In the novel Frankenstein, author Marry Shelley depicts character Victor Frankenstein as a scientist with a strong passion for forbidden knowledge and finding the answers to life through science. Though his intentions are good this leads him to the creation of a monster. Throughout the novel Frankenstein is constantly encountered by obstacles that test his passions for science and responsibility for his creation. For Victor it seems that the choice to abandon the monster is the easier path, rather than taking care of his creation. In the beginning of the book, right after the creation of the monster, Victor fled his home to get away from the creature, only to return and find that it had escaped.
Frankenstein Personal Response Why Victor Frankenstein is Responsible for his Death When one initially reads the gothic tale Frankenstein, it may seem obvious that Victor’s monster was directly responsible for the death of Victor’s loved ones. At the hands of his very own grotesque creation, Victor lost his younger brother, his friends and his newlywed wife, Elizabeth. However, upon reflection on the actions of Victor Frankenstein, I concluded that Victor himself is indisputably responsible for the deaths of the people closest to him. I found these three very distinct reasons that support my thoughts: he created the monster, he rejected and abandoned it, and he refused to make a companion for the monster in the midst of his loneliness. As a result of Victor’s pursuit of scientific knowledge and the desire to infuse life, he created a very grotesque creature that murdered his loved ones.
In Frankenstein, “The Monster” is Frankenstein's creation. The creature possesses all of the qualities that humans suppress, or should suppress, as children: villainy, murderous thoughts, revenge, etc. Some people would have thought that Frankenstein wanted to replace his dead mother. Instead of doing what every other man does, marry someone like his mother, Frankenstein rejected Elizabeth, who was physically like his mother and had a history like that of his mother. Frankenstein wanted to recreate his mother, but instead he made a creature comprised of the socially repressed elements of Frankenstein (the monster) and his wish for his mother.
In chapter five of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature is given life. The opening paragraph makes excellent use of pathetic fallacy, using the weather to set the scene. The first lines of the chapter “it was a dreary night in November” and “the rain pattered dismally against the windowpanes” make obvious use of traditional gothic horror scenery. Victor Frankenstein seems to have mixed emotions at the time of the creature’s birth. He is nervous yet scared and disgusted at the out come of his long toil.
Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?’" (Shelley, 87). Frankenstein is offended by the beauty and calmness of the scenery because it diverges from the way he feels inside. The effects of the sublime on human emotions are further demonstrated when Frankenstein becomes depressed after the execution of his friend, Justine. His father,
For example, by the end of the play, Henry Higgins goes out of his way to find Eliza and he himself admits, "I shall miss you, Eliza. I have learnt something from your idiotic notions; I confess that humbly and gratefully. And I have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance I like them, rather." (Shaw, 100) In Frankenstein, it is more of the creation that begins to appreciate the creator, than the creator appreciating the creation. When Frankenstein dies on the ship, Frankenstein's monster admits his remorse to Walton, saying, “I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin.
The Monster in the Lab Coat Many literary critics have long argued a question regarding Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Who is the real monster? One can argue that, throughout the novel, it is Victor Frankenstein, the overly ambitious scientist, who is the true monster. Victor Frankenstein is depicted as a callous creator who shows no empathy to his own innocent creature. Frankenstein fails his responsibility as a creator and abandons his creation to a life full of abhorrence. The creature has infinite potential, but it is Frankenstein’s prideful nature and negligence that makes the creature become “monstrous”.
Walton’s loneliness is reflected in the “icy climes” of the Arctic, “encompassed by frost and snow”. This unwelcoming, hostile environment is also pre-emptive of society’s treatment of Frankenstein’s monster. In the opening letters, we begin to see Shelley’s contextual links, mainly through Walton’s referencing Coleridge’s “land of mist and snow” and “Ancient Mariner”. This reference also acts as a foreshadowing device – both Frankenstein and the Ancient Mariner disrupt the course of nature, and both are condemned to tell their tale to any who would listen. Volume I of the novel recounts Victor’s childhood to us, allowing us to see how he changes as the tale progresses.
Domestic affection is the sense of belonging and love one feels when people are accepted by family and friends. Shelly believes that when people loses this affection they begin to make immoral decisions and lose their sense of humanity, and this is when they become truly monstrous. When Frankenstein is read from this perspective, the creature isn’t the only monster in the story. Robert Walton, captain of the ship, also has the potential to be monstrous, and so too do victor, the general population, and the social institutions within the world of Frankenstien. Through the actions committed in the play, Victor Frankenstein becomes one of the most monstrous characters in the story.
He then used electricity to give life to his creature. By making the monster, he was taking the place of God, or according to the myth, the god Prometheus, and became the creator instead of just the created. “Prometheus knows the good consequences that his acts and his pride will have to mankind, but Frankenstein acts without stopping to think what could happen after” (Pastelero). Although Frankenstein does become a creator by creating the monster, he does not care for his creation in the way Prometheus cared for his humans he created. Frankenstein was not a good creator, he was actually trying desperately to kill his monster he made.