In the classic horror Frankenstein, Mary Shelley distorts the role of the antagonist and protagonist. By depicting her antagonizing character known simply as the creature or at times the monster as a lonesome unnatural being, reluctantly existing outside of society a sympathy is provoked and the murderous creation though frightening, becomes more of an underdog than a villain. In a similar fashion, Shelley's protagonist the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein, who's ambition to create life artificially is fulfilled only for his cruel and superficial behavior to gradually manifest displaying his neglect and distain for his child, becomes less of a hero and more of a villain. Although distorted, the opposing forces of antagonist and protagonist remain true throughout this tragic eighteenth century tale. Though Shelley’s literal monster is not a hero he is made so only when compared to her ruthlessly determined man of science, the monster’s villainous father, Victor Frankenstein.
I am here to present my vision of the play known as Frankenstein’s monster, a play once directed by Tom Hallyer. Frankenstein’s monster is set in a gloomy era around the time of the First World War. A mad scientist by the name of Doctor Frankenstein plans to gather the bodies of the fallen soldiers from the war, combining them in his secret laboratory. Frankenstein is soon forced to choose between his fiancée Elizabeth and his own creations life. He is quick to make the judgement but after the decision was made the monster had escaped and ran off seeking refuge in the forest, he spots a bright light in the distance and follows it leading to the home of an old blind man known as De Lacey along with his son Felix and daughter Agatha. The monster
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.
When Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is analyzed, critics comes to a conclusion about Victor Frankenstein's creation. The creature invokes the most sympathy from the readers than any other character in the novel. Because he is abandoned by society which manipulates the creature to do evil things despite his good heart. Therefore Shelley's message throughout the novel is that a person is not born evil, they are made evil.
Ambition is a valuable quality to possess but when used for the wrong reason it can be detrimental. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, an inspired scientist, uses his ambition to fuel his creative work. Macbeth, the brave soldier in the play Macbeth, displays a great need for power. With his ambition thriving, he will do anything to be in charge. Victor Frankenstein and Macbeth, both aggressive men, display an extreme sense of ambition leading them to ultimately go insane. The urgency for recognition both becomes and obsession over time and negatively influences the decisions they make.
Frankenstein’s monster was a horrid creature, Frankenstein described him as “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” (Shelley, 58) Symbolically, the monster represents evil incarnate, a living representation of
Victor’s obsession is driven by his belief that he possesses knowledge that no other human can possibly obtain without him. This enlarged ego causes the downfall of his sanity as he becomes consumed in his single pursuit of creating life. Victor believes he has found a way to, “renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption” (Shelley 32). He falls deeper into his consuming passion, becoming a slave to his own ego, as he attempts to develop a method to cheat death. He slowly drifts away from his family and friends to work on his own projects in isolation. Victor’s true character is made blatantly obvious when he exploits his arrogance saying that, “A new species would bless me [Frankenstein] as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their’s” (32). Victor does not care for the potential positive effects his research could have for the scientific community and beyond. He is solely concerned for the praise and recognition he believes he “rightfully” deserves. Victor craves to receive eternal affection from a “new” species that will see him as the God he sees himself to
Over time, the name “Frankenstein” has become a reference to the green-skinned, lumbering monster in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, rather than his creator Victor Frankenstein. However, this is not necessarily a careless mistake. Infact, if one were to define monstrosity as the voluntary separation of oneself from humanity through unnaturally evil behaviors, then the true monster of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, would be Victor Frankenstein. Victor best fits this definition because, not only does he engage in malevolent behavior such as attempting to control nature, but the comparisons between him and his creation emphasize that he allowed his obsessions to strip him of his humanity. Also, Frankenstein and his creation had distinctly
Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant student of the sciences and protagonist in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein, feverishly pursued his passions and became the first among his race to bestow animation upon a lifeless matter only to be immediately disgusted by his creation and abandons it. Victor believes that his creature is innately evil, but the creature himself states that misery made him a fiend. Through meticulous observation of the creature’s choices and crucial interactions between humans throughout the entire novel, I contend that the creature’s claim is valid, but I’ll comprehensively explore both claims to ensure I do justice to both characters.
The practice of criticizing literature through psychoanalysis centers around Freud’s belief that authors, readers, and even characters are motivated by unconscious yet controlling desires. These desires are filtered, made to be as societally acceptable as possible, and rationalized by their keeper’s mind all while keeping the original motives secreted away within the unconscious. Since filtering has disguised the desires, literary criticism is utilized in order to find that which has been unconsciously chosen as acceptable representations for them. The critic then deciphers aspects of the characters, like dreams, personal relationships, sexual habits (or lack thereof), or obsessions. Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through a psychoanalytic lens, it is apparent that the death of Victor’s mother combined with his quick, solitary departure to parts unknown brought to life the damning aspects of the dependent yet self-involved personality his upbringing instilled within him.
The creature is a character who develops the most out of them all, except his development differs from the others. The creature is born into the world with a fully functional brain; however, he has no knowledge of anything. As the story progresses, the creature quickly learns the language, culture, and customs of the world he lives in. Since he is horribly ugly, he is rejected by the people of his society, this is the motivation behind his need and desire to learn about himself and the society he lives in. As the creature obtains more and more knowledge, he finally discovers his origins and birth from Victor.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley portrays an individual in a unique situation trying to overcome daily interactions while being faced with inconceivable misfortunes. Created by Victor Frankenstein, who set out on a journey to bring life to scrapped pieces of waste, he was then abandoned and left to fend for himself in a world he was abruptly brought into. After being abandoned by his creator for his less than appealing looks, this then sparked his inevitable desire for revenge. Eventually leading to the destruction of those associated with his creator. Knowing that he will never fit in, the monster began to act out in hopes of getting back at his creator for what he did. His vulnerability due to missing guidance and parental figures in his beginning stages of life contributed to his behavior. The books and article Family Crisis and Children’s Therapy Groups written by Gianetti, Audoin, and Uzé, Victim Of Romance: The Life And Death Of Fanny Godwin by Maurice Hindle, and Social Behavior and Personality by Lubomir Lamy, Jacques Fishcher-Lokou, and Nicolas Gueguen support why the monster acts the way he does. The monster’s behavior stems from Victor’s actions at the beginning of his life and therefore is not to blame. The creature in Frankenstein is deserving of sympathy even though he committed those murders because the lack of parental guidance, lack of family, and lack of someone to love led him to that. All in all his actions were not malicious, but only retaliation for what he had been put through.
Frankenstein created his creature, and to his shocking surprise the creature came alive with full human emotions. The reader also discovers the want for compassion within the creature, and as I mentioned in the previous paragraph Shelley tries and does a fantastic job in creating a sympathetic feeling towards Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. Now, it’s also easy for the reader to relate to the community as well. The creature attacks the people multiple times and strikes fear into their lives. An account between Dr. Frankenstein and the creature in chapter 20 displayed a decision Dr. Frankenstein had to make. Shelley wrote “…You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains -- revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict" (149). In this moment the creature expresses to Victor that he could lose everything if he goes against the creature’s wishes. But Victor remained firm in his self-sacrificing, realizing the danger to the world is much larger than the danger to himself. Seeing both sides of this issue within Victor Frankenstein community allows the reader to try and pick if they are sympathetic to the creature or the people who wishes to destroy the creature. Either way the stigma of this situation is
The monster in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein is a creature somewhere in between human and non-human being. Through learning and observation, the monster acquires the basic skills to live in the human world. He perceives the world and himself through the view of human, and he develops the emotion and taste similar to human. However, his human identity is constantly rejected by people—even his creator, Doctor Victor Frankenstein refuses to acknowledge him as human and refers to him as “the monster”. Throughout the whole novel, the monster struggles to pursue a human identity yet suffers from the sorrow of failure, which ultimately leads to his hatred and retaliation.