Death And Life In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

For many, it is difficult to consider that death and life coexistence with each other in an enviable union. Day after day people mourn death and celebrate birth. There is a common innate fear due to the uncertainty that death will bring, and while most people avoid any dangers or acts of self-destruction, some run towards it. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the main characters fear not death but life due to their horrific past, ongoing trauma, and building guilt. Victor Frankenstein’s demise stemmed from his infatuation with the balance of nature and science. Even as a child, Frankenstein longed for answers that no one could give, “ I confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the code of governments, nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn” (28). From that moment Victor’s fate was determined, and his pursuit for these answers soon became an obsession with playing God. However, moments after the birth of his creation, his entire deanor shifts; he suffers remorse, “breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (51). This horror only worsens with his later encounters with the monster and the knowledge of the several murders of his most beloved. Victor Frankenstein gave life and now longed for
nothing but the death of not only the monster’s— but his. The creature had the curse of life from the beginning. He was created and abandoned, thrown into a world that could not accept or understand him due to his unnatural terrifying appearance. Uneducated like a newborn, the creature learned from his surroundings. He examined the actions and lifestyles of a family known as the “cottagers.” He gained much knowledge from this, but the longing for companionship left him cold. After their rejection of him, he sought no reason to live, “Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you so wantonly bestowed... my feelings were those of rage and revenge” (143). This began his spiral downward, and the later destruction of his mate ended any tranquility for his life and Frankensteins’. Frankenstein blamed himself for his family’s death, yet sought revenge towards his own crazed creation; the creature blamed Frankenstein for giving him the unfair gift of life.
This situation could not end in any way but the demise of both. The traumatic events that occur in life cannot be erased but merely dealt with. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein disturbingly paints the victory of death that all will succumb to; the peacefulness that the living could possibly acquire when the lights flicker off, “ I had better seek death than desire to remain in a world which to me was replete with wretchedness (192).” It is a farfetch'd tale that questions how horrible death may really
be.