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Frankenstein character analysis thesis
Character development in Frankenstein
Character development in Frankenstein
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The Prejudices of Frankenstein The monster in a way is warm hearted and kind but as we observed he is still dangerous. That is because he's always killing people who has a very close relationship with Frankenstein. Now what makes a monster created by man act in such a harsh manner ? What makes Frankenstein even want to make a monster from different dead body parts ? Well in everyday human life if a person feels as if they are being abandoned it brings a different kind of hate in their heart. They don't feel or get the love that they seek, and in some cases that turns them into a heartless monster. Back in chapter twenty-three Victor wouldn't create the monster a mate so the monster murdered his love. Now the twist is that Frankenstein created the monster and now wants him dead. Everyone that Frankenstein loves or someone that is close to him gets killed, and the key fact about the book is that Victor quotes the monster first- person narrative ; in addition the lesser characters Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor. Also, the murder of Elizabeth on the night of her wedding to Victor which takes place in chapter twenty-three. The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor to …show more content…
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
At first the Monster never intended to hurt anyone, but continuously being made fun of by every human that he ran into took a toll on his mental state. He knew that the only way to get Frankenstein’s attention was kill someone that he loved. It started off with his brother, William. Then Justine, the family servant, was the one framed and was executed for “killing” William. Henry Clerval, Frankenstein’s best friend, and last his wife and cousin Elizabeth were killed throughout the book in hopes of getting Frankenstein to create another creature like the Monster. The Monster never had a fair life because he was created as...
His actions after this point are those. of an evil being, one that is damned. The monsters crimes affect Victor's family and therefore punish Victor. This punishment haunts him through the rest of the novel. Victor is weak and it is only near the end of the novel that he attempts to face his creature and destroy it to restore nature.
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
It is in his desire to be beheld as godlike only logical: “did [he] not, as his maker, owe him all the portion of happiness that is in [his] power to bestow?” (157). He saw this opportunity not only as a way to finally rid himself of the monster, but also extricate himself from his family: “I was delighted at the idea of spending a year or two in a change of scene…” (163). However, he cannot abide by the promise because it is not something he can easily ignore or run away from. Thus, Victor breaks his promise in a most dramatic fashion: “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and, trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged” (175). This act temporarily rids him of the unwanted responsibility, but catapults him into a dependency upon the monster. This dependency is strengthened after Elizabeth’s death, demonstrated by the seemingly endless and nonsensical journey the monster leads Victor on. The monster captivates Victor, and keeps him engaged in the chase; even assuring his health by providing him with sustenance and guiding his path by leaving “marks in writing on the barks of the trees, or cut in stone” as to not let him be led astray or lost
With nobody to reason with, Victor makes senseless decisions while he is alone. Victor begins this with his process of creating the monster. Nobody in the right mind would ever dig up graves, but that is just what victor goes and does. Once this creation is finally given life, which Victor has spent two years striving for, Victor foolishly abandons it. Victor comes to his senses to some degree after he brings life to the monster as he states, “‘now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 43). Had there been companions around Victor during this creation time, perhaps someone would have been able to guide Victor away from creating the “wretch” (Shelley 43) he so hopelessly conceived. As for the monster, he makes fairly good decisions even without guidance from anyone, including Victor, his creator. The monster has the desire to learn and gain knowledge as a genuine individual. As the monster is continuously rejected and shunned by mankind, his natural benevolence turns to malevolence. In his loneliness, the monster wrongly decides to declare “‘everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’” (Shelley 126). Say the monster was able to have comrades of some kind around him, he would not have turned to this
Victor experiences very little joy at all after the creation of the monster. He suffers from numerous bouts of depression, he most tolerate the deaths of his brother, best friend, and wife, all of which were murdered at the hands of the monster. His friend Justine is executed because of the death of William, for which she is falsely accused and convicted. His father also dies after the murder of Elizabeth, Victor's ill-fated bride. With so much death surrounding his life, how is it possible that Victor could still be cognizant of his actions when he decides to pursue the monster and end its violent fury? He can't. Victor's mind is so clouded by the sorrow and pain of his past that he is blinded to the fact that he is attempting to destroy a creature with far greater physical strength and speed than any mortal. Much of his conflict appears to be created by the monster, when in fact the torment comes from Victor's own hands because he himself created and gave life to the monster.
Firstly, Victor abandoned him- which isolated the monster from his ‘father’ and created the first rift in his relations with humans. Adding onto that, because of the monster’s physical appearance, he was naturally isolated from society as well.
After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monster's solitude, the monster is overcome with suffering and sadness. These feelings affected his state of mind and caused him to do wrong things. He did not deserve to see his one and only mate be destroyed.
When one is first brought into the world, they are brought up in the ways of it’s culture and customs. What happens when they suddenly recognize that they are unlike the rest of the people around them and are shunned because of their differences? The monster in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” goes through this, and in after a number of unexpected experiences, he completely loses the humanity that he tries so hard to gain in the beginning. As the monster begins to realize he will never be accepted, and is continually rejected by his creator, Victor Frankenstein, he goes to drastic lengths to try and become what was seen as a normal person, only to further the gap between monster and human.
This is why he needs vengeance toward the monster so desperately. The monster is one of the first people or things that does not do as he says. He makes the monster to prove to the people who doubted his alchemy, and abilities. The monster running wild proves that he is incapable of getting his revenge on the teachers who doubted him. The monster also kills his family so that Victor is alone like the monster.
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.
William Hazlitt, a philosopher of the 1700s stated, “Prejudice is a child of ignorance.” In other words, owing to absence of knowledge, individuals discriminate against others who are of a different race, sex, age or are physically or mentally ill. For instance, society alienates the blind because they believe he/she is insignificant and inadequate but they are unaware of how intelligent, kind or generous the sightless might be. Many individuals judge others who are different. Therefore, anyone who does not fit the norm (healthy physical and mental wellbeing) is considered undesirable in society. This concept is portrayed in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film inspired by the book. Justine fell victim to this injustice.
The monster seems to reason what really is happening, it believes that it’s unfair that his creator just left him without any regard to his well being. Victor faces injustice when the monster decides to kill many of his loved ones. It's not fair that the monster is taking the lives of the innocent rather than taking the life away from the victor in the beginning. So the monster made an eye for an eye situation by implying that for his misery of looks, Victor Frankenstein should lose his loved ones that surround him. The monster has taken from Victor his brother, best friend, and wife.
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.
Everyone in the book assumed the monster was evil and wanted him gone, but in reality it was Victor Frankenstein that was the real monster. He was the one to create the monster in the first place, then abandoned him, which caused the monster to become evil. He was never taught about love or how he was suppose to act. The monster says to his creator, “You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man” ( Chapter 10, page 90). If Victor had never left his creation and actually stayed and took care of the monster and taught him the way he was suppose to act, then everyone who was killed and all the harm that was done could have been avoided. In Frankenstein the real monsters are actually the humans. The only reason that the monster was perceived as evil and dangerous was because of the way he looked, which is a double