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Causes of mental illnesses essays
Main causes of mental illness
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Readers often attribute Victor Frankenstein’s many bouts of illness and fever to his attempts at escaping from the world in which he lives; however, a mental disorder may be more to blame for his continuous decline in health. Although Victor’s illnesses may offer an escape from the harsh realities of the world which he helped create, it appears that his symptoms align more with a psychosomatic disorder, a disease which involves both mind and body. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by a horrific or terrifying event. Not all traumatic events lead to PTSD; many people recover with proper care after a short time to lead normal lives. Without the right kind of care, however, a traumatic event can lead …show more content…
Having little or no support after a traumatic event can lead to a major defect in one's mental recovery. Victor did not tell anyone about the monster, so no one could understand what he went through or could help him feel better. Although Victor does receive care with his many falls to fever, he had no family or friends to talk to about his mental stability or his emotions. He could not go to any sort of support group for this kind of situation. Victor was on his own with his mental recovery and could never find a way to overcome it. In addition to his lack of support, PTSD can overcome a person when they witness the deaths of others. Although Victor never witnessed a death personally, he did see all of the dead victims of his creation including his brother, best friend, and wife. Not only did strangers die from his own creation, but also the people closest to him. Another risk factor of PTSD involves the feelings of horror, helplessness, and extreme fear. Victor experiences all of these feelings. He feels horror from what happened to the people in his life by the monster, helplessness because he fails to destroy the creature, and fear due to his own life and the other people around
“We Kill Ourselves Because We Are Haunted” is a non-fiction essay by Jennifer Percy; in which Percy meet veterans or soldiers and their family who are suffering from PTSD, due to some accident that happened to the veterans or soldiers. In the article Percy, discuss various incidence of different people who are trapped in the circle of PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a problem related to mental health. In this a person come across flashbacks, nightmares, uncontrollable thought that are not easily recoverable. PTSD may happen when a person comes across a terrifying situation that happened to themselves or someone close to them.
His mother's love was shown throughout the beginning of the book so much more than his fathers was. Together the two parents loved him so much it helped him grow and this is why his childhood was so phenomenal. When Victor was sent off to Ingolstadt, he had no real idea of what it was like to be an adult. He was taken care of so well by his mother that once she was away from her parents, her father being at home and his mother being dead, he was not sure what was right and wrong. Victor's curiosity for knowledge is what led him to be a man of science and this is why he came up with the idea to experiment and create a human being from death. Without thinking of the results that were to come, Victor's ambition to become godlike pushed him to finish his project. The end result terrified Victor so badly that even he left him alone. To start, he left him alone in his apartment and when he returned, the monster was gone. “I could hardly believe that that so great a good fortune could have befallen me, but when I became assured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy and ran down to Clerval.” (Shelley 61) This is the first time that Victor does not care for his monster properly. After all of the care that Victor received from his mother, readers would think that Victor would grow up to be just like his parents and be so kind and gentle. Victor is unable to take responsibility of the monster that he created. Victor is prejudiced by the appearance of the monster which leads him to run away from his
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
Victor experiences very little joy at all after the creation of the monster. He suffers from numerous bouts of depression, he most tolerate the deaths of his brother, best friend, and wife, all of which were murdered at the hands of the monster. His friend Justine is executed because of the death of William, for which she is falsely accused and convicted. His father also dies after the murder of Elizabeth, Victor's ill-fated bride. With so much death surrounding his life, how is it possible that Victor could still be cognizant of his actions when he decides to pursue the monster and end its violent fury? He can't. Victor's mind is so clouded by the sorrow and pain of his past that he is blinded to the fact that he is attempting to destroy a creature with far greater physical strength and speed than any mortal. Much of his conflict appears to be created by the monster, when in fact the torment comes from Victor's own hands because he himself created and gave life to the monster.
Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein’s Empathy Is the loss of empathy justified by the sins of humanity against you? Both Victor Frankenstein and his creature are tormented by humanity and become criminals; but does this necessarily mean that both were unable to retain their humanity? By the end of Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has lost most of his humanity. This is uniquely shown by comparing him to his own creation, his monster. The unnatural creature conceived in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, has enormous amounts of empathy, whereas his creator, Victor Frankenstein, has very little and therefore has lost touch with humanity.
After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monster's solitude, the monster is overcome with suffering and sadness. These feelings affected his state of mind and caused him to do wrong things. He did not deserve to see his one and only mate be destroyed.
...he window and see his own creation killing his wife. As a result of all the deaths in Victor’s family, his father kills himself because he cannot stand all the grief that he has been struck with. His death is a result of the hideous monster that his own flesh and blood created, but he will never know that because Victor will not tell anyone.
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).
The novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, takes place during the 18th century and captures the life of Victor Frankenstein who spends his life engulfed in creating an artificial being that is capable of human emotion. After leaving his family in Geneva and spending years studying and perfecting the development of his creation, he finally is able to animate an organism made up of body parts he dug up from a grave yard. Victor becomes frightened of the creature as it comes to life and abandons it. The monster’s abandonment leads him to kill members of Victor’s family but he still does not tells anyone of the threat, leaving the rest of his family vulnerable. Throughout the novel, Victor has chance after chance to save his family and give the
Bangerter, Alison. An Examination Of the Psychological Mind of Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein. 4 April 2011 .
Both Victor and the monster suffer tremendously both physically and emotionally throughout their life. Victor’s physical suffering was brought on by his inability to cope with his tremendous guilt and secret. The monsters physical suffering was due to the abuse inflicted upon him by society’s fear of him. Both also suffered emotionally; they were both alone, Victor due to his secret that caused isolation and his inability to admit and disclose what he had done. The monster suffered emotionally because of his creator’s rejection and society’s inability to get past his grotesque looks and accept him for who he was.
By letting the monster go, he is giving his control away. As the monster learns things on his own, he starts turning against Victor. He struggles as the creature alters his life. The creature does whatever he wants; like killing his brother, William. Victor didn’t think of the consequences of his actions and thought that he would be unaffected if he just disowned the creature. In my opinion, all the terrible events that occurred could have been avoided if only Victor accepted him and therefore, having control, authority and power over the monster.
The abnormal behavior of Victor Frankenstein simply could not be explained by anyone. He was obsessed with building his monster, no matter what the morality or the outcome of his actions were. Consequences wreaked havoc on the creator when the monster turned on him and took his anger out on Victor’s family. He was so focused on building his perfection that he overlooked some factors. After further research, it is concluded that Victor suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder during the creation of his monster, which resulted in a rigid following of the ethics and morals of science and technology.
The change that Victor experiences throughout the novel Frankenstein is epitomized by his wife Elizabeth’s death. By this point in the novel Victor Frankenstein has lost every one of his family and friends that are close to him. After experiencing so much grief, loss, and guilt Victor begins to change. By only using the chapter which Elizabeths dies, it can be proved that the accumulation of other deaths and her death lead to the dehumanization of Frankensteins mental and physical states as well as his obsession with the monster. This dehumanization and change in Victor matters because it shows the growing connection between Victor and the monster he is chasing. The dehumanization that Victor experiences, is described in a specific way, using the Oxford English Dictionary definition of “ to deprive of human character or attributes.” (OED) In this essay dehumanized will be used not only with the OED definition, but also to show Victor’s attributes becoming not only less human but more and more like the monsters. The death of Elizabeth specifically exposes the full dehumanization of Frankenstein, seen though his mental state, physical appearance, and obsession with the monster, which leads to a greater similarities between Victor and the monster, this is ironic because Victor is hunting the very monster he is becoming.
Both Victor and the monster had deep feelings for nature. Victor’s relationship with nature in his adulthood mainly derived from his childhood. He remembered how blissful nature made him feel as a child and wanted to feel the same way again, even after the deaths of William and Justine. This feeling that nature gave him healed him physically and mentally. However, later in the story, nature only made Victor more depressed as his relationship with the creature worsened. He even compared himself to a blasted tree, stating that he is one with the blasted tree in terms that they are both outcasts of their species. Eventually, nature lost its ability to heal him. Ironically, at the end of the story, it was nature that killed