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A tragic hero is a character who makes a choice that leads to their downfall. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, presents several examples of tragic heroes. One of these examples is Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is an example of a tragic hero because his fatal decision leads to his destruction through the suffering of others. One of the themes of the novel is judging people by superficial features. Victor's shallowness was his fatal flaw. His inability to look past his creatures appearance lays the groundwork for his destruction. Upon first laying eyes on his creature he says "now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (35). Rejecting his creature, leaving it to fend for itself, was a tragic decision. His creature, abandoned, was left to the mercy of society, who like himself, rejected it. …show more content…
The suffering of Victor’s creature at the hands of society turns him into a monster. The monster starts his revenge on Victor through the murder of William. “ ‘Frankenstein!, you belong to my enemy- to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you will be my first victim” (102). He continues his retribution on Victor by murdering those close to him. These deaths are a direct result of his decision, this takes its toll on Victor. “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; others await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friends, my benefactor-” (129). Clerval was killed simply because of his relationship with Victor, this feeling of guilt leads to his
What is a tragic hero? A tragic hero is typically defined as a character in a literary work who has a lot of pride and makes a judgment error that leads to their ultimate demise. The downfall usually has to do with their pride.
When it comes to being a tragic hero the character has to have the qualities of being a tragic hero. A tragic hero is where the main character of a tragedy whose fatal flaw leads to his or her destruction. Either the character was born into society as a great man or a slave, they may have carry
A tragic hero can be defined as literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. A well known novel in American Literature is The Great Gatsby which displays an example of a tragic hero. The author of the book, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrayed an example of a tragic hero through the main character of the novel named Jay Gatsby. In the book Gatsby tries to accomplish the American Dream by gaining wealth and doing everything in his power to be with the love his life Daisy Buchanan. His whimsical ways granted him wealth and allowed him to be in the arms of his lover Daisy but, it also leads him to death. Jay Gatsby can be considered a tragic hero because he has a tragic flaw and because his misfortune was not wholly deserved.
In contrast from the creature, Victor utterly tries fixing their dispute with violence creating a great mismatch of qualities and behaviors between the idea of human and monster. Victor actively sharpens his tongue against the creature when degrading him as a “Devil” and “Vile Insect” he even goes to the extent of claiming he will “Extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed” (102). Since the creature fails in resembling a human form Frankenstein’s constantly degrades and explodes this monster. Victor’s actions are based off the creature’s appearance and not of actual threats. Furthermore, Victor’s language and actions of dehumanization towards his creation not only demonstrates narrow mindedness from Victor’s behalf, but illuminates a grand contradiction between both characters. Although Victor physically represents a human his lack of reason and empathy towards his own creation cast him as the real monster during this
...or was not thinking of others in his actions, but only of himself. He did not consider the tumult the abnormally large creature could cause in the world, nor what the feelings of the monster would be towards him if he abandoned him. Victor also did not contemplate the safety of his friends, as he had the chance to stop the creature’s misdoings but failed to do so, risking the life of his friends. Therefore, Victor was a selfish being, who only concerned himself with his wishes and never evaluated the situation of his loved ones, ultimately causing their demise. The misfortunate events that occurred through Victor’s life could have been prevented, and also discontinued when Victor had the chance. However, Victor’s irresponsibility overcame these opportunities and he in turn, caused misfortunes for himself as well as his loved ones.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “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” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
His ugly features made it hard for people to see him as anything more than a creature. This fueled his outrage and motivated him to destroy all who posed a threat. This shows that the creature was at fault, since he chose to act like this. Although Victor set him up for failure, the creature had the ability to turn the failure into success. With a family, bad or good, the creature would have responded the same way. He allowed other people to influence his decisons and later motivate him to destroy all who were acquianted with his creator,
As a romantic, archetype and gothic novel, Victor is responsible for the monsters actions because Victor abandons his creation meaning the creature is dejected and ends up hideous and fiendish. It is unfair to create someone into this world and then just abandon it and not teach it how to survive. The quote from the creature “Why did you make such a hideous creature like me just to leave me in disgust” demonstrates how much agony the creature is in. He is neglected because of his creator. The monster says “The hateful day when I received life! I accurse my creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” Victor is wholly at fault for his actions, image and evil.
A tragic hero is a character who makes a judgement unavoidably leads to their own eradication. One may usually look for revenge or justice that may influence each character's choice. He has the tragic flaws of stubbornness and too much self-pride, and these flaws are struck with bad luck. Someone having good and bad sides, a tragic flaw, becoming aware of his mistakes and failing miserably in the end. In the play, Antigone, by Sophocles, Creon is portrayed as the tragic hero.
The Dr.’s so called, “heroism” is yet to be shown and won’t ever be shown. Flashing back to when the Dr. carries out the finishing touches and gives the creature life, the monster ends up infuriated at the Dr. and ends up finding Victor’s younger brother William and in his enragement strangles the little boy. But it doesn’t end with just William, the monster then frames the murder on a young girl that was adopted into the Frankenstein family when Victor was young. She is later accused and is hung. Once again the death toll continues, but the last two are the hardest for that of Victor Frankenstein. Henry Clerval is Victor’s life long friend and fellow scientist. Henry is killed by the monster but is found face first on a beach. "He had apparently been strangled, for there was no sign of any violence except the black mark of fingers on his neck."(pg. 146). Victor once again falls Ill because of the death of another family member. Soon after the death of his best friend, victor chooses to finally mary Elizabeth his lifelong “mate” but not wife up to this point. The Dr. knows that the monster is gonna be there on his wedding night and is on edge. But not quite enough. Elizabeth is strangled to death while in bed. Once again Dr. Frankenstein is not showing his “heroism”. Almost his entire family is gone! But in the end, his creation takes more than he
Dictionary.com defines a tragic hero as a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall (“Tragic Hero”). Aristotle defined a tragic hero as a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his own destruction (“English IV Class Discussion”, 2016). A tragic hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death; intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes; have a weakness, usually it is pride; and be faced with a very serious decision that he must make (“Tragic hero as defined by Aristotle”). Achilles, Hector, Beowulf, and Hamlet all exhibit these characteristics and, as a result, can be seen as prime examples of
Frankenstein’s complete abandonment of his monster lead to the Monsters homicidal behaviors, and disordered life. The Monster craved love from his creator but never received any. Out of great anger the Monster, whether directly or indirectly, stripped Frankenstein of practically everyone that he loved. He killed Victor’s younger brother William, and then framed Justine a highly regarded family servant, who was eventually tried and killed for William’s death. The Monster also takes the life of Henry Clerval, one of Frankenstein’s best friends
Victor plays the role of God and creates his “Adam” but unlike the Adam from the bible, the creature is not designed in a perfect image or guarded by the care of his creator. The creature compares himself to Satan when he says “I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; …like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (228). The creature was forsaken his first days of living and learned about the society of humans through observation and reading. God introduced Adam to the world with everything provided and guided him his early days of life. He saw Adams loneliness and granted him a mate. The creature asks Frankenstein for a companion as a last chance to become happy and good hearted. Victor destroys his hope and brings more tragedy among him by doing so. God creates all things good, Victor took his Job as a creator and his creation became malignant because unlike God he was ashamed of his creation. From that point on the creatures’ heart becomes cold and makes sure to destroy his creator. When Victor dies the creature repents for the damage that he has done and would live with continuing pain till his death. “…My agony was still superior to thine; for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever” (380).
The monster’s first minute of life ruins him, as Victor calls him hideous and then abandons him. From here on out, the monster lives an angry life seeking revenge on his father. The first person he kills is William, Victor’s brother, the monster says before killing him, “Frankenstein! You belong to my enemy--to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim” (102). The monster’s drive for revenge is affecting not just Victor, but his family as well. Justine, the family maid, also feels the repercussions as she is sentenced to death after being blamed for William’s death. The monster’s next victim is Henry Clerval, who he kills to get back at Victor for not making him a companion. The guilt feeds on Victor as he realizes it is his responsibility because he created the monster; he calls himself “the murderer of William, Justine, and of Clerval” (130). To top it all off, the monster kills Victor’s wife on their wedding night. Victor then hunts the monster down in a northward chase. He deteriorates mentally and physically and dies on a ship. His monster sees his dead body and seeing the result of all his actions he decides to kill himself. The deadly disease of revenge kills nearly every character in this
Tragedy shows no discrimination and often strikes down on those undeserving of such turmoil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature more repulsive than one can imagine is brought to life by a young scientist. Although this creature is horrifying in sight, he is gentle by nature. Unfortunately, the softer side of the creature is repeatedly overlooked and the so called “monster” is driven to a breaking point. Even though the Creature committed many crimes, Mary Shelley’s Creature was the tragic hero of this story because of his efforts rescue the life of a young girl and helping destitute cottagers.