Examples Of Narcissism In Frankenstein

Narcissism is a human trait that possesses everyone. It can isolate a person from society, into a world of his or her own. Some are more prone to self-centered ways than others but everyone has times of selfishness. This selfishness and isolation is inevitable among many but it can be fixed. In the novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has a great family who loves him dearly and when his mother dies he leaves his family to go to college. At the university he learns and studies extensively with ambitions for creating new life, one character flaw of his. He also ends up egotistically shutting himself off from the outside world including his family, who loved and cared for him all of his childhood. In Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley utilizes Victor Frankenstein’s character flaws in order to show the tragedy that can be caused by such untamed behavior.
In the beginning, Victor loves and is loved.
He is healthy and well but when his mom dies he is changed and he leaves for college. Victor deeply yearns to obtain the knowledge needed for the process to create new human life. His yearning is very self-centered. Frankenstein neglects his loving family and he neglects his friends. His one-track mind neglects all but one thing: the satisfaction he wishes to obtain from creating life like God did. “Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the World” (Shelley viii). The task Victor seeks is no small feat but something of God. It may be considered sacrilege to try and produce life like the Creator of the Universe yet Frankenstein puts his heart and soul into it. Victor doesn’t see the harm in any of his goals. He goes after them full force. “What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?” (Shelley 1). As is demonstrated in the novel, all Victor sees is the opportunity to obtain as much knowledge as he
can. With great knowledge comes great responsibility but responsibility, readers do not see. Frankenstein exclaims in the novel, “So much has been done…. more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (Shelley 4). The next flaw of Frankenstein is his naivety. Victor, in his head, sees all the positives of creation but lacks the responsibility and maturity to weigh the consequences of it. “Frankenstein’s moral failure is his needless pursuit to know all that he might about life without taking any responsibility for his acts” (Griffith). After hours, days, years of work Victor Frankenstein is able to create this eight-foot tall ugly beast of a human if you can call it that and Frankenstein still doesn’t see what could possibly go wrong. Frankenstein does not realize that he is creating a human that will have feelings, that will talk, that will want friends, and a female companion maybe. Victor is instead selfish and doesn’t care what this creature he constructs will feel. It is understood that later the creature is unhappy with this unnatural life which was thrown upon him. The creature is kind and curious but when shunned is forced into an evil and violent being. The creature turns into a monster. To think that Victor saw all good in creating an eight foot beast with superhuman strength is beyond most readers including Joyce Carol Oates who would most likely put the blame for all the deaths caused by the monster on Victor. She says in an article: “Or is the demon psychologically his creature, committing the forbidden acts Frankenstein’s wants committed?” (Oates 548). It is clear that Victor Frankenstein and his selfish wants were what caused tragedy among his family and friends and others around them. George V. Griffith explained it pretty well, “…the word ‘Frankenstein’ conjures in most minds not Victor but the monster…” (Griffith). Victor’s inability to foresee the trouble in creating new life led to his and many others downfall and crowns him “the monster”.
The third character flaw demonstrated in Frankenstein is Victor’s cowardice towards the creature. Victor created the monster and saw that it was bad, so he hid and let it runaway. Victor, so caught up in the process, was not man enough to confront his newly created human beast. Instead he lets this beast, which he fears greatly, wander the earth by himself. The creature is inherently kind hearted but as he struggles to find acceptance, he turns into something more of a monster. “It is human interaction (and lack thereof) that ultimately drives the creature beyond his limits…” (Smith 1). It is again clear that the lack of leadership and bravery in Victor Frankenstein leads to a struggle to find human companionship for the creature. This lack of human interaction perhaps the same stimulus for the self-destruction of Victor. After being abandoned by his detached creator the creature feels no hope in his life. This he exclaims: “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (Shelley 188). The creature’s sorrows are Victor’s fault but he is not able to make a change and as a result, the creature turns into a monster and gets revenge on his creator by murdering his family and friends.
Mary Shelley used Victor’s flaws to warn of the consequences that can come with things like selfish ambition, neglect towards society, and cowardice. It is understood that these flaws create great sorrow by the death of many people. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is not just warning against the dangers of science but rather a more broad set of flaws in character that are perhaps more key to the tragedy in the novel. The human traits Victor possesses are unrestrained and lead to the tragic deaths of those including William Frankenstein, Justine Moritz, Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry Clervel, Victor himself, and the creature as well. Traits such as the ones that caused this tragedy are acceptable in moderation but people must have a strong enough will to control their flaws and not let them go overboard like Victor Frankenstein.