Mike Carey once summarized something very profound in one of his novels: “We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves”. This idea, that perhaps one’s biggest fears are simply reflections of themselves, could be applicable to all aspects of life - more specifically, a certain gothic horror novel that was written years ago. The idea of being reflections of one’s own monsters perhaps was first put into words in Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. Since the widely-adapted story was written in 1818, there have been constant debates and questions raised about who is protagonist and who is the antagonist in the story, a question Mary Shelley herself may have not been able to answer. Why? The well-educated, put-together scientist Victor Frankenstein and his creature, whose “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath… (and whose) hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing” are truly mirror images of each other in many instances (Shelley 43). Despite what first impressions may suggest, Frankenstein and his creature are far from polar opposites on the spectrum, and Frankenstein is hardly the usual story of good and evil. Frankenstein and his creature are just as much monsters as one another, and the two share a surprising list of similarities.
Throughout the story, both Victor and the creature have a thirst for knowledge - perhaps imprinted upon the creature by Victor. Victor early on in the novel declares that “...it was the secrets of heaven and earth that (he) desired to learn”, and he is immediately portrayed as a curious character (Shelley 24). His “...(smite) with the thirst for knowledge” is what provokes him to create the creature in the first place, as he is inspired to...
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...their longing for knowledge, family, and vengeance, both of these characters could be argued to be humans or monsters. Around the world, it is widely perceived that that Victor is the creator and the creature his monster (as modern adaptions of the story have made it out to be). However, perhaps the two are not so different. After all, the two both have their hopes and dreams for family and acceptance, and both entertain a dark, sinister side. With the characters so similar that the antagonist and protagonist are practically indistinguishable, the real question is: who is the real monster?
Works Cited
Carey, Mike, Peter Gross, Chris Chuckry, Jeanne McGee, and Todd Klein. The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity. New York: Vertigo, 2010. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Vol. 1. London: Edinburgh, 1831. Archive.org. MSN, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: the original 1818 text. 2nd ed. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. Peterborough: Broadview, 1999.
A. London: Picador, 2002. http://www. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. The. Broadview Edition, 3rd Edition, 2012.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1996.
As Victor created a monster, he soon became one himself which isolated him from his family and he soon demonstrated immortal actions such as digging up graves for dead body parts. As for the creature he was not grown into the environment he was suppose to be placed in. Rather than in the humans natural world we are born and raised with an environment in which we learn and develop skills overtime. More so, nature is not to be toyed with, but nature is there for us to get away, to realize there lies something miraculously in
Although some may argue that the creature is to blame for the pain and misfortune of Victor, Victor has a large role the events that take place. By creating a creature that is tainted by the human society and knowledge, Victor causes some of his own pain. The creature has thoughts like “No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses” (87) which raises many questions in his mind. These questions lead him to become very confused with who and what he was. Since Victor left the creature to fend for himself after being created, and didn’t give him any good representations of humanity. At the beginning of the creature’s life “no distinct ideas occupied [the creature’s] mind; all was confused”(73); the more he started to gain knowledge, the more questions that arose in his head. Since there was no one there to answer his questions, his confusion turned to anger. Eventually the creature “declared everlasting war against the [human] species, and more than
...s!"(Shelley 128) Victor clearly informs us that all this time he spent wasting his knowledge on death and science rather than being out into the world, he was busy wasting it on hatred. On the other hand, the Monster had no say in his isolation. Victor abandoned him due to his looks and fear while the world just did it naturally. The creature never asked to be brought back to life, so Victor was the cause of his misery. The monster just went along with his instincts but the relationship between the two became war.
In most novel and movies monsters are known to be evil, committing numerous crimes against humanity and are normally the ones that we don’t sympathize with. However, this novel carefully shows the reader that monsters can be good creatures, with a decent heart and act based on the actions of others. The novel shows how the monster should be pitied, rather than criticised. Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” manages to create sympathy for the creature through speech, actions and mistreatment the creature suffers.
To conclude, Victor is the villain because he abandons the creature and leaves it to fend for itself. The creature is miserable and wants company, because he was abandoned by Victor it was an impossible task. Victor is the villain because he tries to play god. He wants to be worshipped and acknowledged like a god. He does this by creating his own being. Despite the fact that Victor didn't physically murder anyone but he did morally, he is still the villain of the novel in my eyes. In the eyes of a romantic novel, Victor abandons, in the eyes of an archetype novel, Victor tries to play God and in the eyes of a gothic novel, Victor's subconscious wants William and Elizabeth dead. Overall Victor is the Villain
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley introduces the change from good to evil with the attention that guardians give a child. William Crisman, in his critique of Mary Shelley’s work, identifies the “sibling rivalry” between Victor and the rest of his family. Crisman remarks that Victor feels as if he is the most important person in his parents’ lives, since he was Alphonse’s and Caroline’s only child. The Frankensteins adopt Elizabeth and Victor sarcastically remarks that he has a happy childhood. This prompts Victor starts to read essays about alchemy and study natural science. Anne Mellor, another critic of Frankenstein, proposes that Frankenstein’s creature was born a good person and society’s reaction to him caused him to turn evil. Victor’s makes the creature in his own perception of beauty, and his perception of beauty was made during a time in his life when he had secluded himself from his family and friends. He perceived the monster as “Beautiful!”, but Victor unknowingly expressed the evil in himself, caused by secluding himself from everybody, onto the creature (60). In this way, the creature is Victor’s evil mirrored onto a body. The expression of Victor onto the monster makes the townspeople repulsed by the creature. The theory of the “alter ego” coincides with Crisman’s idea of sibling rivalry (Mellor). Mary Shelley conveys that through Crisman’s idea of sibling rivalry, Victor isolates himself from society. Mellor describes the isolation during his creation of his creature leads to him giving the creature false beauty that causes Victor to abandon him and society to reject him.
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
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.
Peter Brooks' essay "What Is a Monster" tackles many complex ideas within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the main concept that is the title of the essay itself. What is the definition of a monster, or to be monstrous? Is a monster the classic representation we know, green skin, neck bolts, grunting and groaning? A cartoon wishing to deliver sugary cereal? or someone we dislike so greatly their qualities invade our language and affect our interpretation of their image and physical being? Brooks' essay approaches this question by using Shelley's narrative structure to examine how language, not nature, is mainly accountable for creating the idea of the monstrous body.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (sometimes also known as The Modern Prometheus) is the classic gothic novel of her time. In this eerie tale, Dr. Victor Frankenstein – suffering from quite an extreme superiority complex – brings to life a creature made from body parts of deceased individuals from nearby cemeteries. Rather than to embrace the Creature as his own, Frankenstein alienates him because of his unpleasant appearance. Throughout the novel, the Creature is ostracized not only by Frankenstein but by society as a whole. Initially a kind and gentle being, the Creature becomes violent and eventually seeks revenge for his creator’s betrayal. Rather than to merely focus on the exclusion of the Creature from society, Shelley depicts the progression of Dr. Frankenstein’s seclusion from other humans as well, until he and the Creature ultimately become equals – alone in the world with no one to love, and no one to love them back. Frankenstein serves as more than simply a legendary tale of horror, but also as a representation of how isolation and prejudice can result in the demise of the individual.