When Victor Frankenstein gives life to his monster, Mary Shelley shows the reader how disappointed Frankenstein is with the outcome of the monster, "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe"(Shelley 55), these descriptive words show how Frankenstein is disgusted with the monster that he has created. He is disappointed because he wanted his creation to be something beautiful, instead, he creates an ugly monster. The monster enters the world and is immediately unloved by his creator. Frankenstein does not take responsibility for his creation instead he abandons him, leaving him to fend for himself. The monster did not start out more evil than anyone else, “He does acts of evil, yes, but they can be equated to tantrums from a lonely
The Creature, Victor Frankenstein’s creation, is shaped into a monster through its experiences, instead of the nature of itself, which is more expected. Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, is shaped into a monster because of his mind’s power-hungry nature. Victor treats his creature poorly and he himself becomes wicked. While the Creature also becomes wicked in the end, its actions are more justified because multiple people treated it poorly, causing the Creature to lash out. Even though Victor Frankenstein and the Creature both turn into wicked monsters, to some extent, only one of
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “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” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
The novel provides no explanation for the creature 's ugliness, and if we are tempted to account for it psychologically as a mere projection of Frankenstein 's guilty revulsion from his deed, we run up against the evidence of the other characters ' reactions. The monster appears frighteningly ugly not just to his creator but to all who see him.” The fact that the monster is ugly, made him receive different treatment from his creator and from everyone else who saw him. So, when the creature finally realizes that he can no longer hope to be treated nicely by anyone, he must start viewing them the way they look upon him. This is shown when he states, “Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth." (Shelley, 175). After being treated with disrespect and as a terrifying outcast by so many people he eventually became a sadistic monster. Frankenstein’s creature is finally starting to experience some evil villainous thoughts. So at this point, he can be distinguished as a villain not just because
Society rapidly judges the monster and forms opinions based on his outside appearance rather than his internal intentions. After creating the monster, Victor reflects on his work: “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe...His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath...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 shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 55-56). Victor’s description of his monster takes on a negative perspective. He uses words such as “horrid” and “catastrophe” to portray his vengeance towards the monster. After he creates the monster, he flees due to his horridness. Soon after, he returns and he “stepped fearfully in: the apartment was empty, and [his] bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest. [He] could hardly believe that so great a good fortune could have befallen [him]” (Shelley 60). Even the monster’s own creator, Victor Frankenstein, quickly considers him to be villainous. Despite that the monster is his own creation and he does not know the monster’s morals...
The Monster enters the world unaware of what he is or what his purpose is, curious about humans and his interaction with them. His initial encounters with humans are not positive, so he flees into the woods and eventually comes across a cabin inhabited by a small family. As he observes them, his wish to be accepted by humans and have a connection with someone becomes stronger, as he “[yearns] to be known and loved by these amiable creatures” (Shelley 92). To prepare himself before he attempts to meet them, he learns their language through reading and manic observation of the family. Shelley is examining a different pursuit of knowledge: one that is still innocent in intent but obsessive in nature. This is also examined in The Reading Monster, which draws a parallel between the Monster and Frankenstein. Just like Frankenstein let his ambitions “run amok through the overreaching ambition and obsession of the mad scientist,” the Monster did the same, but with humans (Brantlinger 471). The Monster seeks to be accepted by a society of beings that are nothing like him, and will never welcome him, but still strives to do so. Upon mastering his rhetoric, he confronts the family, but is chased away due to his hideous appearance. Unfortunately, it is human nature to judge those initially based on appearance, so the Monster never gets an opportunity to prove his good intentions. In discovering his monstrous appearance, he sees the monstrosity that exists amongst humans as well: that of rejection, cruelty and fear of the unknown. In response, he claims his vengeance and hatred toward mankind (Brantlinger 471). This sparks his violence toward Frankenstein and all of the people in his life that he cares about. Once he starts his purge of revenge, he turns into exactly what he has hated all along: a hateful and evil being. Shelley is showing that trying to step into a foreign area of knowledge,
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, contains the story of young scientist Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he creates as a part of a scientific experiment. Frankenstein spends months tirelessly working to craft the creature out of old body parts; however, when the monster finally comes to life one night, Frankenstein immediately regrets his efforts and feels the act was a disaster. Frankenstein says: “I saw the dull yellow eyes of the creature open. (…) How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?” (42). Frankenstein was no longer inspired by his efforts, instead, he was disgusted: “I had worked hard for
Although the monster is constructed out of human parts, he is disfigured, “unnaturally hideous,” and deemed society’s “chief object of horror” (Shelley 112). He is instantly labeled as an evil and destructive creature, overshadowing any sort of goodness he may possess. However, the monster is vulnerable and highly sensitive similar to a human baby, but physically continues to be humanity's “chief object of horror.” While the monster reads the journal written by his creator, he is horrified by what he reads: “‘Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. `Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?’” (Shelley 111). The monster is shocked that his sole purpose was to bring glory to Frankenstein, but now his creator considers him to be a regretful mistake. Like being abandoned by a parent, he is filled with rage and dejection after hearing how his creator wishes to have nothing to do with him. After hearing it was a “hateful day” when he “received life,” the monster goes on to question his worth and reason for existing. By thinking about his place in the world and the emotions from his experiences, he ultimately tries to understand his human
In psychology there is a theory known as “Tabula Rasa”, according to The New World Encyclopedia this theory states that, “individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by their experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world.” According to this theory, Frankenstein is responsible for how the creature behaved. By abandoning the creature, the creature was shown no love, and it’s “sensory perceptions of the outside world” were ones of despair as the outside world feared the creature. That being said the creature was only exposed to negative experiences, making it become coarse and one capable of murder. If Frankenstein had shown the creature love instead of abandoning it, the creature would have been the type of person it longed to be. If Frankenstein would have killed the creation rather than abandon it in it’s “blank slate” William, Henry, and Elizabeth all would have lived, and there would have been no harm by the creature to the
At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.
The creature’s moral ambiguity characteristic was a vile ingredient to the construction of this novel Frankenstein because it made the reader 's sympathies with him even after the audience knows he had committed murder because the readers had seen the truth this creature had to face. That he had tried everything within his power to peacefully live with them, to interact, communicate, and befriend them “these thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring the art of language”, that even though he was seen as a monster because of the looks he was created with, something he had no control over, he still had hope to be seen as equals, ”My organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I pronounced such words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration;” this hope of his was utterly crushed, and can only set him up for utter disappointment(12.18). Because in the end he only received hates, scorns, violence, and prejudice from his good will. So in the end of the story, Mary Shelley’s forces the readers to see within the creature’s heart and for
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein the protagonist Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster in the novel is deprived of a normal life due to his appearance. Like the creature, some serial killers today are killers due to the same rejection. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that a childhood of abuse and neglect will often result in evil actions.
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.
Evil can take the form of many different things. In Frankenstein, there is really only one evil monster. The monster is Victor Frankenstein. The monster that he creates is nothing more than a misguided child abandoned and rejected by his father and the rest of the world around him. His actions are caused by Victors lack of parenting and compassion towards his son. Compassion and unconditional love is all that the monster tries to get, yet his own father neglects to even look at him in any way other than hatred and disgust. The monster is nothing more than a reflection of Victors evil. Like father like son.
In Shelley’s novel, the final picture of Frankenstein’s monster reveals important qualities of his inner nature; he is shown in the last moments of his life to be felling, fully conscious of his guilt, and firm in his decision to end his life. This is the conclusion of a long series of events providing insight into how the monster changed as a result of his creator’s actions and the actions of the people with whom he came in contact. Up until this final point, he has changed from being good and hopeful to being caught up in the desire for a companion, to being evil and only focused on revenge. All these changes are recounted by the monster himself in this scene. (Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine)
Victor Frankenstein is the creator of a "monster." Because of his thirst for knowledge, he goes too far and creates a huge monster, which he immediately shuns. This rejection plays a major part in the monster's hatred and disgust for humans. When any intelligent life form is born or created, it normally has no feeling of hate, fear, or prejudice. Feelings such as these are instilled throughout life and the experiences one encounters. The monster had an early traumatic experience of seeing his “father” also known as his creator, Dr. Frankenstein, run at the sight of him. "I did not dare return to the apartment which I inhabited, but felt impelled to hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky"(44). The feeling this most likely caused was resentment towards humans and society. The feeling of being abandoned and viewed in disgust by the person who created you would be awful. He did not know what he could have done to his creator that would have shocked and petrified him to the point of horror and disgust with his very existence. However, the monster remained benevolent.