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Frankenstein character development
Frankenstein character development
The creatures ambition in frankenstein
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“I was benevolent and good; misery made me fiend” How far and in what ways is the creature a victim of Frankensteins thirst for knowledge? Throughout the creatures perspective, the creature assures the reader that he was not made evil, that it was his abandonment and the mistreatment upon him which caused the his monstrous acts. As the creature states, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” showing that overall it was effects of both the society in which he lived and Victor’s abandonment which caused the monster to become a “fiend” and killing Victors brother and wife. The first way in which the society both victor and the monster live in is shown to hold appearance to high regard thus causing the creature to become ostracised …show more content…
as Victor states “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” holding no thought to how or why he should chose to embark on such an endeavour. This blind ambition is not only how the situation of a creature created “benevolent and good” became a “fiend” but also to Victors ‘brain fever’ that left him bedridden throughout the time he should’ve been raising his creation. This blind ambition is not only shown through Victor as he states “From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition.” but the ambition also embodies a human form in Walton, who states that he wishes to be of the same regard as many great minds, stating “I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated” and yet the very ending of the book in which Victor dies as alone as his creation in the arctic circle, after his family and wife being murdered, shows the dangers of ambition
The Creature, after learning what it is to love, requests that Victor creates a companion for him. Victor rejects the creature’s proposition, as Victor now understands the consequences of animating what shouldn't be alive, the Creature wants nothing more than for Victor to suffer, to feel the pain that he, as a wretch, faces. The Creature does so by devoting his life to the destruction of Victor’s. In chapter 24, the Creature states “But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes the malignant devil.” The creature is viewed as entirely evil by the characters of the novel, despite the scenes in which his benevolent nature is shown. It is ironic that Victor and his creature are foils of one another, yet they suffer a similar fate: their desire to destroy one another led to their ultimate
Victor Frankenstein is originally a happy character that loves to learn and read a large variety of books. He was a fiery individual who sought to understand all knowledge; regardless of how practical the information was. Evidence of this is when his father tells him not to worry about fictional writers like Cornelius Agrippa. Yet, Frankenstein states, “But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more. 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. In Frankenstein’s case, his goal of total enlightenment led to his pitiful demise. Frankenstein’s creature was not originally a monster. He is born with good intentions and is a gentle- although atrocious looking- being until he learns of the sins of the human race. The ultimate factor in the creature’s progression from harmless to
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.
From the beginning, the monster was abandoned by his creator Victor, the only man he's ever had a relationship with. He was made eight feet tall and very grotesque. At first sight, his creator rejects him. The monster tries to integrate himself into society, only to be shunned universally. When the creature goes to the village, he is attacked because of his horrifying appearance. He assists a group of poor peasants and saves a girl from drowning, but because of his outward looks, he is rewarded only with beatings and disgust.
...ime, such as reading, speaking, and how to find shelter. More importantly however, he learns something that affects his entirety of his short life: how humans truly are. Frankenstein learns that humans can be kind and moral, but more often are cruel, brutish, unfair, and unsympathetic. He learns that he will never be accepted, and learning this drives him to do rather evil human-ish acts. Even as he does these bad things though, he still experiences regret, longing for companionship, and the drive to do good things and be a good person. This inner conflict is present in all humans, as we struggle to do the right thing and avoid temptations and violence. This struggle is what causes the creature to truly be human, encompassing all of humanity’s aspects, including both the good and bad.
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).
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
In the novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley the motif of cruelty functions as a motive and mode of retaliation. Both Victor and the Creature portray the roles of the perpetrator and victim of cruelty as seen through the rejection the Creature receives from the humans, Victor’s betrayal to the Creature, and the revenge sought out by the Creature.
...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.
Victor’s cruel and hostile actions toward his creature demonstrate his monstrous characteristics. One example of Victor’s inhumane cruelty is when he decides to abandon his creature. When Victor realizes what he has created, he is appalled, and abandons his creature because he is “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created” (42). This wretched action would be similar to a mother abandoning her own child. Victor’s ambition for renown only fuels his depravity; he brings new life into the world, only to abandon it. This act of abandonment accurately depicts Victor’s cruelty because it shows his disgust toward his own creation, as well as his lack of respect for life. An example of a hostile action is when Victor destroys the creature’s
...s creation as a way of revenge and payback for all the distress he brought to the creature. The creature, beginning as the most innocent, is alienated by his creator and every individual who witnesses his presence. Finally, Victor isolates himself from his beloved ones in order to fulfill his ambitions. All these misfortunes are caused by the lack of moral decision making. Unfortunately, these decisions ruined the life of many people involved in Victor’s life. All these events are the proof of what people’s actions can result into when isolation is a major theme in one’s life.
The creature was tormented because of his hideous appearance. It is unfair that they judged him so harshly because all the creature sought was to be loved. He just wanted to fit in with other people. He is pretty much left by himself to discover that he is ugly and what that actually means. Once the creature realizes that he is ugly and the townspeople treat him so badly, he becomes the monster that everyone assumed he was in the first place. This once so kind-hearted creation is molded into a repulsive monster by the way he is treated by society. The creature accidentally causes the townspeople poverty by stealing their food in secret, when he realizes the effect of his thievery he leaves wood on the doorsteps of the people to try to ease their scarcity. All he wants is to be accepted, yet because of his ugly looks the townspeople still deny him of acceptance. “As a society, we build our own monsters” this is a statement that is describing so much (Connection 1). The town’s people are making him everything that he is. “He was merely provoked into acting out” (Rose
The creature, while physically intimidating and aesthetically revolting, is an intelligent and amiable creature, wishing to fit in with humans and truly find companionship. It is only when he learns of his origins and the fact that he will never fit in that he becomes the destructive and vindictive monster that most humans see him as. After reading the book Paradise Lost and drawing comparisons to himself and Adam from the Bible, the creature becomes angry with Victor about his lack of assistance from his creator: “He was allowed to converse with...beings of a superior nature: but I was wretched, helpless, and alone” (93-94). This knowledge that he is abandoned and has no companion lights the embers of envy inside the creature; now knowing how lacking his life was compared to others, he starts to resent Victor and all of humankind. Another large event and gain of knowledge causes the creature to become even more hateful to all humans. When rejected by the cottage residents, his knowing that he would never be accepted and would always be alone causes the creature to truly become a monster. He swears a personal vendetta against both Victor and all of humanity: “...from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me” (99). Knowing this fact almost completely destroys any remnants of him that
The pursuit of knowledge is expressed through the alluring antagonist, Victor. Victors pursuit of knowledge lead him to a destructive future. It was his ambition and determination to animate a being lead him to a remorseful future. Victor ventured to go beyond human capabilities by ascertaining the elixir of life and attempting to outdo God, but it ultimately lead to his misery. Victor tells of his fascination with natural philosophy and works by Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus. Victor set off to college at Ingolstadt, he attended a presentation taught by M. Waldman which set the Victor on a path in which he would "pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." He was in the anatomy of a human Victor’s goal was to ...
The creature is painted as an outcast, as well as a villain who wants to impede Victor’s journey. He is abandoned by Victor, who recalls “ breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room”(35). The monster is rejected by the very being who injected him with life, and he receives worse treatment from the unsuspecting and close minded humans of neighboring lands. The creature describes how he was harassed “until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons”(74). The creature is rejected by everyone he encounters, his wretched appearance sentencing him to be an outcast. The monster is also a scapegoat since he is hated by all and rejected because everyone believes the monster is devilish and incapable of benevolent deeds. The humans the creature encounter all attack him due to their prejudice and belief that he will harm them; the monster thus is forced to suffer for things he never did or planned to do. Furthermore, the creature does everything in his power to make Victor miserable, making him the villain of the tale. After surrendering to his evil thoughts, the creature declares war on Victor by saying “Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness… I will watch with the willingness of a snake that I may sting with its venom”