Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Frankenstein character analysis essays
Essay on victor frankenstein's character
Essay on victor frankenstein's character
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Frankenstein character analysis essays
Lee Zimmerman, author of Frankenstein, Invisibility and the Nameless Dread uses many resources to explain multiple theories on the novel Frankenstein, one being the theory that Victor’s childhood and upbringing are not what they seem. He reveals to Walton that “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence.” (Shelley 43). Zimmerman continues on to explain how Victor may be defensive and actually could have been raised by a careless father, which contradicts what he had said earlier in the novel. It is widely agreed upon that Victor and his creation are each other’s double. This means that what happens to Victor will happen to the Monster, generally …show more content…
Mellor. Mellor writes that Victor’s life is a “classic case of a battering parent who produces a battered child who in turn becomes a battering parent” (2). She also questions why this succession should start with Victor, because battering parents were once battered children. This provides evidence that Victor’s father was not completely there for Victor, based on Victor’s behaviors. Victor’s describes his father solely based on his appearance to other people, someone who holds authority and does not have any other interests besides his position in their society. Zimmerman also states that “Alphonse’s conviction that all emotions can be trumped by rational appeals to duty and instrumentality is typified in his response to Victor’s looming despair…” (2). In other words, he believes that Alphonse is so rational and logical that it caused Victor to grow up and act similarly, as he acts without desire, spontaneity, and control over his troubling emotions (Zimmerman …show more content…
I also agree with the theory that a battering parent leads to a battering child. However, I believe that the author of the essay did not elaborate on Victor’s emphasis of early relationships. If Victor believes that childhood friendships are so important, why doesn’t he care to give his “son” the best chance at making some, and abandoning him due to his imperfections? Also, Victor only had one good friend as a child that was not part of his family. It may have been a great relationship with someone, but nonetheless, it is still only one. It seems that Alphonse Frankenstein did not care to give his son important early friendships. This leads us, as readers, to the conclusion that Victor has become so focused on being rational that he is following in his father’s path and has become emotionally unavailable to his child. Victor’s actions as a “parent” shed light on his own upbringing, and his father’s style of
Every parent has their own opinion on the best way to raise a child. Victor Frankenstein, however is a perfect example on how not to raise a child. Unlike Victor’s parents, he was not a good caretaker of the creature that he created. Victor’s parents were compassionate people not only to their children but to the poor and the rest of their family as well. Victor can recall his childhood as being grateful for what he had and for the way his parents treated others. Victor's monster on the other hand, would not describe his first months of being alive as anything close to happy. Not only was victor fortunate enough to have had such caring parents, he also had his best friend Clerval and his adopted sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was there to comfort
The attitude of Victors mother reflects th... ... middle of paper ... ... ment 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 to destroy it to restore nature's order. Finally the pursuit of his creation destroys him.
The beginning of Frankenstein’s dream started as a young man, Victor’s interests lie in science, chemistry, and the balance and contrasts of life and death. Acting as a hypocrite, Victor explains how parents should be there to teach you to become great, “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as the fulfilled heir duties towards me” (Shelley 16). Victor says that his parents play a big role in how their child turns out; if the parents treat you bad then the child will come out bad but if he learns from good then he will come out to be a perfect little angel.
Throughout the book of Frankenstein, the creator of the being Frankenstein, Victor, is experienced as a suffering being. He recalls from the very beginning a time during his childhood where he was happy and surrounded by love, a time when his mother lived. Victor’s downfall or the beginning of his disgrace, initiates with the death of his mother. Victor leaves his family to start a new stage in his life, he leaves on quest for answers a true quest for knowledge. Personal motivation will lead Victor to take on the challenge of overcoming death, or to be more specific, give life to a dead body.
The confrontation between the two demonstrates Victor 's weaknesses as an individual. Although Victor is the Creature 's creator, he refers to his creation as an "abhorred monster" (Shelley 68) and is willing to "extinguish the spark which he so negligently bestowed" (Shelley 68) upon him. This demonstrates Victor 's lack of responsibility. His goal was to create life, essentially to play God. Once the monster began to murder those dearest to Victor, he failed to take responsibility for the creature 's actions. Another weakness in Victor 's character is revealed through the dialogue exchanged between creator and creation. Instead of calmly trying to reason with the Creature, Victor lashes back at the Creature. He even suggests that the two "try their strength in a fight in which one must fall." (Shelley 69) The monster, however, maturely and eloquently urges Victor 's "compassion to be moved" (Shelley69). Because Victor is full of "rage and horror" he wants to destroy his own creation even though victor is playing god in recreation of humanity. They both are to blame due to the fact that Victor created the creature as well as the signs of irresponsibility between the two for the Creature killing people and for Victor trying to recreate
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.
When Victor talks about his childhood, he suggests that parents play a big role in how their
...he window and see his own creation killing his wife. As a result of all the deaths in Victor’s family, his father kills himself because he cannot stand all the grief that he has been struck with. His death is a result of the hideous monster that his own flesh and blood created, but he will never know that because Victor will not tell anyone.
She also goes on to imply that Frankenstein’s downfall was due to his need to be as powerful and controlling as previous men in his family had been. She does this by stating that “the idea of this overwhelming familial need for power and control present in Victor’s nature foreshadows Victor’s ultimate downfall.” Young’s statements regarding the influence that nature has on Frankenstein may lead one to believe that a person’s nature as well as the traits and desires that reside within one’s family history and genes have a stronger influence on a lifeform than nurture. This doesn’t go with my hypothesis as Frankenstein and his actions were largely influenced and impacted by his nature, not by his
In the process, victor neglects the artificial duties from the animated man. The creature finds it difficult to thrive in rejection from the other human beings and the creator himself and makes it lonely. From the incidences, we find that he went ahead to look for the family that is surrogate and just look for one who will sympathize with him and accepts him to be one of his families since the creator who is supposed to do so has neglected the responsibility (Haynes, 1). He wanted a family that will be proud and binds their lives with his away from the brutality that he is getting from the surrounding environment. He adopted a family imaginatively from the cottagers that he observes from far their domestic harmony. He attaches himself to the family calling them the cottagers in that he identified himself with them as protectors and my
Victor had a tough relationship with his father and it becomes even worse as it gets. The more his dad was drinking,
Victor grows up in school both on the American Indian Reservation, then later in the farm town junior high. He faces serious discrimination at both of these schools, due to his Native American background. This is made clear in both of the schools by the way the other students treat him as well as how his teachers treat him. His classmates would steal his glasses, trip him, call him names, fight him, and many other forms of bullying. His teachers also bullied him verbally. One of his teachers gave him a spelling test and because he aced it, she made him swallow the test. When Victor was at a high school dance and he passed out on the ground. His teacher approached him and the first thing he asked was, “What’s that boy been drinking? ...
All the events and misfortunes encountered in Frankenstein have been linked to one another as a chain of actions and reactions. Of course, the first action and link in the chain is started by Victor Frankenstein. Victor’s life starts with great potential. He comes from a decently wealthy family whose lack of love towards each other never existed. He is given everything he needs for a great future, and his academics seem to be convalescing.
Victor’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
To begin with, Victor describes how his mother, Caroline Beaufort, meets his father, Alphonse Frankenstein, after Caroline’s father died in poverty. Victor mentions, “He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the interment of his friend, he conducted to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation” (Shelley 28). Even though Caroline is younger than Victor’s father, she has no choice, but to marry him. Without marrying Victor’s father, Caroline will still be in poverty with nobody to support her. Caroline’s decision to marry Victor’s father symbolizes a woman in need of a man to protect her.