Throughout life,many people make impulse decisions in their lives such as lashing out at loved ones or spending money on the first thing in their sights that appease them without looking at the number in their bank account.Normally,people can’t go back on these decisions after receiving the horrific consequences such as divorces or becoming bankrupt.These actions can be caused by greed or lust which are two out of the seven deadly sins that burden most humans.Mary Shelley shows this with the use of a character who makes a decision he can never go back on,regardless of the consequences he will have to take on. Many critics have explored the psychoanalytical aspect of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The thought process behind the decisions and …show more content…
Victor’s superego makes its debut when he finds out the murder of his brother and the accusation of Justine for committing the crime.Victor knows that Justine is innocent but he does not say anything because he fears of the “living monument of presumption and rash ignorance which [he] had let loose upon the world”(Shelley 78). Victor feels as if it is all of his fault that his own brother has been killed.He is internally shouldering all of the blame and thinks he is doing everyone a favor by not speaking his mind which is mentally straining him.His superego has caused him to not tell the truth and potentially stop the problem into escalating to Justine’s eventual execution.As well as that,Victor’s superego starts to manifest even more when he starts spending time alone. Victor blames himself for the suffering of his father and Elizabeth. He declares that he “left them exposed and unprotected to the malice of the fiend whom [he] had let loose among them(Shelley 87).Victor’s superego is becoming too hard on himself and is distracting him from actually finding the monster.He is constantly living in the past and does not give himself a break for one mistake. He has given himself the title of being the “author of unalterable evils”(Shelley 87). Victor blames his actions for becoming the root of all problems.According to Sigmund Freud, who founded the new ideas of human psyche,constantly putting blame on one’s self is due to depression.Victor is in a clear state of depression because of his wishes that “peace would revisit [his] mind” (Shelley 87).Victor’s superego and his state of depression are constantly building on top of each other leading to his ultimate
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818 about the scientist Victor Frankenstein who committed sin-filled crimes of pride for his own personal benefit, but redeems himself by confession. Shelley wrote this novel for the sole purpose to warn “all men make mistakes, But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repair the evil; the only crime is pride” Man should not play God and should apologize for his mistakes committed. In the work, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley drives Dr. Victor Frankenstein to pursue morally wrong, selfish, and prideful crimes that eventually lead to his redemption; however, not without compromising his life, the lives of others, and his immortal soul.
Remorse is a complex feeling; one that was not common in the period in which Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein was written. The literary work , written for a contest, shows the free thinking of the time and covers the danger of thinking too recklessly. Cadence was the name of the game. “’You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been,’” (p.31), Frankenstein says to Robert Walton, offering a clear warning that corresponds directly to the regret Victor feels for his sin. In the real world and in this particular piece of literature, remorse is incredibly powerful.
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, raises some questions about the nature of life and of society as a whole; the issue of whether or not a decision, small or otherwise, affects the outcome of one’s life as a whole is one to draw upon. Another way to put this is if there is a way to take all of the events of the story and file them down to the character decisions, and trace where a series of events begin with a decision a character made. Why this is relevant to the context of the story? It is relevant because it shows how even the smallest of character moments could lead to catastrophic events such as those in this novel. This is important to people, especially in our generation, to think about our decisions and how they affect our lives and those
I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple” (21). Frankenstein embodies the movement in science to understand everything, and that is not necessarily a good thing (Storment 2). Frankenstein only understands that this train of thought is bad when he reaches the pinnacle of knowledge and produces the creature. The fruits of Frankenstein’s labor end up costing him the lives of his friends and family, as well as his own sanity. The feeling of guilt thrives in Frankenstein because he knows his work was the direct cause of the chaos in his life.
The most prevalent theme in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is that of obsession. Throughout the novel there are constant reminders of the struggles that Victor Frankenstein and his monster have endured. Many of their problems are brought upon by themselves by an obsessive drive for knowledge, secrecy, fear, and ultimately revenge.
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.
At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.
In the novel Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley writes about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings to life a human- like creature. Viewing this book through a psychoanalytic lens uncovers the many layers that make up this text and the characters. The psychoanalytic theory deals with a person’s underlying desire, most famously, the oedipal complex. The oedipal complex is the belief that all people possess the desire to partake in affectionate relations with a parent of the opposite sex. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victors conscious and subconscious to suggest that Victor possesses the oedipal complex, and that he feels intense guilt for the monster that he has brought to life.
Monsters can come in various physical forms, but all monsters share the same evil mentality. A Monster is a being that harms and puts fear within people. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of how appearance does not determine whether a creature is a monster or not. In the story, Victor Frankenstein tries to change nature by creating a super human being. The being appears to be a monster. Victor becomes so obsessed with his creation and then rejects it. Victor is the real monster because of his desire for power, lack of respect for nature, and his stubbornness.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Some of these things that take Victor’s mind off all of his sorrows include taking drugs or wasting time in nature away from society. Victor does these things because of his past actions-or future actions-and the guilt he feels for them that he wants to escape. Responsibility is not one of his strong points and since his personality and actions are so influenced by his Id, he wanted no part in feeling the guilt that his Superego brings to him. As Victor’s guilt grew with each action his monster did, his sustainability and calmness constantly grew worse. His “agitation and anguish were extreme during the whole trial”(Shelley 69) of Justine’s because his guilt from his Superego increased with the death of his brother William. When any death occurred after that Victor proceeded to suppress his Superego to make himself feel better about all the wrongs he had committed through his rash-Id influenced actions. Victor tried “to forget the world, his fears, and more than all himself” (Shelley 79) altogether and move on from his past. Yet he could not forget the past as he had a shadow that would not let him move on to the future. Only a new action could fix the wrong actions he had made in the past, however, Victor does not want to take the steps to fix his wrong actions. His Superego would not let him go of his guilt, keeping him from making reasonable choices to fix the wrongs he had done. This constant guilt that he feels from his Superego is Victor’s demise as it brought him down to the fire of his sorrows to forge the rage that would be his last fall from health and
The fact that Frankenstein’s monster kills out of revenge and anger is a form evil but one can understand and to a certain extent sympathise with his inability to reason right from wrong. Many examples of this inability are shown, for example, the creature strangles Frankenstein’s innocent young brother because he cannot under...
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...
Frankenstein demonstrates many traits of the romantic hero. He is in tune with nature, has intense feelings that guide his actions, periods of being alone and being seen as the underdog, his moral code is questionable, and stifle is ever-present in his life. He is very much driven by his emotions, “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement” (pg19). He was also overcome with emotions while trying to create his creature, “no one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success” (pg 32). There are several things that show he has his own moral code. He sees nothing wrong with creating a creature or torturing animals to benefit his work. “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (pg 32). He has much strife in his life all of which seems to be self-induced. He is isolated while working on his creature “I became nervous to a painful degree: I became nervous to a painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime.” (pg 34). He loses many love ones by the hand of the creature he created and he spends his life struggling to end what he created.