Their relationship is a tumultuous one, mainly due to the fact that Frankenstein created the Monster out of a wish to be some sort of god and be able to play with the balance of life and death. Afterwards, he comes to deeply regret his action and abandons the Monster by throwing him out into the world without any education or guidance. Because of this, throughout the book, the Monster harbors resentment towards Frankenstein and dedicates his life to make Frankenstein’s a living hell. Out of the many horrible things that the Monster did to achieve this goal, the main evil action I will be focusing on is the murder of William, Frankenstein’s younger brother and the framing of his nanny for the murder. After being continually rejected by not only his creator, but countless other humans based only on his gruesome appearance, the Monster decides to exact revenge on humankind and especially on Frankenstein for giving life to such a horrible creature as himself.
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’s search for knowledge is a key factor in this novel’s gloomy timeline of events. As Victor slaves away over his creation of new life, by combining various limbs of scavenged human body remains, he detaches himself from everyone important in his life. He abandons his fiancée, Elizabeth, and forces her to wait for him to return so they can be married. All of Victor’s family members love and adore him, and he becomes selfish in his ambitious goal to create human life. After Victor accomplishes his work of genius, with the creation of the monster, he is suddenly filled with terror and hatred towards the hideous being that stands before him.
After making the connection between the two, the monster first killed William then planted the evidence on Victor’s family friend, Justine; leading to the murder of two of Victor’s close ones. Even after being responsible of two murders, the monster was still suffering and resulted in threatening both the lives of Victor and his soon-to-be wife, Elizabeth. This resulted in the eventual death of Victor’s wife as well. The monster took extreme actions in response to his own difficult upbringing, while Victor took a much less destructive yet cowardly approach. After Victor’s creation of the monster he made a break for the door, running away from his fears and leaving the monster behind.
Victor Frankenstein is the tragic hero of Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein ,because no matter his good intentions, his thirst for knowledge leads to his destruction because of a single cause and primary key factors that evident to heart wrenching results. The single and most influential cause of Victor’s dramatic downfall is his insane craving for knowledge. Victor wished to "become capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter" (Shelley 38) and would not stop until he fulfilled his dream. The world was as if it was invisible in the eyes of Victor because nothing else mattered until his creation was in motion. Victor’s dream suddenly turns into a nightmare when his creation is portrayed as a monster and "no mortal could support the horror of that countenance" (44).
She evidently proved with Frankenstein that isolation leads to a terrible fate; that being his monster destroyed his family which resulting in him falling onto the roads of evil and hatred by dedicating his last days to seek revenge against the monster. Undoubtedly Shelley proves through the monster that there exists a direct causal relationship between isolation from family and society causing hatred and evil; even though he was kind hearted and had good intentions, his isolation caused him to bereave and turn evil and vow hatred towards mankind, particularly his creator Frankenstein. Through these characters, Shelley shows the reader that association with family and society is important and deprivation very well can lead to an individual becoming evil and vowing internal
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, blames his horrible fate on his never-ending search for knowledge. While attempting to reach a level of God-like ways, he acts basically for his own interest and wants to see his name glorified by humans. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic fiction story that utilizes different symbols and themes: fire, light, knowledge, and monstrosity to show the true nature of humankind. Frankenstein can be considered a monster himself, as he had a very unhealthy obsession with creating life. At any point in the story does he think about the impact that his actions may have, in the end, the creature is downed and rejected, and kills Frankenstein's family.
As the creation retells his life’s story he says, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” (Shelley 69). Sadly, since Frankenstein left his creation to fend for himself, he had first-hand experience of the trifles of being an outsider to humanity. Victor is a monster because of this disconnect, had he actively sought to raise his creation or make him a companion, Victor may still have loved ones in his family and friends. On the Discussion Board, Danielle Johnston supports the idea of the creation killing Victor’s family as an act of retaliation as he states: “He wants to get back at Frankenstein for being the first person to show him what it feels like to be unaccepted and to be left alone.” Even though murder is wrong, Victor mistreated his creation and in return, he got his just deserts which led to his mental demise. The mistreatment of Frankenstein’s monster occurs two-fold however, because not only was the creation abandoned, but he was left with a misshapen
He has created a monster, but as soon as the creature comes alive Victor is terrified by its appearance and abandons him. Victor Frankenstein exclaims, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I endeavored to him” (42). In Readings on Frankenstein, critic Timothy Madigan explains how Victor Frankenstein does not live up to his role model. He lacks compassion and moral responsibility by refusing to disclose his experiment to the community around him ... ... middle of paper ... ...nothing more for him to do but to kill the monster himself. Victor is so furious with the creature that he dedicates the rest of his life to hunt down the evil creature before he can destroy any more of his family.
This creature who he described as a monster is, in fact, a mirror image of himself. “Victor Frankenstein’s evident longing for another, despite his close friendship with Henry Clerval and his betrothal to Elizabeth, leads to the creation of a being who becomes the Inadequate Other which is, in reality, Victor himself” (Kestner 69). In the eyes of Frankenstein his creation is a failure; lacking human resemblance and harboring beastly qualities. Afterwards, his narcissistic personality appears once again as Majken Hirche describes: “The narcissist’s ultimate nightmare is to have his fallibilities revealed, because this will disrupt his self-image and protection against his painful unconscious. It is of no surprise then, that we see Victor Frankenstein’s narcissism most starkly exposed shortly after he has succeeded in creating a