly causes several deaths. While the monster is primarily responsible for the deaths of his victims, Victor’s concealment allows the monster to commit and get away with his murders easily. Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: the original 1818 text. 2nd ed. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Peterborough: Broadview, 1999.
“I collected the instruments of life around me that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet” (Shelley 43). Soon after the monster is created he can't do anything to control the monster from ruining his life and the lives of others. Victor’s fear allows the monster to slip out of his hands and into the real world. Having no control over his creation, Victor panics and becomes very ill. Now that the monster is exposed to the human world, he begins to realize that his owner, Victor Frankenstein, has abandoned him. The feeling of abandonment quickly turns into anger and is taken out on Victor’s brother, William. When Victor gets the news that his brother William had been murdered, he quickly realizes that his monster is guilty. Now knowing what his monster is capable of, Victor Frankenstein panics once again. When Justine, Victor’s servant, pleads guilty for the monster crime, she is convicted and murdered. Victor begins to feel responsible for both deaths. When Victors comes into contact with his monster again, the monster convinces Victor that while he make look grotesque and monstrous from the outside, he has good intentions. He explains that his actions were triggered by his feeling of neglect. Similarly, in the article “Mind Over Mass Media”, Pinker writes
The monster, enraged by the fact that Victor destroyed his female companion, kills Henry and Elizabeth. These deaths causes Victor to fall deeply into despair; his hatred for the monster and his deep grief grows until it completely controls his personality. Victor’s id took hold of his decisions in the form of revenge. Victor states that, “revenge kept me alive; I dared not die and leave my adversary in being.”(171). His id made the decision that Victor should hunt down the monster and kill him at all costs. Without thinking rationally or about the dangers he rushed after the monster into a land of ice and snow. As he chased after the monster he didn’t think rationally or use his superego and ego. His id had overpowered his two other psychic zones and this caused his personality to be unhealthy and unbalanced.Watson was with Victor on his deathbed and he wrote, “His voice became fainter as he spoke; and at length, exhausted by his efforts he sunk into silence...he pressed my hand feebly, and his eyes closed for ever.”(182). Victor unhealthy psychic zones and the stress he put on his body during his chase lead to his
As the novel continues, Victor and The Monster both experience anger, sadness, and depression. They also seek revenge for one another after The Monster killed William Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clerval, and caused the trial that led to the death of Justine Moritz . The Monster seeks revenge from Victor for making him so unappealing to the general eye “Cursed,
...der that the novel’s outcome is inevitable. The deaths of both Victor and the monster signify what dangerous knowledge can do to one. Somewhere along the way Victor failed to remember that he must care for what he creates, similar to the way nature looks after its creations. Excessive knowledge may prove to be destructive when not used properly. The monster was deemed to be inhumane and cruel, but Victor was his creator; therefore, Victor is just as inhumane and cruel as the monster. Victor had enough knowledge to create the monster, but he did not have enough knowledge to understand the monster. Victor’s creation is was not a monster when it was created, he had the potential to be something extraordinary. While dangerous knowledge may be destructive, limited knowledge can be even more lethal. The omniscient Victor failed to realize that the monster had a heart.
Fundamentally, Victor abandons the newborn creature, leaving the helpless orphan to suffer the society’s rejection. Passionate in his benign desire of discovery, Victor outlines his invention of a life from corpses: “As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved … to make the being of a gigantic stature” (Shelley 32). To quickly achieve his goal, he simplifies his work to avoid small parts by building immense features, yet he ignores how the deformities fit in their society. To him, this life is just a lab product and not a sensitive soul. However, Victor recalls his astonishment at the figure’s ugly birth: “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 35). Clearly, this gruesome aftermath catches Victor off guard. Unlike natural parents who take care of their infants, Victor deserts his scary-looking creature wi...
The sad tale of the creature begins with its creation. As soon as the creature opened his eyes for the first time, Victor was taken aback in horror and disgust. Victor fled to his room and threw himself on his bed, hoping to forget about the creature, if even for a little bit. When Victor woke up, he saw this: “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs.” (44). This shows just how ignorant Victor truly was to the fact that this creature was even a living being, let alone a humanlike being. The creature later says that he has trouble remembering his very early moments of being, although there is no doubt that this event left some sort of
In literature, one of the most commonplace themes in canonical works is that of betrayal. In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the characters of Victor Frankenstein and the monster embody those themes of betrayal and its impact on institutions, people, theories and most importantly, society. As Shelly writes the characters of the monster and its creator, readers are reminded of the themes of betrayal in a compelling fashion, and how human behavior impact how we view and treat those who we consider outcasts, in this case the characters of Victor Frankenstein and the monster.
When losing his brother, he ran away to the mountains to collect himself before facing his family again. “When Victor Frankenstein creates the creature, he collapses because of a nervous illness and describes himself in this state as ‘lifeless’” (Ruston). Every time Victor loses someone, he goes to be alone and blames himself, claiming he is the victim of these heinous crimes. However, Victor is a victim because it is his creation, and his family, he believes that he is the only victim and the Creatures actions do not affect anyone else. When the Frankenstein’s lost William, they lost a brother and a son. As well as when they lost Elizabeth and Henry. The sole survivor of the story was Ernest, and he was not mentioned often. Victor frequently asks himself, “Why me?” and bares all the weight of the deaths on his shoulders. This goes back to Victor never telling anyone about the Creature. “Frankenstein’s deceitfulness is one of his greatest flaws. His whole obsession with science is shrouded in secrecy. It is what keeps him from saving his loved ones from the monster. His failure to reveal his secret of the monster leads to the destruction of those he loved” (Nguyen). If someone else had known, Victor would not have carried the entire burden
Victor abandons the monster because he didn't turn out how he wanted him to be. That's one of the main reasons why the monster acted the way he did.It's also the fact that he was basically thrown away before he could even say his first word. The monster was only doing what all children do when they are brought to life, seek their mother or in this case their creator. When Victor ran out on the monster the monster had no clue what was going on. It expected Victor to come back, so when he didn’t you can imagine how much hurt the monster must of felt. His own creator didn’t want him because he didn’t look
Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
From theft too murder, the monster was the cause of many horrible things. Although all the monsters actions can be led back to Victor Frankenstein, he was not the only one who felt to blame. The monsters first murder victim was William, as the monster rested in the woods he was approached by a young boy. “Hideous monster! Let me go. My papa is a syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he will punish you.” (Chapter 16). The monster learns the boy is related to Victor Frankenstein, and kills William. William’s death affected two people Elizabeth and Victor. Elizabeth took responsibility for Williams’s death because she gave him the locket that was presumed to be the murders motive. Taking responsibility affected her so greatly she became physically ill. Victor took responsibility for William’s death because on his way back to Geneva, Victor saw the monster in the woods and realized the monster killed William. Victor took responsibility because he created the monster and abandoned him. Victor also became physically ill from taking responsibility for Williams’s death. Williams’s death was the cause of executions of Justine. Justine was executed for a crime the monster committed, Victor also took responsibility for this death because it to was caused by the monster he created. The monsters next murder victims were Henry and Elizabeth. Similar to the other murders Victor also took responsibility for
Consequently, Victor was part of the murder and execution of innocents. After the creature became literate, the creature read Victor’s writings about him; Victor was ashamed and discontented with the horrific monster he gave life to. The monster in rebellion to his creators discontent, and disgust with him, decided, while passing through Victor’s homestead to murder Victor’s youngest brother, William. Not only did the monster murder William in cold blood, the monster also set-up Justine with the murder. Evidently, William is one innocent murdered. Then, after Justine is suspected with his murder and found with a piece of William, she is sentenced to death for her ‘crime’. Justine is soon executed by the time Victor finds out about the whole incident. Therefore, Victor is part of the death of two innocents, for creating such a beast. Victor’s guilty conscious is displayed in the following, “He beheld those he loved spend vain sorrow upon the grave of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to his hallowed arts” (Shelley 93). These arts of bringing his creature to life, without weighing out the consequences of his actions. Not only will Victor have to live with this for the rest of his natural life, but his family and community will have to mourn and live the consequences as well. Possibly, if Victor would have said something
He was not willing to take responsibility for the monster he created. The monster was his responsibilities, his belongings, but Frankenstein didn’t accept the monster, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber…” (35). the moment his creation comes to life, Frankenstein abandons it and letting it free into the world. Frankenstein did not know what the monster is even capable of, leaves it unattended. In the article, “The Age of Biological Control”, A.T. Nuyen discusses bioethics as well as Confucianism, which is the religion of ethical, political, and social teachings. The article also goes over Francis Fukuyama’s concepts which examine the transformation human beings will go through. Moral principles don’t seem to matter because scientists are willing to do just about anything to reach their scientific goal, no matter the responsibilities that follow. Shelley reveals how ignoring one’s responsibility will catch up to them and cause havoc on their life. Frankenstein avoided his responsibility of the monster and in return, the monster began killing his loved ones and getting revenge on his creator for abandoning
The suffering of Victor’s creature at the hands of society turns him into a monster. The monster starts his revenge on Victor through the murder of William. “ ‘Frankenstein!, you belong to my enemy- to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you will be my first victim” (102). He continues his retribution on Victor by murdering those close to him. These deaths are a direct result of his decision, this takes its toll on Victor. “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; others await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friends, my benefactor-” (129). Clerval was killed simply because of his relationship with Victor, this feeling of guilt leads to his