The theme of vengeance is incredibly prevalent throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Vengeance drives the creature to commit the actions he does, and the plot revolves around the creature and how he affects Frankenstein. The story begins with Victor, an incredibly talented young man who, ever since childhood, has had a fascination with science. This leads to him traveling to Ingolstadt to study at a university, where he takes an interest in chemistry, which eventually leads to him becoming obsessed with life, more specifically how it is created. Victor tries and succeeds to create a living thing, which he immediately dismisses as nothing but an evil savage due to its repulsive appearance. Although the creature doesn’t physically grow, he …show more content…
The sad tale of the creature begins with its creation. As soon as the creature opened his eyes for the first time, Victor was taken aback in horror and disgust. Victor fled to his room and threw himself on his bed, hoping to forget about the creature, if even for a little bit. When Victor woke up, he saw this: “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs.” (44). This shows just how ignorant Victor truly was to the fact that this creature was even a living being, let alone a humanlike being. The creature later says that he has trouble remembering his very early moments of being, although there is no doubt that this event left some sort of …show more content…
Although the creature thought that Victor was his last hope of achieving any sort of relationship with another creature, he had grown to hate his creator. The entirety of the creature’s story up until this point and a bit beyond this point has come from the creature telling his story to Victor in a meeting they would have, which is why this quote sounds directed at someone: “towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.” (128). This appears to be collateral damage of sorts from the creature’s earlier rejection at the cottage, as he has now opened his heart to hatred and revenge. Once the creature reaches Geneva, Victor’s homeland, he goes to a hiding place in the fields to rest, when he sees a child. The creature has a very strange idea, that since this child is still rather young, he will be able to disconnect from his parents rather easliy, and so the creature could then take him along as a little friend of his. When the creature seizes the child, it doesn’t go well, as one could imagine. The child, who’s name is William, says a whole host of
Revenge is a fairly strong emotion; it’s wanting to retaliate towards those who wronged you. Revenge is such an uncontrollable way of retaliation that it can result in a destructive outcome or carried out successfully. Although the results may vary, revenge sums up to one thing which is pain of some sort, affecting both parties or just one. Throughout history we see many tales of revenge and redemption. Often revenge does leave the one carrying it out feeling victorious but this can suddenly change as the process of karma generally begins in some tales.
After killing his younger brother, Elizabeth , and his best friend, Victor after having no family left wanted to put an end to it all so he ended up chasing his creation and dying before catching it. After bringing the creature into this world and leaving it behind to fend for itself the creature endured lots of agony and pain from society which drove its rage to Victor and his family and he ended up kill this younger brother and soon to be wife. Both were isolated from society, Victor brought isolation upon himself through locking himself up to create the creature and ignoring everything around him as stated in the article, “The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them; and I well-remembered the words of my father: "I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected.” As
Since the fall of Adam, humanity has always been keenly aware of the existence of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice. Any person who has been betrayed or abused has felt the weight of injustice. Anyone who has been mistreated has experienced the desire for vengeance. However, opinions begin to differ when defining the boundaries of justified revenge. Varying perceptions prevents humans from viewing and validating the motives of others. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the two main characters were driven to madness by their desire for revenge against each other. In the book, Victor Frankenstein and his creature both relayed the same story; however their individual perspectives drastically shift the roles of the perpetrator and the victim. Mary Shelly’s brilliant juxtaposition between the Creature and his Creator demonstrated the relativity of justified revenge.
Victor animated the creature from dead body parts, effecting his creature’s appearance when he came alive. He couldn’t even look at his creation, and thought that it was malodorous, without thinking how unwanted and helpless the creature feels. With little hope for the creature because of his unappealing appearance, Victor does not bothering to wait and see if he has a good interior or not. As a result of Victor not taking responsibility, the monster decides to take revenge. The monster is repeatedly denied love and deals with the loneliness the only way that he can, revenge, killing Victor’s loved ones making him lonely just like
Victor’s relationship with the creature is one that is negatively affected by Victor’s anticipation. This is because Victor expects his creation to look beautiful. The reader can see this by examining the creature’s features. Victor gave his creation pearl white teeth and flowing black hair. However, upon first sight, Victor describes his monster as ugly using words like “horrid” and “hideous” and then he runs away from it. The reader can see how disappointed Victor is at the result of his work. “I had worked hard for nearly two years… [B]ut now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley, 50). Shelley reveals to the reader the disappointment of Victor and how long he was looking forward to the birth of his creation, telling the reader that he got his hopes up. However, Victor fears the face of his creation and abandons it, negatively affecting their personal relationship. Because of this, the creature goes on a path of his own and later vows to take revenge on the human species. He kills some of Victor’s friends and family members. This not only affects his relationship with Victor, but Victor’s relationship with his friends and family. Victor’s anticipation of the creation of his creature negatively affects their personal relationship with each
The fact the creature refers to a Biblical story teaches us that what Victor has done is not ethical or morally right as the bible connotes truth and wellbeing, the creature feels he is not treated as Adam because he is rejected like the fallen angel is from heaven; the philosophy is that one should absolve themselves of all sin, leaving the creature feeling like his is owed something from Victor. Furthermore during the romantic period it was said that ‘All man is born good’ however this contradicts the creatures life as he is sinned against, hated by Victor and feared by society from the day he was created although he did no wrong. The creature is given no chance in life like Adam was; he is simply a creation who is isolated fr...
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
Victor, at first sight of the Creature, abandons and leaves him to survive on his own. This is insignificant to the creature at the time, but later causes the Creature to have bitter feelings towards Victor. After the Creature discovers Victor’s notes, he becomes enraged, and incriminates Victor for the victimization that he faces; hence accusing him as a perpetrator of cruelty. Through the accusation of Victor one can see that the Creature believes that Victor should be held responsible, and owes the Creature a favor. Additionally, Victor double-crosses the Creature after obliging to create a mate for the Creature. These actions of betrayal demonstrate how Victor is a perpetrator of cruelty and how the Creature is his victim. Victor’s unintentional cruelty reveals how he only wanted what was best for himself and human kind. Victor’s betrayal is seen as an action of cruelty by the Creature, and consequently delivers the final blow that instigates the retaliation of the
...e all the evil things they have done. When he goes to Victor's coffin, the creature does the opposite of what a evil being would do. He grieves over Victor despite all the horrible things the creature has done to Victor. The creature even feels guilt over the innocent people he has killed and the torment he put his creator through. Despite Victor's actions leading the creature to commit evil deeds, the creature finds in himself to feel regret in the end.
Victor’s cruel and hostile actions toward his creature demonstrate his monstrous characteristics. One example of Victor’s inhumane cruelty is when he decides to abandon his creature. When Victor realizes what he has created, he is appalled, and abandons his creature because he is “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created” (42). This wretched action would be similar to a mother abandoning her own child. Victor’s ambition for renown only fuels his depravity; he brings new life into the world, only to abandon it. This act of abandonment accurately depicts Victor’s cruelty because it shows his disgust toward his own creation, as well as his lack of respect for life. An example of a hostile action is when Victor destroys the creature’s
Sympathy is well deserved to any creature that is thrust into the world with no guidance, left to learn the cruelness of the world on their own. Victor abandons his creation, which is comparable to a mother abandoning her child. “Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” (Shelley 89) The monster is saying to Victor that it is his responsibility to care for the monster as long as he is alive, comparable to a human child and parent’s bond....
...only being to belong to this "new species." He started off looking for compassion and love, and when that was denied, even by his own creator, he, along with his whole species, became devoted to the barbaric life of a murderer and criminal. This new species was very impressionable and was forced to take on the role that the creator, Victor, assigned to it, which was that of a fiend and monster. Only due to Victor’s idea of the creature, do any of these terms have relevance on the creature. Victor transformed this loving, benevolent creature into a monster and beast through his disregard and rejection of this new species’ life.
Victor fears that he has created something with humanity that could be stronger than himself and his people. Whether or not the creature’s nature would lead it to struggle towards something greater is never revealed, but the fact that the creature had forfeited - in desperation - to be a part of society shows that it can have higher goals. Ironically, in the end Victor desired what the creature did, to settle down and live happily. This is because Victors struggle had been completed, he had created something that had humanity, and at the same time, left his own behind. Soon after his achievement however, he is killed by his own creation.
When the creature was given life, he was abandoned. He did not know of his creator or of the daily functions of the world around him. The creature was left to fend for himself. He gained knowledge every day by observing his environment and learning from his mistakes. The main lesson he learned was how mean man could be. Man abused the creature because he was a monster to them. Later on, the creature began to hate himself and his creator for the way he was made. “Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. . . Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?” (Chapter 13). After Victor’s death, the creature reveals his feelings about his actions and how they affected Victor. “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself” (Chapter 24).
Victor immediately abandons the creature in disgust. The creature is made up of dead body parts and is gigantic in stature. From the beginning of the story, the creature’s genetic makeup has already influenced his first encounter with mankind. Victor retells his encounter with his creation “His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed downstairs”(58). Because the creature never forms a bond with Victor, he is subjected to the cruelty of his environment.The conflict of trust versus mistrust, revolves around whether or not a person becomes able to rely on other people t...