Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in 1818. It entails a tragic story of a man’s uncontrollable need for knowledge and a Creature’s insatiable desired to be loved and accepted. While studying at college, Victor Frankenstein is burdened with an obsessive yearning to discover life’s greatest mystery, the creation of life. But after successfully creating life, Victor is overwhelmed by his Creature’s grotesque appearance, and quickly refuses to love or care for him. Because of this abandonment and the brutal treatment of society, the Creature sets out on an endless pursuit to destroy his creator and tormentor. Although the Creature is viewed as the monster throughout the story, the true evil is within Victor. Victor described his childhood …show more content…
During his process of creating his Creature, he isolates himself from his family and friends for two years in the hope of making a life out of nothing. Victor “knew well therefore what would be [his] father’s feelings; but [he] could not tear [his] thoughts from [his] employment,” and his blatant disregard for his family’s feelings verify that he lacks empathy even for the people who have nurtured him for most of his life (55). Along with ignoring his family’s feelings, he also ignores the consequences of providing the Creature with life. Victor is so consumed with the idea that “a new species would bless [him] as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to [him],” that he ignores the aspect that the new creature would have thoughts and feelings that could affect other people’s life negatively (54). Nonetheless, Victor irresponsibly pushes himself harder until he is successful at bringing existence into his creature. But as soon as he succeeds, his narcissistic self is horrified by the Creature’s appearance and he refuses to love him. He is overwhelmed with a feeling of regret with the “beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart,” (55) and shows the Creature no compassion and forces him to face the world with “no money, no friends, no kind of property” (120). …show more content…
After abandoning the Creature for years to suffer severely isolated harshly in society, Victor does not feel the slightest remorse for the agony and torment the Creature has endured in his short life, but is still only concerned with how much pain Victor has had to suffer because of the Creature. Unlike Victor, the one true thing the Creature wants in this world is to have a genuine connection with another living being and to be loved and accepted. The Creature is able to show empathy after watching the De Lacey for a while and “when they were unhappy, [he] felt depressed; when they rejoiced, [he] sympathized in their joys” (113). But when the Creature despairingly pleads with Victor to grant him his desire in life, Victor reluctantly agrees, only to take it back out of fear of his own reputation for “that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price” (166). He does not care how his actions will affect the Creature’s feelings, or even how the Creature’s actions will affect other people. But instead Victor convinces himself that the female creature evil could surpass the Creature and that destruction of mankind rest upon his shoulders. The destruction of his unfinished female companion, fills the Creature with unimaginable pain that
Victor is not able to see past the metaphorical clouds that seem to shroud his mind from seeing the truth. Furthermore, Victor is not able to let go of his hatred for the creature. In contrast, the creature admits, “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless” (275). The creature is able to recognize that he has made mistakes and as a result, he loathes himself.
Unlike the Romantic who revered and honored nature, Victor wants to use it for his own gain. He expects “happy” and “excellent natures” to obey him, and he doesn’t dwell upon the consequences of his actions. His outlook changes after the creature comes to life. As Victor stares into the watery, lifeless eyes of his creature, he finally realizes his mistake in trying to disrupt the natural order of the world. Scared by the outcome of his actions, Victor attempts to run away and find comfort in nature.
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
The Creature, after learning what it is to love, requests that Victor creates a companion for him. Victor rejects the creature’s proposition, as Victor now understands the consequences of animating what shouldn't be alive, the Creature wants nothing more than for Victor to suffer, to feel the pain that he, as a wretch, faces. The Creature does so by devoting his life to the destruction of Victor’s. In chapter 24, the Creature states “But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes the malignant devil.” The creature is viewed as entirely evil by the characters of the novel, despite the scenes in which his benevolent nature is shown. It is ironic that Victor and his creature are foils of one another, yet they suffer a similar fate: their desire to destroy one another led to their ultimate
Victor could have easily betrayed the monster he created out of pure fear and horror, but it doesn’t make a difference to the matter of him betraying something that has no one else to depend on but its own creator. This act of betrayal shows a lot about Victor’s personal characteristics; it reveals the true monster inside of him. The Creature himself is also innocent: deserted by his fickle creator, he must fight for his survival in a hateful world. In classic tragic style, the novel ends with the tortured protagonist’s downfall and an ominous, unknown future for the remaining
Even as Victor’s mental state is deteriorating, his creature emerges on Mont Blanc to plead his case as a fully rational being. The creature has spent the interim between his creation and this meeting learning all he can through study with an unaware family. He then comes before Victor asking to be heard and have his requests considered, and proceeds to lay out a reasonable argument for why Victor should create a companion for him. The creature has been driven to murder because his kindness has been rejected by so many. “The feelings of kindness and gentleness, which I had entertained but a few moments before, gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley 143). He has realized that there is no place in humankind, and so he tells Victor that either he will give him the companion he desires, or the creature will destroy everything Victor loves. Victor refuses his request, leading to the inevitable death of all of Victor’s family. Still, the creature seems to be the more rational and controlled character in the novel. He even recognizes what Victor cannot: that Victor is the seat and cause of any passion and irrationality in their lives. “This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess” (Shelley 148). The creature is much more reasonable than his creator, and
Victor’s life was made miserable after creature killed every person he loved. Creature was also seen as an outsider with a lack of self-identity, which can explain many of his actions. This archetype is shown through the monster because every person rejected him. The monster was excluded because of his appearance and was banished from every place. For instance, at the Delaney’s home, Felix attacked the m...
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.
Victor’s lack of compassion and sympathy towards the monster causes him to become angry instead of guilty. His cruelness to his creation made the monster kill and hurt the people he did but “when [he] reflected on [the monster’s] crimes and malice, [Victor’s] hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation,”(Shelley 325). Without compassion Victor thinks that the only way to stop the monster is to get revenge on him, instead of just giving him the empathy and kindness that monster craved. Victor realizes that "if he were vanquished, [he] should be a free man...balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue [him] until death. ”(Shelley 731).
This demonstrates the creatures moral ambiguity because he first saves an innocent girls life, but then he kills an innocent boy just for vengeance. In addition, he threatens to kill Elizabeth if Victor doesn't create female monster for him. This event also shows the creatures moral ambiguity because he wants to a female companion as hideous as he is, so that he won't feel alone if the world but Victor did not create the female companion he became enraged and killed Elizabeth whom was going to be Victors
...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
...s creation as a way of revenge and payback for all the distress he brought to the creature. The creature, beginning as the most innocent, is alienated by his creator and every individual who witnesses his presence. Finally, Victor isolates himself from his beloved ones in order to fulfill his ambitions. All these misfortunes are caused by the lack of moral decision making. Unfortunately, these decisions ruined the life of many people involved in Victor’s life. All these events are the proof of what people’s actions can result into when isolation is a major theme in one’s life.
This presents Victor showing unfair judgement towards the creature that he made “There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies” (55). This is unfair to the creature because he was born against his will and already Victor claiming to the creature that he has no community; a home. This is also unjust because Victor shows his hatred towards his creation that they are enemies before even giving the creature a chance to show himself and show who he really is and can be. Victor and his poor character towards his family and close friends make him more monster than the creature he had created “I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed me: but the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to suddenly leave” (51). With his family having hardship during this time and Victor knowing that and knows he needs to be there decides to chase his passion and leave without giving much thought. Victor knowing that his family problems and hardship are happening because of him doesn’t tell them what’s going on or what's happening in his current situation leaving them with no answers. This makes Victor a bigger monster because of his poor character he has towards his family and his poor statements towards the creature, a being that he
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.