Mary Shelly wrote the Gothic tale Frankenstein. In the novel, who is
the true villain, the Monster or Victor Frankenstein? Which character
do you have the most sympathy for?
Mary Shelly wrote the novel “Frankenstein” using gothic techniques.
Nearly 200 years after the book was first published in 1818 the
readers still debate about the real villain of the story.
Victor Frankenstein could be the hero of the story; the reader
sympathises with him when he suffers the loss of his mother, his
brother William, wife Elizabeth, his father and friend Clerval. This
extreme suffering that Victor goes through is a characteristic of
romantic heroes. Also as Victor is narrating it emphasises the
suffering that he goes through. We also feel sorry for Victor when he
“had worked hard for nearly two years,” he deprived himself of rest
and health and now that he had finished, “the beauty of the dream
vanished, and breathless horror and disgust,” filled his heart. For
two years Victor slaved to create the monster but at the end the
outcome was disappointing, as creature was ugly. Victor could also be
the hero because he is very admirable as he strives to learn. Also he
tries to stop death which is also very commendable because it would
benefit mankind. As well as that Victor pushes himself to the limit
trying to stop the monster. This is very heroic as the monster could
have easily killed him.
On the other hand the monster could also be the hero because he is
abandoned and is like a child. He educates himself learning to use his
limbs and senses, he also learns to talk and understand speech;
however this makes him more miserable because he learns about love and
family life but he realised that he doesn’t have any of tho...
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...ing vengeance against Victor.
In conclusion I believe that Victor is the true villain because he
abandons the monster, his child, then is very abusive towards him and
he does all this without even giving the monster a chance. As well as
that he is prejudice towards the monster because of his looks.
However, the monster may have done some bad things but they are
justifiable. He may have killed most of Victor’s friends and family
but he has been rejected so many times that he becomes angry and feels
hurt so he wants people to feel the way he is, so he makes them suffer
so that they too feel his pain. Also when he threatens Victor that he
will, “Glut the maw of death,” he is provoked by Victor who threatens
and insults him first. Therefore I think that Victor is the villain as
the monster is provoked in his actions, however Victor does it out of
free will.
becoming what he despises, knowing his protection is lost and knowing he is vulnerable to the world.
power. This being a new idea and quite big news at the time, this must
After the monster is born and he has a fit, we see the lowest point so
this are, "I am by birth Genevese and my family is one of the most
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as the name implies, centers on the character of Victor Frankenstein. Over the course of the novel, the point of view switches across a cast of several characters, all of which have interacted with Victor, some more than others. Victor’s pursuit to find the source of life, and the events thereafter, show him making countless questionable decisions, hurting the people close to him, and getting away wit hit all because of the society he lives in. These points unequivocally prove that Victor Frankenstein is a sociopath.
creature is not to blame - it is the creator. For this reason, we feel
In many works of literature we are faced with good characters and bad characters. Sometimes we are faced with morally ambiguous characters. As readers we can not decide whether or not to distinguish them as good characters or bad characters.These characters are significant to the piece of work. In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, we are faced with the morally ambiguous character, Victor Frankenstein, his character trait is significant as a whole because of his feelings,and his actions.
Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, deals with the major dilemma of the creation of man. Rousseau deals with the topic of abandonment in Emile, which stemmed the thoughts of creation for Shelley in 1816 upon reading Rousseau's opinions. Rousseau blames the problems that children inhibit solely upon the parents shoulders (Mellor). Mary Shelley is able to relate to this statement on a personal level due to the parenting (or lack of) within her life. This in turn leads to a broader question concerning Shelley's Frankenstein; is the monster really the sole person to blame for his murderous actions? According to Rousseau's theory, the monster is not the sole problem. Victor Frankenstein is his creator or "father" figure thus giving him the responsibility of his 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.
In frankenstein by Mary Shelley a morally ambiguous character is the creature. The creature is an ambiguous because he shows a human sympathetic side when he tells Victor his tale. However, when he is neglected by human kind because of his appearance, he causes suffering to other people in order to get revenge on Victor. He has also done violent things, and he's a murderer. The moral ambiguity of the creature contributes to the major theme of the novel of how people will judge you by appearance before getting to know your persona, and how that contributes to making you feel lonely and miserable.
Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster. & nbsp; Science is a broad field that covers many aspects of everyday life and existence. Some areas of science include the study of the universe, the environment, dinosaurs, animals, and insects. Another popular science is the study of people and how they function. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an inspiring scientist who studies the dead. He wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being. He spends all of his Frankenstein is to blame for the tragedy, not the monster he has created, because he is the mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is supposed to have everything under control, working properly as a good scientist should. & nbsp; Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that followed the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being.  something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and & nbsp; I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. (156) & nbsp; Victor is saying that he has isolated himself for two years and in the end, he is not at all happy because of the bad outcome. He also adds, "Winter, spring and summer passed.so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation" (156). By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, never going out, but mostly worrying about his success, he has got himself crazier. This has made him lose sight of his surroundings and judgment & nbsp; Moreover, the monster should not be held responsible for killing Victor's family members and friends as shown in the book and movie, because it is Victor who has brought a dead creature back to life. He expects the monster to know everything when he wakes up cool, calm, and collected. But when the monster is awakened, he does not know anything. He sees a world different from what he is used to, which makes him get nervous and scared, so he&nb has removed him from dead. With the dawning of life, the monster has to learn about his new environment. In the play of Frankenstein, the monster starts to gradually get used to things. The problems he encounters are with Victor's assistant, Peter Krempe, Victor's friend, Henry, and other family members, including Elizabeth, and these are reactions to how these people treat him. These reactions are clearly shown in the movie of Young Frankenstein, where Victor tries to teach the monster how to live like to show off the monster to an audience in a dance routine of sorts. But then people start to scream, panic and throw things at the monster, so he reacts by attacking them to defend himself. In this case, it is clear that Victor tries to push the monster too hard because he wants to be famous.
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.
“When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation.” In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates Victor Frankenstein, as a character who becomes psychologically unable to continue his normal life after he turns lifeless mater into a living creature through his studies of natural anatomy. Though many years have passed between the writing of Frankenstein and the making of the Television hit, Dexter, the creator of the show, James Manos Jr., created a character in Dexter that is psychologically very similar to Victor. Dexter is also unable to live a normal life after he realizes something about him is different from other human beings.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley combines three separate stories involving three different characters--Walton, Victor, and Frankenstein's monster. Though the reader is hearing the stories through Walton's perspective, Walton strives for accuracy in relating the details, as he says, "I have resolved every night,...to record, as nearly as possible in his [Victor's] own words, what he has related during the day" (Shelley 37). Shelley's shift in point of view allows for direct comparison and contrast between the characters, as the reader hears their stories through the use of first person. As the reader compares the monster's circumstances to those of Victor and Walton, the reader's sympathy for the monster greatly increases.
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.