No Hero in Shelley's Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein may be the leading character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but a hero he is not. He is self-centered and loveless, and there is nothing heroic about him. There is a scene in Chapter twenty-four where Captain Walton is confronted by his crew to turn southwards and return home should the ice break apart and allow them the way. Frankenstein rouses himself and finds the strength to argue to the Captain that they should continue northwards, or suffer returning home "with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows." He quite obviously has alterior motives and if he were not the eloquent, manipulative creature he so egotistically accuses his creature of being, he might not have moved the Captain and the men so much that they are blind to the true source of his passion. Unfortunately for Frankenstein, the crew, (however "moved") stand firm in their position. Yet the things he says in his motivational speech are prime examples of the extent to which Frankenstein is blind to his own faults and yet will jump at the chance to harangue others. He is so self-centered that his lack of interaction and love for others after his experiment has been completed, would barely qualify him as a person, if the difference between being human and being a person lies in the ability to have relationships with others.
One week later Frankenstein, maybe in an attempt to strum Walton's heartstrings by seeming the virtuous sufferer his melodramatic presence might falsely suggest him to be, declares, "When actuated by selfish and vicious motives, I asked you to underatake my unfinished work...," and then, "Yet I cannot ask you to renounce your country and friends to fulfil this task." It is as if he is some sort of premature proponent of reverse psychology. It seems a bit of a stretch to interpret his indecisive nature at this moment as an illumination of the conflict brewing deep within, when you consider that he has never truly demonstrated genuine concern for anyone close to him, let alone a man he only just met and befriended to further his cause. He says, "...and I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue," and then almost in the same dying breath, "I dare not ask you to do what I think right, for I may still be misled by passion.
Nick changed himself throughout the story just as much as Gatsby did. Although in the end Gatsby obsession with Daisy ultimately killed him, Nick learned his lesson by getting talked to by Jordan. Nick and Gatsby are not very different from each other as they could be. They are in fact just slightly different versions of each other. Nick wanted riches or to be like them, hence why he would party with them, and Gatsby just wanted to be with the love of his life. They both wanted something they both could reach or couldn’t have.
Nick was born into a Quaker family and grew up in Menlo Park, California. He attended Menlo High School and gained a passion for surfing. Woodman formed the high school's first surf club. He sold t-shirts at football games to raise money for the surf team. He graduated then went to get his Bachelor of Arts degree at UCSD (San Diego). He created 2 websites, one of which was called EmpowerAll.com which sold electronics at no more than a $2 markup. He also created a gaming platform called Funbug, but both unfortunately were not successful.
Nick opens his personal description with his family history, stating he hails from the Middle West of America. He also speaks of him being a Carraway, descendants of the Dukes of Buccleuch which came into America in the form of his grandfather's brother, whom he never met. Nick then goes on to describe his teachings at New Haven in 1915, his participation in World War 1, and then finally him coming east to be a bond/stock businessman.
terror but I couldn’t understand why my creator was horrified at my sight I was devastated all I remember was charging at him My farther was running for his life when my farther thought I was dead he left town without me keeping his secret in his attic.
From the beginning when he goes to the Buchanan’s house for dinner we can see that he clearly isn't like them. He confesses “you make me feel uncivilized, Daisy” while they are eating on the porch. Although Nick is and educated man, he graduated from New Haven and “was rather literary in college”, he does not know the same things Daisy Buchanan does (Fitzgerald. p4). Tom and Daisy are both very rich and come from old money, Nick however comes from a family of “prominent, well-to-do people” (Fitzgerald. p3). Their different backgrounds make them very different people. Another example of how Nick has values deviating from the ones usually observed from everyone else in the book is when he waits for an invitation to attend one of Jay Gatsby's parties. Nick says that “people were not invited- they went there” (Fitzgerald. p41). He stuck to the way he believed he should behave and waited for an invitation instead of doing like everyone else and just going. When he was finally invited, he took some time to look for Gatsby, his host. The usual party-goers did not conduct themselves in the same manner as Nick. He mentions that “sometimes [guests] came and went without having met Gatsby at all”
If Nick's life were to be chronologically ordered and analyzed, the stories Indian Camp and The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife would definitely come first. It is these two stories that give us the first insight to what kind of character that Nick really is as a child. Because Nick is only mentioned briefly in the latter story, I think that Indian Camp is more significant in analyzing the portrayal of his character. I suppose the one passage that truly gives insight about the innocence (and ignorance) of Nick at the time was "in the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die" (19). I believe that the passage was essentially a reaction to the pregnant woman's husband's suicide. Because that was the topic that arose during the story, I believe that Nick interpreted the situation that "death" was equal to "suicide" and, in believing that he would never commit suicide, ultimately believes that he will, thus, never die. Because of the way that his father explained death, Nick's interpretation of the situation would lead him to believe that he would never die. Thus, this story essentially shows Nick's youthful innocence.
Victor Frankenstein is just an ordinary man. Like most people, Victor strives to be an individual. He wants to set himself apart from the rest. Frankenstein is interested in philosophy and science, and he has the goal to do the unexpected. Victor wants to prove his father and others wrong about the old teachings of ancient philosophers. He has the passion to learn and teach himself what others can not imagine. Many people label Frankenstein based off his latest experiment: The Creation. Because the monster acts monstrous and is an endangerment to the public, they blame Victor for the monster’s actions, which is entirely false. Victor Frankenstein’s was not a monstrous person, he was trying to inspire and motivate himself, by attaining
...at don’t care about the poor people at all. Another lie made up by our very liberal news papers and television shows. Contributing to the miss-education of our country.
Behind all the meanness, Nick is showed to have a sensitive and sweet side, after being bully
A quote that demonstrates this is, “’How do you like being an interne?’ Nick said, ‘All right.’ He was looking away so as not to see what his father was doing.” In my opinion, Nick is traumatized by this experience, he comes to a point where his not capable of looking at the things his father is doing. Because of all the things that Nick has experiences during the night, he comes to believe “that he would never die.” This is because he believes that it is impossible for such thing to occur to him even after he witnessed it. This demonstrate his lack of maturity which is understandable, he’s just a
Mary Shelley discusses many important themes in her famous novel Frankenstein. She presents these themes through the characters and their actions, and many of them represent occurrences from her own life. Many of the themes present debateable issues, and Shelley's thoughts on them. Three of the most important themes in the novel are birth and creation; alienation; and the family and the domestic affections.
The first “party” that Nick showed up to was when Tom had forced him to go to murtles house to “just have a drink” when he was really with his mistress. The whole time Nick felt really uncomfortable around the people who really didn’t have as much money as him. He didn’t want to be in that room and he kept on trying to do everything possible to leave but Tom and Myrtle's acquaintances kept on bringing him back. The second party that Nick had went to was the one that Gatsby had invited him to. That party Nick really felt like that's where he belonged because he was a Gatsbys big mansion and everyone there he knew really well so he was very social.When he had planned to leave he already knew what one of his main goals was to do, to meet Gatsby.
Here Nick speaks about his how father taught him, why he should be slow to judge people. And how everyone wasn’t as fortunate as him.
Without this many, if not all of us would find it impossible to play a
Throughout the course of the book he is 29 and at the end he had just turned 30. Originally being from Chicago, and in 1922 he traveled to NYC to learn about the bond business. Moving into a nice little cottage in West Egg district, Long Island, next door to Gatsby’s mansion and right across the bay from East Egg, which is said to be the rich side of the island. Daisy Buchanan is Nick’s cousin and he takes part of helping Daisy and Gatsby reunite in their love, even though Daisy had moved on and married Tom. In both the book and the movies he is portrayed to be highly moral and tolerant, open minded, quiet, and a good listener. This leads others to think of him as very trustworthy and they tend to treat him as a confidant. Also, throughout his life he becomes very close with his neighbor Gatsby, who he didn’t even know existed, and when Gatsby dies, Nick was the one who helped take care of everything that had to do with his mansion and his