Would a mother be responsible for his adult son’s misdeeds? In Mary Shelley 's book, “Frankenstein” Victor creates a creature who then kills numerous amount of people. Some may speculate that Victor is responsible for the murders, but the creature is the one to blame. Victor Frankenstein is not responsible for the actions of the Creature. The Creature has 100 percent control over his actions and has logical decision making. The one who does the crime, should also be the one who takes the responsibility of the crime. The Creature has full responsibility of his actions. Victor has created the Creature therefore causings the crimes, but does not mean Victor is responsible. Victor is technically the birthgiver or father of the Creature; a parent …show more content…
The Creature is essentially a super human having the capabilities of a genius level iq. When the Creature is hiding from the De Lacy’s, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken” (Shelley 121). The Creature learns an entire language language in short time span and only with very little resources. The average person would not be capable of learning a language as the Creature. The intelligence of the Creature would explain that most of his murders were intentional and well thought out. In addition, the Creature has the brain of a developed adult. When Victor was creating the Creature he said, “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” (Shelley 58). It would be illogical for Victor to insert a brain of a child into a behemoth sized body. It would not be proportional, so Victor would have to put in a adult brain. The fully developed adult brain, unlike a child’s brain the developed brain has proper decision making and basic thought. Memory would disappear, as it is not a physical thing, but the human brain keeps the decision making, consciousness, and thinking. That is what separates humans and
If the clone is not declared a person, does this mean that as property, Frankenstein has the legal right to damage the clone and dispose of it accordingly?
Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature highlights Frankenstein as the work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, published in 1818, and it brought into the Western world one of its best known monsters. Elements of gothic romance and science fiction help in telling the story of young Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein, as he creates a horrible monster by putting together limbs and veins, leading to destruction and his later regret. The creature is left alone in the world, even by his own creator, for his hideous appearance, and through watching humans he learns their ways of living. Haunting Victor due to his loneliness, he forcefully makes Victor agree to make him a female companion, but Victor’s regret and misery enables him to tear up his
Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein, deals with the major dilemma of the creation of man. Rousseau deals with the topic of abandonment in Emile, which stemmed the thoughts of creation for Shelley in 1816 upon reading Rousseau's opinions. Rousseau blames the problems that children inhibit solely upon the parents shoulders (Mellor). Mary Shelley is able to relate to this statement on a personal level due to the parenting (or lack of) within her life. This in turn leads to a broader question concerning Shelley's Frankenstein; is the monster really the sole person to blame for his murderous actions? According to Rousseau's theory, the monster is not the sole problem. Victor Frankenstein is his creator or "father" figure thus giving him the responsibility of his monster.
I believe that Victor and the creature are both right about what they want and yet monstrous in their reactions. Victor is right about what he wants; one reason is because he is very committed to his work and in creating life for his creature. On the other hand he is evil because he abandoned the creature and left him on his own: "I escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited" (Shelley 57). Shelley shows Victor's monstrous reaction to the creature in the way that he abandoned the creature to his own luck and he shows no responsibility for him.
While Victor was preparing to create new life, he clearly expected greatness in his creation. His hope was that "a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me" (32). Even as he looked upon his creation before inspiring the spark of life, he saw a benevolent, happy creature that could add to the development of human society. He knew full well what his creation looked like, but still felt that it would become an accepted new species that could call him their father. He was the creator of a whole new group of creatures. He did not create the being that later developed into the monster when he constructed the creature out of miscellaneous parts. The creature he made was exactly what he intended: one with a happy and excellent nature, and one that could "bless him as creator and source."
Victor never even fathomed the actual existence of the creature, somewhat resembling an unplanned pregnancy that was never emotionally and rationally dealt with even after the actual birth of the child. He certainly did not adequately prepare himself for parenthood.
In the classic novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley saturates her plot with profuse foreshadowing, homages, and contrasting images. The contrasted images, used to set up foil characters, scenes, or ideas, accentuate their respective significance and traits. One of the more noteworthy contrasting images is found in Shelley's use of the Natural and Artificial.
An increasingly popular way of thinking in today’s society is to evaluate the upbringing of someone in order to condone or at least understand their behavior. Along the same lines, one popular view of the creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is to be sympathetic towards the creature due to his poor upbringing and lack of a friends or a traditional father figure. Regardless of these unfortunate circumstances, however, the fact remains that the creature is still a cold-hearted wretch bent on ruining the life of Victor, through being the master of Victor’s life and existence, almost in a slave and master sense, who feels remorse yet kills anyway and is therefore deserving of the title "monster".
It could be argued that the Creature is actually a serial killer because according to “Serial Killer” from Criminal Minds Wiki “A Serial Killer is a person who murders multiple people, usually with a “cooling off” period in between.” (Serial Killer 1). The Creature warned Victor that he would be with him on his wedding night but Victor was so worried about himself that he didn’t consider other people being in danger. From Frankenstein by Mary Shelly are Victor’s thoughts “And then I thought again of his words- “I will be with you on your wedding night.” That, then was the period fixed for the fulfillment of my destiny. In that hour I should die and at once satisfy and extinguish his malice.” (Shelly 153). On that night Elizabeth was murdered all due to Victor’s blindness and selfishness. Elizabeth however wasn’t the only one to die from the actions of Victor and the Creature; William and Henry Clerval both died as well. Many would say that the Creature is completely at fault for these murders however the mental damage he has received from Victor and society has left him incapable of making rational
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.
The monster matures further through his discovery of the intellectual and educated elements of life. He finds a few literary works (90) and develops through it. The monster acquires an eloquent and educated manner of speech, suggesting he was indeed intelligent. In addition to the learnedness of the monster, he also appreciated the beauty and wonder of nature, yet did not comprehend how such a horrid creature
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.
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
...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.
In conclusion, Victor Frankenstein is to blame for the actions of the creature, which was brought about by its rejection. Victor became obsessive in his work, but when his creation was complete he fully rejected it causing the creature to lead a life of solitude. The monster also attempts to seek acceptance from society and fails. The creature, also aware that it has been rejected by Victor, pursues a life of revenge killing those dear to him. Hence, if Victor would have never abandoned his creation the multiple deaths of the innocent could have been prevented.