Revenge is not the Solution People often assume that revenge will make them feel better. This important theme is shown throughout Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The monster in this novel portrays this evil character because of the actions he took and because of revenge toward his creator, Victor Frankenstein. Revenge controlled the monster’s life and caused him to kill many of the people Victor loved. Revenge often motivates people to take actions toward their offender because they think that is will help console them. One of the biggest ways the monster shows the actions of his revenge is when he first meets William, Victor’s younger brother. The monster
He had asked Victor to create him another monster as a companion and if he doesn’t keep his promise, then he will be miserable. When Victor goes to England with the intention of creating this promised monster, his friend Henry follows him. After several months, Victor destroys the half created creature and this upsets the monster very much so because he wants this companion. When he kills Henry, the monster distinctly planned it so that Victor would be blamed for the murder. Through all this confusion on who killed Henry, Victor knew all along that the monster did it. At this point, Victor knew that he must return to Geneva to protect his family whom he loved very much (Shelley 181). Since this monster killed Henry, Victor knew that his family was now is in danger. The monster is very happy that Victor is having to suffer because, Victor is now feeling the loneliness that he feels all the time. Though the monster’s character is not evil, the pain he feels is what he wants his creator to feel. His revenge only increases throughout the book because he is only longing for a fellow companion that Victor can only give him, but yet he is choosing not to create it. The anger that is within the monster is only growing and this is increasing the possibilities of him hurting more
When a crime is committed, the blame is usually placed on the criminal. This is because a crime cannot take place without a criminal. However, a lawbreaker generally has reasons for his misdeed. For a crime to occur, a criminal must have incentive. Consequently, the causes of a wrongdoer’s motivation are also responsible for the offence. In addition, crimes can be avoided if the proper precautionary measures are taken. Therefore, anyone who could have stopped a crime from happening is partially accountable for it. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a creature created by Victor Frankenstein kills several of Victor’s loved ones. These murders could be blamed on the creature, but he is not solely responsible for them. The root cause of the murders is Victor’s secrecy. His concealment causes his obsession, a lack of preventative measures against the creature, and his fear of appearing to be mad.
Humans thrive off of connection with other beings, this allows for them to indeed grow and exceed happiness most of the time. Within our species and even outside we are all searching for one thing this is indeed a sense of some purpose and pursuing happiness. Now the monster is unable to obtain a connection with either of the characters mentioned in this story in the beginning resulting in his anger he lashes out only proving what people saw on his exterior which was indeed a reflection of what was within a monster indeed. Revenge can indeed affect both parties because yes the monster succeeded in leaving victor with loneliness and grief similar to what he was feeling but the monster ended up losing victor himself leaving him truly lonely and a feeling of no
The brutal behavior that causes people to suffer or feel pain mentally or physically is known as cruelty. It is actions that people, real or fictional, experience, and these actions usually come from the one’s they love. Cruelty can either be unintentional or on purpose, and both forms negatively affect the person or object receiving the action. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, acts of cruelty, such as when Victor leaves the monster, are driving forces that causes characters to realize their mistakes, ultimately causing their own destruction. Victor’s cruel abandonment of the monster once he awakens causes the monster to feel lonely and isolated which affects his feelings towards humans and life in general in the novel.
On his search for Victor he came across the little brother of his creator and kills him. “‘Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim’…and in a moment he lay dead at my feet” (Shelley, 131). He killed the little boy to force Victor to feel all of the pain that he had felt. He did not show anymore compassion because all he wanted was revenge from Victor and to make him feel the same way that he had felt. The desire for revenge only strengthened as he approached
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
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
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Both Frankenstein and the monster suffer greatly through the novel, Frankenstein experiment, that had gone totally wrong. The monster is not mean, in the way that he tried to fit in, into society, but was shunned and never accepted by anyone. The monster lived alone, isolated for everyone and everything, meanwhile Frankenstein suffer as well. He loss everyone around him, in a blink of an eye, in the hands of the monster, regretment as he is the creator of the thing that destroyed his life. Although many blame everything on the monster, in the way he badly behaved, he is not at total fault for his action.As in the way that when the monster commits his crime with passion; he doesn't think apon his actions, but only lives in the moment and his action are his mostly rage.
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.
“.he declares 'everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery” (Bond). The monster is angry with Victor. He wants Victor to build him a companion, or he will kill everyone that Victor loves. After Victor rejects the idea, the monster wants Victor to feel the loneliness and isolation that the monster has felt all his life. “.if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you, my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred” (Shelley, 204).