Obsession And Obsession In Frankenstein

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In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the main themes surrounds the idea of defining obsession and classic obsessive behaviors. Obsession itself is a force of devastation for one’s social, personal, mental, and physical life. At one point, obsession must be a passion, of which has amazing side effects. The synonym, passion, may resemble obsession in the beginning, though the main difference between the two is that obsession consumes the life that it holds. In the end, obsession ruins us.
A passion turns into an obsession when it starts to interfere with the living of your life. Obsessions can be overcome, though not easily. Victor had been the monster’s slave for months, doing what the creature asked, doing what was necessary to be free of …show more content…

Obsession can make you do rash things in order to achieve the goal surround the obsession. Whenever someone’s passion boils over into almost all other aspects of their life, making them do things like cut out sleep, or doing everything necessary to keep a solid mental state, or making rash decisions that could endanger their life, the passion has transformed into an obsession. In 2004 drama and biography, The Aviator, Howard Hughes put his obsession for making the fastest plane over his own physical and mental health, time and again. “My limbs now tremble … but then a resistless, and almost frantic impulse, urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” (Vol. I, Ch. 3). Just like Hughes, Frankenstein did not tend to his mental health while attempting to achieve his goals. Victor fell into near debilitating depressions constantly throughout the novel. His family and friends spent months trying to rehabilitate him, while the paranoia of the creature, ate away at his mind. “I could never … confide to [Clerval] that event which was so present to my recollection…” (Vol. I, Ch. 5). They both gave up almost all of their pursuits, paranoid that something could happen that would ruin them forever. Hughes had a business to protect, and rashly bought whomever and whatever he needed for his films and planes without …show more content…

Isolation from friends, family, or the world, is not very healthy for the human mental state in general. If you find you are isolating yourself due to something you are passionate about, it might be an obsession. As a rule, if you want to keep a sound state of mind, you need to interact with others. Hughes’ mental state only deteriorated after his long stint of isolation in his movie booth; Frankenstein isolated himself from the world while creating the monster, and never confided in anyone about his creation, making him grow paranoid and frightened; the creature himself lived his entire life in isolation, or as a separate entity. All three characters remained obsessed with different ideas. For Hughes it revolved around his germaphobia and building his reputation; Victor’s was about secrecy and obtaining knowledge; the creature was obsessed with companionship and revenge on his creator. In the beginning, Mary Shelley focuses on Victor’s obsession with gaining knowledge. From an early age, Victor had always been interested in dangerous, fantastical ideas that eventually lead him to the creation of his own monster. Victor had been passionate about science since the moment that he first read the works of Cornelius Agrippa. He was fascinated by the idea of extending human life, curing death, and even by the destructive force of lightning. Later, Shelley

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