Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Character Analysis

Are individuals created evil and mildly redundant , or do they slowly begin to acquire these traits through experiences in life? Often times in life, people become overwhelmed with their natural instincts based off what they are used to and what they feel is the right thing. Also, being raised in a poor manner may lead to the downfall of a character as well. This argument is brought about several times in Mary Shelley's novel, “Frankenstein”. As we already know, two of the main characters of the story, Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates both have distinct personalities. They both possess extremely different natural instincts and they both have been raised significantly different from one another. Mary Shelley’s use of powerful and
meticulous diction shows the reader that nature was the cause of the fall of Victor Frankenstein and the act of nurturing is the cause of the fall of the monster Victor created. To start off the story, Mary Shelley gives the reader an idea of who Victor Frankenstein truly is. Victor Frankenstein’s nature is described as a “genevese”(Pg 18) being born into a family with a family high ranked in society. Seen in the text, Shelley continues to provide us with strong language to describe the nature of Victor and the life he was born into, not the nurturing that he has experienced. Being associated with one of the most prestigious families in society can certainly leave a toll on you as it figuratively drags Victor along a path where he becomes power hungry as he feels the need to be greedy with his power in the process of creating the monster. Victor Frankenstein’s powerful hubris finally brought his creation to life after his long two years of hard work. “I had worked...for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body...I had desired it with ardor that far exceeded moderation” (39) As seen from this quote in the story, Mary Shelley uses extremely powerful and professional choice of words such as ardor, exceeded and desire to explain the idea that Victor Frankenstein is submerged in arrogance inherited from his family. In my opinion, Victor Frankenstein’s actions are being controlled by his past, strictly by what he is familiar with in his family as this gives the reader an indication of the incoming downfall of Victor. As we know, Victor Frankenstein has an extreme interest in the sciences.
His knowledge and overall curiosity was established through the idea of “the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash”, lightning. This is shown through Mary Shelley’s use of lighting as a symbol in the story. The light in this situation symbolizes the curiosity of Victor Frankenstein as a character. “I remained, while the storm lasted, watching…with curiosity and delight…this excited my extreme astonishment” (Pg 24). Victor Frankenstein uses his inquisitiveness and interest in science in order create the monster in a storm. To go off of this, Victor Frankenstein's father did all that was possible to nurture his son as he “had taken the greatest precautions that his mind should be impressed with supernatural horrors,” (Pg 33) As one could tell from reading this story, the nature and nurture of Victor Frankenstein are completely opposite, as the nature is pulling him down and the nurture is doing all it can to bring him back up. For example, it the text Victor stated that his father “had devoted himself to the education of his children” (Pg 19) The nurturing of a parent is one of the most important things in someone's life and without it, Victor Frankenstein wouldn’t be who he is today. It is shown in the story that Victor agrees with my opinion when he states, “no creature could have more tender parents than his own” (Pg 19) Throughout these past two examples of text in which they describe the nurturing of Victor, Shelley adds in a few words that give the statement a more distinct meaning. The use of “devoted”, and “tender” show how Victor Frankenstein is delighted to have the great support he had growing up and how it was the building blocks to the man he is today. Victor Frankenstein's positive nurture goes against his negative nature in which his need for power is
slowly overthrowing him.