In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley mocks society when she makes the monster very gentle and then turns him into the monster people see him as. She also shows the themes of obsession with vengeance and the quest for knowledge when Frankenstein creates the monster then abandons him triggering revenge within the monster. Victor creates the monster with thoughts to change the world, but instead he ends up putting his loved ones in danger. He seeks revenge on the monster he creates causing further conflict. The monster is the good one in the book but even he seeks knowledge about who he is, and why he is here, but that does not end well and he relies on his destructive nature to find the answers causing both pain and grief on those around him and on himself. The themes of the quest for knowledge and obsession with vengeance are shown in Frankenstein when Victor creates and abandons his monster causing the monster to monster to want to know his purpose causing him to become destructive and Victor to seek revenge for the death of his loved ones.
When Victor Frankenstein gets his hands on the books by Cornelius Agrippa, he knows that he has to change the world, and this ambition cause him to lose his loved ones at the hand of his creation. When he is young, he disobeys his father by reading books by Cornelius Agrippa when he is not supposed to. And he does not stop there, because when he returns home, the first thing on his mind is to “...procure the whole works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus.” (Shelley 39) As a child, Victor is full of himself and thinks he can change the world. He is curious, and is eager to know as much as he can. When explaining this to Walton, Victor says "Curiosity, earnest research to...
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...to seek vengeance for everything he has gone through, he realizes his mistake but by then, there is nothing left for him anymore. Victor seeks for the monster to destroy him, and in the end, he destroy himself because of the mistakes he made. Throughout the novel, Mary Shelley is constantly bringing up the nature and its destructive methods. If messed with it like Victor did, self-destruction will occur. Also, ignorance is bliss is one of the important messages because if Victor had not wanted more knowledge, he would have been happy and all of his family members might have survived. If victor had not been curious, he would not have to seek revenge on his creation for destroying his family. Throughout the book, obsession with knowledge and the quest for knowledge are shown as deadly factors because of the effects produced.
Works Cited
frankenstein by mary shelley
Compare and Contrast the episodes of the creation of the monster and the creation of the second monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley finished her first edition of 'Frankenstein' in 1816, when she was nineteen years old. Since then her "monster" has become so popular in the twenty-first century that he appears in films, advertisements, comics and even computer games. So how is it that as such a young age she was able to write such a gripping novel, which has become more famous than any other work of 'Romantic' literature, and indeed, her own? It could have been a result of an intellectually stimulating childhood due to having free access to her fathers extensive library and literary connections; or it could have been a result of her being emotionally undernourished as a child. Whichever way, she has succeeded in writing a novel that 'speaks to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror' (p.8 - author's introduction), as she wanted; and she has included many personal ideas about politics and familial relations as well as moral, philosophical and scientific ideas on the creation and 'elixir of life' (p.42).
“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
Mary Shelley shows how both Victor and the monster create sympathy for one another. They are both victims, but they are also wrongdoers. They bring a great burden of suffering to each other lives, causes hatred to be created for the characters.
After Frankenstein discovered the source of human life, he became wholly absorbed in his experimental creation of a human being. Victor's unlimited ambition, his desire to succeed in his efforts to create life, led him to find devastation and misery. "...now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished..." (Shelley 51). Victor's ambition blinded him to see the real dangers of his project. This is because ambition is like a madness, which blinds one self to see the dangers of his actions. The monster after realizing what a horror he was demanded that victor create him a partner. "I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was like torture..." (Shelley 169). Victor's raw ambition, his search for glory, has left him. His eyes have been opened to see his horrible actions, and what have and could become of his creations. As a result, Victor has realized that he is creating a monster, which could lead to the downfall of mankind. His choice is simple, save his own life or save man.
Throughout the story, Victor’s life is in peril due to the monster’s extreme vindictiveness. Although the monster is justified in showing anger towards Victor, his killings of Victor’s friends and family is overly brutal. Years of neglect by Victor, which leave the monster fatherless as he grows up, drive him into a vindictive rage, or according to the monster, an "uncontrollable passion". Instead of going after Victor directly and immediately, however, the monster acts to complete what he calls a "demoniacal design". He carries out this plan by methodically killing Victor’s friends and family. This he...
Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, was written during a period of dramatic revolution. The failed French Revolution and Industrial Revolution seriously mark the novel with hints of moral and scientific revolution. Through Frankenstein, Shelley sends out a clear message that morally irresponsible scientific development can unleash a monster that can destroy its creator.
Victor Frankenstein was the creator of the monster in the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. He was an ambitious man who had high hopes and dreams. Even as a child, he was very intelligent, studying the sciences and scientists of the past. But, as ambition caused the downfall of Julius Caesar, it caused the downfall of Victor Frankenstein. As the creator of his monster, he had responsibilities as a mother has towards her child. Out of pride, he ignored his responsibilities. Even after his ambitious mistake, had he acknowledged his responsibilities, he could have saved himself from destruction. He made significant mistakes out of pride and ambition that brought unhappiness and destruction to himself and his loved ones.
The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor attempts to go beyond the acceptable human limits and access the secret of life. Victor's experiment created in the name of science holds the key to which Victor believes is his future success. "The accomplishment of his toils" is a monstrous male figure created from parts of other corpses which he brings to life through his work (Frankenstein, 34). Victor's motivation for success and scientific exploration drive him to play God. "It was the secrets of heaven and earth that [he] desired to learn; and whether it was the ...
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...
...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.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
The most prevalent theme in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is that of obsession. Throughout the novel there are constant reminders of the struggles that Victor Frankenstein and his monster have endured. Many of their problems are brought upon by themselves by an obsessive drive for knowledge, secrecy, fear, and ultimately revenge.
...e seeking help and strength to take care of problems in their lives. Victor Frankenstein is a man with a loving and caring family. Family and friends are an important part of his life. He has his whole life in front of him, when creates his monster. He creates the monster in the likeness of man with same need of love and affection as man. Although, this is his creation, he lets the monster down and does not care for him. The monster begins to feel neglected and lonely and wants desperately to have a human relationship. The monster turns angry and revengeful because he is so sad and abandoned. He wants Victor to feel the way that he does, all alone. The monster succeeds and Victor ends up losing all the important in his life and his own life. In the end, the monster dies and the need for human relationship becomes the destruction for both the monster and Victor.
In my opinion, Victor should note also that knowledge itself does not hurt, however the application of the knowledge is where it will hurt, when someone will act and use the knowledge in some way, such as in the example of nuclear energy. Used beneficially, it provides great benefits, such as in power generation. But the bad side, nuclear weapons, is one example of a "Frankenstein monster" unleashed upon the world due to man's uncontrolled passions. So Shelley's message to the reader is that knowledge without morality will lead to suffering. Sadly, man has not yet learned this and it will take much time for this message of Frankenstein to settle in.