Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist and the narrator of the main story in Frankenstein. Raised by doting parents, Victor confesses: “I was their plaything and their idol, and something better-their child, 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 they fulfilled their duties towards me.” (35) This statement condemns his later reckless and arrogant behavior. Victor was obsessed from an early age with natural philosophy and the ultimate knowledge of life. He sought answers to the many questions that puzzled great minds before him. Motivated by ambition and an insatiable quest to be God like and create life, Victor dedicated himself to this one pursuit for nearly two years. The creature, which was made out of old body parts stolen from the cemetery, strange chemicals, and a mysterious spark, convulsed to life. In this moment, Victor becomes a creator of a human life, the “God” to a being that was deserving of the attention and love of its creator.
When Victor Frankenstein breaks his promise to the monster, it threatens him by saying that he’ll return on Victors wedding. Victor assumes that it’s his life that’s being threatened but the night of the marriage, Victor finds his Elizabeth. “She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and… running with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake.” (Chapter 23) This quote conveys that the monster didn’t feel bad for killing Victor’s bride, he believed that it was a justified murder because he was repaying the heartache that he felt for his lost mate. This act of cruelty helped develop the monsters sense of right and wrong. The monster was born innocent but after being treated so cruelly for so long, his moral compass was corrupted. He felt as if it was his right to do this to this to Victor.
Frankenstein defied human boundaries when he created the monster and because of this not only his life, but the lives of others have also shifted, this has caused their lives to spiral into an unjustified conclusion. Curiosity was the main cause of him learning how to create such a thing, his lack of caring for the thing that he created led to his undoing. His motivation for creating life, comes from the fact that he lost someone dear to him. Although Victor was young when his mother died, it had serious effects on the way he viewed life and maybe even himself. Once you take on the father role you have to stick to it, otherwise creating life
Frankenstein and his abominable creation are two characters inexorably linked with eachother, as father and son, as inventor and invention, and even as reflections of eachother. Their conflict deals with themes of the morality of science and the fears of child birth, and their characters are drawn from a wealth of experience and reading. Shelley’s doppleganger of mankind is like a twisted vision of reality; based in some sense on reality but wildly taken out of proportion, the monster is so inhuman that it cannot reconcile itself with its master or the world of humanity. Its tragic story serves as a warning of what mankind could become as well as a reflection of Shelley’s own personal demons, and her creation has changed the face of literature.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a novel of a mad scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a hideous human creature made up of body parts. In his attempt at playing god and bringing his creation alive into the world, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. Although the creator’s creation is pushed towards evil, it becomes obvious that Victor Frankenstein himself is the monster because he creates a human creature whom he abandons and fails to take responsibility for.
In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster in his laboratory as a grief outlet for the recent death of his mother. The monster roams around Geneva to learn the patterns of life and how to be accepted into society. Why does the monster turn violent toward Victor’s family and not to society in general? The monster hurts Victor’s family members to punish Victor because he feels rejected by society due to his grotesque appearance. Victor doesn’t try to make him this way; he just is experimenting and happens to create the being this way. The monster is trying to get revenge on Victor for creating him as an “outcast”.
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor tampers with the laws of nature by creating life through unnatural means resulting in the production of a wretched creature whose abnormal appearance defines him as monster in the eyes of others. Victor successfully fulfills his goal of creating life with the chemistry of his own hands, yet instead of celebrating his triumph, he is repulsed and marks his creature as a being destined for destruction. The monster’s appearance ignites pure disgust from anyone who sees him; however, ironically his actions, language, and respect towards his creator and the Delacy’s indirectly brings upon another reality that diverges from the narrator’s depiction of this horrid “daemon”. A monster, by definition, is a person of “inhuman cruelty or wickedness,” yet this creature demonstrates
As the monster is abused by Victor is loses its compassion, and only seeks revenge. Victor, who never had any compassion for his monster, wants to get vengeance for the people who his monster killed. The monster has compassion at first, but the more Frankenstein tries to seek revenge on him, the less compassion he has. Frankenstein was shown compassion all his life because of his loving parents and their money so he does not have any compassion. Both the monster and Victor try to get revenge on each other, but neither succeeds. Overall, Mary Shelley is trying to prove that vengeance can take the place of compassion, but vengeance is pointless.
Victor Frankenstein created a creature that he abandoned after contemplating his faults and deemed them unacceptable. He renounced his creation and totally rejects it because of its size and looks that frightened everyone as they greeted Victor’s creature with fear and violent reactions. Shelly’s Frankenstein revolved on issues of Victor’s science and ambition, moral responsibility, psychological balance and social isolation that must very well remind each one of us that humans are God’s images, and humans as scientists in continuing to probe into the power of creation and attempt to understand it must perform as stewards of God’s creation. The attempt to create a new creature with extreme powers sums up how humans can be so conceited in recognizing human abilities and the ...
“But when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance” (Shelley 212). It makes sense that the monster would not be happy in this world, he never even asked to be here. He holds Frankenstein responsible for his sorrow as he is the one who created him. To only be seen as a monster despite your attempts at compassion and thoughtfulness can get to someone. Once again, the insight into what the monster is feeling here, envy and rage, makes him more and more human to the reader. The murder the monster partakes in becomes his inclination, “Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen. The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable passion. And now it is ended; there is my last victim!” (Shelley 212). With his creator also dead, he finds his vengeance at an end. The monster does not murder Victor however. He wants him to suffer as much as he has since his creation. The isolation and abandonment inflicted from Victor is the catalyst for the Monster to murder members of his family. Despite this hatred for this man, the monster still views him as a father figure. This is why he weeps and pleas to Walton, the regretful words of a son who has lost his father. Walton is witness to the creature’s deep depression, he wishes he could take back all the pain and suffering caused by both parties. His sense of longing and remorse in his words are
Technically speaking, the monster does want to see him suffer, and tear away and possibility he has left for happiness, but Victor’s ego is too large to see the truth. Granted, killing him would cause him to suffer, if the monster wanted that to happen he would’ve murdered Victor a while ago. “On that night he had determined to consummate his crimes by my death (Shelley 192, 193).” This quotation is an interesting one, because it has two important parts to it. One part that has been covered before is Victor thinking the monster is just out to murder himself, when in actuality a clear-minded individual could tell he has other plans. The other part that’s interesting to note out of that portion is when he says “his crimes”, eluding to what the monster has done. Now this is more a controversial topic, but it creates the question; is Victor responsible for what his creation has done? The consensus is that he is responsible. So this is another point in which Victor is not yet taking responsibility for what his creation has done and for the murders of his family and friends. That is another minor piece that can fit into the umbrella of describing Victor as a bad person, and how one could
Frankenstein is one of the earliest science fiction written by Mary Shelley. In the story, a young smart scientist Victor Frankenstein, who is trying to create a new creature from the dead, dies in regret after his creation of a strong and ugly “monster” that kills his beloveds and innocent people. Someone said Victor Frankenstein is like the God since he creates a new life but what actually he does is just twisting the dead. Although he successfully creates a living body, the failure of not being able to make his creature get accepted by the other people still proved that he is just a crazy scientist who is trying to interrupt the way God creates life. Furthermore, all the human being are unable
Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein is a novel narrated by Robert Walton about Victor Frankenstein and the Monster that he creates. Frankenstein grew up surrounding himself with what he loved most, science. He attended Ingolstadt University where he studied chemistry and natural philosophy, but being involved in academics was not enough for him. Frankenstein wanted to discover things, but did not think about the potential outcomes that could come with this decision. Frankenstein was astonished by the human frame and all living creatures, so he built the Monster out of various human and animal parts (Shelley, 52). At the time Frankenstein thought this creation was a great discovery, but as time went on the Monster turned out to be terrifying to anyone he came in contact with. So, taking his anger out on Frankenstein, the Monster causes chaos in a lot of people’s lives and the continuing battle goes on between the Monster and Frankenstein. Throughout this novel, it is hard to perceive who is pursuing whom as well as who ends up worse off until the book comes to a close.
Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has grown to become a name associated with horror and science fiction. To fully understand the importance and origin of this novel, we must look at both the tragedies of Mary Shelley's background and her own origins. Only then can we begin to examine what the icon "Frankenstein" has become in today's society.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.