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Themes issues and character analysis of mary shelley frankenstein
Themes in frankenstein
Frankenstein analytical essay
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The novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, takes place during the 18th century and captures the life of Victor Frankenstein who spends his life engulfed in creating an artificial being that is capable of human emotion. After leaving his family in Geneva and spending years studying and perfecting the development of his creation, he finally is able to animate an organism made up of body parts he dug up from a grave yard. Victor becomes frightened of the creature as it comes to life and abandons it. The monster’s abandonment leads him to kill members of Victor’s family but he still does not tells anyone of the threat, leaving the rest of his family vulnerable. Throughout the novel, Victor has chance after chance to save his family and give the …show more content…
Victor knows that it his duty to teach the monster but is so delusional that he thinks that he does everything he could to take care of the monster when all he did was abandon his creation. While reflecting on the choices he made in his relationship to the monster, he tells Walton that he, “created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being” (191). Victor feels no sympathy for the monster believing that the monster deserved no care or guidance. Victor is so completely self-absorbed that he does not put any effort in aiding the monster. Victor acts like he does not know the monster is suffering because of him, even though the monster tells Victor his miseries every time they encounter each other. Victor and his creation meet in the mountains and the monster tells his story about what he did after Victor deserts the monster. The monster explains the feeling he has after being abandoned: “I was alone. I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed …show more content…
Victor’s most fatal decision was not telling anyone about the monster. As a result of his carelessness, none of the monsters victims are prepared for his attack. Victor’s narcissism brings him to not tell anyone out of fear that people will see his mistake. However, Victor’s silence causes his loved ones to be venerable to attacks from the monster. After Victor hides from the monster and leaves the monster he meets his friend Henry Clerval. Victor tells Clerval nothing, even though it puts many people in danger: “I dreaded to behold this monster, but I feared still more that Henry should see him” (54). Victor’s decisions is incredibly irresponsible and puts people’s lives in danger. The monster feels alone and betrayed by his creator and out of anger he kills those that are close to Victor. To fill the void in the monster’s life, he offers the chance to create female companion which would end the loneliness the monster feels and protect his family from anymore danger from the monster. Instead he decides not to create the monster just because of his fear of the monster: “As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged” (148). Victor is so close to ending his suffering and
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
With nobody to reason with, Victor makes senseless decisions while he is alone. Victor begins this with his process of creating the monster. Nobody in the right mind would ever dig up graves, but that is just what victor goes and does. Once this creation is finally given life, which Victor has spent two years striving for, Victor foolishly abandons it. Victor comes to his senses to some degree after he brings life to the monster as he states, “‘now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 43). Had there been companions around Victor during this creation time, perhaps someone would have been able to guide Victor away from creating the “wretch” (Shelley 43) he so hopelessly conceived. As for the monster, he makes fairly good decisions even without guidance from anyone, including Victor, his creator. The monster has the desire to learn and gain knowledge as a genuine individual. As the monster is continuously rejected and shunned by mankind, his natural benevolence turns to malevolence. In his loneliness, the monster wrongly decides to declare “‘everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’” (Shelley 126). Say the monster was able to have comrades of some kind around him, he would not have turned to this
Victor experiences very little joy at all after the creation of the monster. He suffers from numerous bouts of depression, he most tolerate the deaths of his brother, best friend, and wife, all of which were murdered at the hands of the monster. His friend Justine is executed because of the death of William, for which she is falsely accused and convicted. His father also dies after the murder of Elizabeth, Victor's ill-fated bride. With so much death surrounding his life, how is it possible that Victor could still be cognizant of his actions when he decides to pursue the monster and end its violent fury? He can't. Victor's mind is so clouded by the sorrow and pain of his past that he is blinded to the fact that he is attempting to destroy a creature with far greater physical strength and speed than any mortal. Much of his conflict appears to be created by the monster, when in fact the torment comes from Victor's own hands because he himself created and gave life to the monster.
He possibly could have located the monster, with the help of others, in a timely fashion, thus averting the many calamities that followed. However, Victor chose to abandon his monster and not inform anyone of its creation, and ignore it for months (Shelly 56). When Victor finally sees the monster again, it is after the monster has killed his youngest brother, william. When an innocent woman is blamed for this crime, and Victor could testify and save her life, he takes no action, saying that he would be thought crazy for his tale (Shelly 66).This in and of itself is an insanely selfish thing to do, with minimal effort Victor could have saved another person's life but because it could jeopardize his own reputation, he chooses not to. Even after two people have perished due to his thoughtlessness, Victor still does not inform anyone of the monster which he has created and still allows it to run loose. Later in the novel, after Victor destroys the companion the monster asked him to build, the monster strangles Victor's innocent friend Henry (Shelley 166). Victor’s actions caused a number of deaths and endangered many people. Henry, Elizabeth, William, and Justine all had nothing to do with the creation and subsequent abandonment of the monster, and yet due to Victors irresponsibility, they paid the ultimate price. Williams death is a turning point in the novel, as it shows victor for the first time that his actions actually do have consequences “Nothing in the human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer! I could not doubt it”, and yet he chooses to continue to make irresponsible choices that continue to endanger more people (Shelley
Even though all humans run away from the monster, he wants to help Felix’s family as he believes “it might be in my power to restore happiness to these deserving people” despite their being strangers. This show of kindness despite no previous experience of human kindness is truly laudable and suggest that the monster is innately nice. However, in return for the Monster’s kindness, Felix attacks the monster, who now feels betrayed by his “friend”. But the monster is so resilient and kind, he takes control of his emotions and “rushes from his hiding-place and with extreme labour, from the force of the current, saved [a young girl] and dragged her to shore.” These acts of magnanimous rescue spring organically from a monster even though nobody ever teaches it the difference between right and wrong. However, Victor always considers himself before others. Even though Victor realizes that Justine is innocent, his first instinct is to protect himself as he declares, “ My tale is not one to announce publicly; its astounding horror would be looked upon with madness.”Besides his reputation, Victor had nothing to lose, but because of his selfishness and recklessness, Victor causes the death of Justine. In addition, Victor is so narcissistic that he does not notice that the monster has been attacking his family and friends, such as his “dearest Henry” and Clerval. When the Monster tells Victor, that he will be with him on his wedding night, Victor immediately exclaims, "Villain! Before you sign my death-warrant, be sure that you are yourself safe." To the reader, it is obvious that the monster will attack his fiance, Elizabeth, but believing that the monster will murder him, Victor thinks only of himself, and he does not even think about protecting the
The confrontation between the two demonstrates Victor 's weaknesses as an individual. Although Victor is the Creature 's creator, he refers to his creation as an "abhorred monster" (Shelley 68) and is willing to "extinguish the spark which he so negligently bestowed" (Shelley 68) upon him. This demonstrates Victor 's lack of responsibility. His goal was to create life, essentially to play God. Once the monster began to murder those dearest to Victor, he failed to take responsibility for the creature 's actions. Another weakness in Victor 's character is revealed through the dialogue exchanged between creator and creation. Instead of calmly trying to reason with the Creature, Victor lashes back at the Creature. He even suggests that the two "try their strength in a fight in which one must fall." (Shelley 69) The monster, however, maturely and eloquently urges Victor 's "compassion to be moved" (Shelley69). Because Victor is full of "rage and horror" he wants to destroy his own creation even though victor is playing god in recreation of humanity. They both are to blame due to the fact that Victor created the creature as well as the signs of irresponsibility between the two for the Creature killing people and for Victor trying to recreate
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).
He “became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled [him], and [he] shunned [his] fellow creatures” (41). Victor’s craze over the monster brought him to a state of paranoia and insanity. Victor separated himself from his family in order to pursue his creation. Victor infrequently reciprocated the affection his family and friends showed him, often ignoring the letters they sent him. After Victor’s father, Alphonse, sent him a letter reminding him to stay in touch, Victor disregarded his request, for his father “could not tear [his] thoughts from [his] employment” (40). Victor regarded his work as more important than his relationship with his family. While creating the monster, Victor was so engrossed in his objective that he removed himself from
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
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, a young aspiring scientist, Victor Frankenstein, violates the laws of nature to make his dream experiment of creating life. In the beginning of the novel, Victor is sent to the University of Ingolstadt in Germany to fulfill his science career; leaving Elizabeth his soulmate, his father Alphonse, and best friend Clerval behind in Geneva. Using electricity, Frankenstein shocks his two year long creation to life. The creation known as the monster is abandoned by Victor, and rejected from a human companionship because of his appearance. Because of his abandonment, the monster ravages through Frankenstein’s family and friends, committing numerous murders. The monster is the physical murderer of many innocents
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).
Frankenstein is a novel created by Mary Shelley, and the tale follows a monstrous duo. In the story, the main character Victor Frankenstein has a deep ardor for science. In particular, though, he has a significant love for the magical sciences. Throughout his life he explored the study of science, and he was filled with a great desire to become the next great name in the science world. Eventually, he put all his knowledge to use and attempted to create life; something that had never been done before. With his knowledge of practical and magical sciences, he felt he could accomplish this. After a long period of studying and hard work, he managed to create life. To his dismay, this life form was monstrous and bizarre. Unable to cope with what he had created, Victor fled from his own creation. This led to the unfortunate events that would soon follow. Victor absolutely despised his creation, but despite this they had an unbreakable bond. The two shared many differences, but with this they
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...