Critic Northrop Frye says, “Tragic heroes tower as the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, the great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning”. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein greatly exhibits the theme of the consequence of knowledge and irresponsibility among others through its tragic hero, Victor Frankenstein. Northrop Frye’s quote is certainly true when looking at Frankenstein’s situation. Victor is a victim of his divine lightning, and ultimately causes much trouble for himself; however, Victor also serves as the tragic hero in the lives of the monster, his family, and his friends. As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad... ... middle of paper ... ...ou, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor—’” (Shelley 129). Victor feels guilty for the actions of his creation but is too much of a coward to confess to anyone about what he has done. His selfishness and secrecy cause his friends to suffer and also make him a tragic hero within the novel. In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows readers how irresponsibility and the excessive need for knowledge can cause suffering among others as well as oneself. Victor never intends to cause such harm; however, he is not cautious and observant with his actions, which ultimately leads to his classification as a tragic hero. The desire to learn is most definitely a wonderful trait to have, as long as one’s knowledge doesn’t reach the extent that Victor Frankenstein’s unfortunately does. Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994. Print.
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.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
In Frankenstein, Shelley describes Walton’s perception of Victor’s perilous adventure to eliminate his life-threatening creation. In accounting Frankenstein’s journey, she adds a cautionary message to society by illustrating the devastating consequences of scientific inquiry and the overall acquirement of knowledge. She uses both Victor and Walton as examples of men attempting to exceed human limits. From Victor’s initial “success” with reanimation, his creation ultimately symbolizes the unpredictability of unrestricted experimentation. His creation throws him into multiple depressions and Victor struggles to maintain a stable life. In the end, Walton considers Victor’s demise from a disastrous appetite for “nature’s secrets” as a lesson for his own conquest for glory and knowledge. In this, Shelley uses Frankenstein to warn society about its further audacity in pushing boundaries to uncomfortable limits.
...e of pain for himself, demonstrating how he is truly a tragic hero. In life, one can either choose to succumb to the selfish pressures inside of themselves, or find the will power to overcome them. As proved by Victor Frankenstein, it is most likely to see past the flaw when it is too late. Although it might be too late, the realization is crucial for one’s ability to keep growing as an individual. Victor was able to see past his own life and make choices to benefit everyone else. Life is all about choices and timing; one wrong move and one’s entire future is obliterated. Not only does one destroy their own life this way, but everyone’s life close to them also. The heroes in stories are not all that different from people in the real world; every individual can be a hero, what which type of hero defines us as a whole.
Once in a while, the news exposes horrid crimes in which offenders react to unfair treatments or uncontrollable incidents strayed from their good aims. These types of accounts often trigger debates on who are primary villains. In a complex society, one’s limited objectives sometimes trigger cascading effects, especially if one deviates from one’s rectitude. Therefore, without a precaution on the consequence, one’s free will may end with a disaster. Mary Shelley typifies this notion in her fiction Frankenstein, in which Victor Frankenstein, a fervid scientist, creates a monstrous creature in his heedless pursuit of knowledge at a cost of a few lives. Although the creature causes several deaths in this novel, he is a victim more worthy of forgiveness and compassion than Victor, whose moral failure as a creator is responsible for this tragedy.
Despite the warnings of Alphonse (Victor’s father) against “waste[in] your [Victor’s] time upon this; it is sad trash,” Victor pursues his ambition of creating life with utmost persistence and determination (28). Frankenstein’s sole goal in life is to create the monster however once the monster is created, Victor runs away in fear and refuses to help the monster when asked to help. For example, when the monster asks Frankenstein to create a female counterpart to appease some of the monster’s loneliness, Victor refuses. Therefore, Victor creates the monster in order to satiate his own ambition however once the monster’s desires and needs no longer align with Victor’s goals, he refuses to do anything to help the monster. Through the relationship between Victor and the monster, Shelly observes that people are selfish and often only pursue tasks that meet their goals and desires, rather than what is the right thing to do. Mary Shelley also observes that the self-centeredness displayed in Victor’s attitude towards the monster often results from childhood
The creator of the monster, Victor Frankenstein is a man full of knowledge and has a strong passion for science. He pushes the boundary of science and creates a monster. Knowledge can be a threat when used for evil purposes. Though Victor did not intend for the being to be evil, society’s judgement on the monster greatly affects him. As a result he develops hatred for his creator as well as all man-kind. Victor’s anguish for the loss of his family facilitates his plan for revenge to the monster whom is the murderer. While traveling on Robert Walton’s ship he and Victor continue their pursuit of the monster. As Victor’s death nears he says, “…or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death…Yet, when I am dead if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live-swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes” (pg.199). Victor grieves the death of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth and his father. Throughout the novel he experiences the five stages of grief, denial/ isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Victor denies ...
Education is a tool to advance an individual and a society; however, education can become a means to gain power when knowledge is used to exercise control over another. In Frankenstein, knowledge becomes the downfall of both Victor Frankenstein and the Monster. The novel explores the consequent power struggle between Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the dichotomy of good and evil, and the contrast between intellectual and physical power. Finding themselves in mirroring journeys, Victor Frankenstein and the Monster are locked in a struggle for dominance. Through these two characters, Mary Shelley explores the consequences of an egotistical mindset and of using knowledge to exercise power over others.
This deprived creature was not taught, nor was he provided with the basic tools that would be necessary for his survival. His first memories where him wandering around alone “cold [and] half frightened” (Shelley 73). In contrast Victor has lived a leisurely life of privilege, was provided with all the essentials to life that a growing boy could ask for. Victor is not a victim and has no reason other than that of his own making to be thought of as such. The creature however, despite circumstance as well as having the odds against him, still retains his respect for life. He states that after all that he has been through, that “Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me and I will defend it”. (Shelley 72). This statement distinguishes him from Victor greatly. Where the creature respects life, Victor manipulates it, and is apathetic to both life, death and the laws of nature. The distinction of victim and monster does not end
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, she tells a tale that is not a verdant one, but rather a dreary one about abandonment, creations and relationships. At the exordium of the tale, it may seem that scientist Victor Frankenstein lack of abstaining himself from forbidden knowledge, may be his fault. Yet, once Victors replays his story to Walton it is evident that his hunger for knowledge was just the tip of the iceberg that he fell off of. In Frankenstein, Victor's makes imperious decisions about creation, but his real fault was his inexorable choice to pour all himself into his creation and neglecting his family; only to abandon it as if it were a dross object.
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.
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein secretly creates a monster without considering the consequences. After the creation of the monster and throughout Victor’s life he and the monster suffer constantly. Because Victor keeps his monster a secret from his family, friends and society, he is alone and miserable. The monster is also alone and miserable because he is shunned by society due to his grotesque appearance.
Victor Frankenstein finds himself exploring the world of science against his fathers wishes but he has an impulse to go forward in his education through university. During this time any form of science was little in knowledge especially the chemistry which was Victors area if study. Victor pursues to go farther than the normal human limits of society. “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Chapter 4). He soon finds the answer he was looking for, the answer of life. He becomes obsessed with creating a human being. With his knowledge he believes it should be a perfe...
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...
Victor said, “I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness.” (Frankenstein 202) His second thoughts led him to demolished the mate for the monster and is going to dispose of the remains in the sea. The monster was enraged and very vengeful towards Victor with him not upholding the end of the deal. When Victor and Henry set out to sea a storm drags his boat into the sea and they end up in Ireland. Victor washed up on shore unharmed, but Henry died on the shores of Ireland. Victor is convicted of murdering Henry Clerval, a well known friend and is put on trial. Victor was innocent of the