Preview

Power In Frankenstein Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1116 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Power In Frankenstein Essay
Lauren Mock

12-8-16

Mrs. Schroder

English 4 Honors

Frankenstein the novel has many apparent themes. Power regards as very apparent in the book, Frankenstein. The novel of Frankenstein has many examples of power including power over science, life and physical power.
When thinking of power in the book Frankenstein, I automatically think of Victor Frankenstein. He had become intrigued with a scientist that put parts back together of dead people to bring them back to life. Victor wanted to do the same. I am sure he thought that by creating a new creation that it would bring him power and fame, but it brought him just the opposite. Victor wanted new life and by creating the new monster, he turned it back on himself. The monster was ugly and
…show more content…
He ends up getting in Victor’s mind until he ultimately dies. He spent the rest of his life trying to get away from the monster and then trying to track it with clues. There are some similarities and differences between the monster and Victor Frankenstein. The similarities are that they both possess physical power. Victor has the ability to put a life together by putting body parts back together and has power over science. Likewise, the monster has the physical capability to have ability over life in the fact that he can kill. The difference is that Victor is bringing life back and the monster is killing. Another difference shows that Victor realized he had power and felt guilty and the monster has never felt any remorse. A similarity is that the monster and Victor are both self-centered. The monster wants a mate for himself and does not think of the outcome it may have. Victor is self-centered because he created the monster because he originally wanted to have the power over science and life. He sooned learned that power was not all that he thought it was. Victor was also self-centered when he did not turn the monster into authorities when it started killing people. If he would have done this originally, he would not be in trouble or feel guilt and remorse. They both are similar because they are not very intelligent. Victor might have brains to build a body back but he was too arrogant and stupid to realize what could possibly happen. Likewise, the monster had the brain capacity of a baby and did not know anything socially or mentally at all. He just knew he wanted to get back at Victor for not building him a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Before chapter five opens Victor has spent two years – ‘Winter, spring and summer past away’ - collecting body parts and building the body ‘like a hurricane’. This tells us that he was making the monster uncontrollably and he had no sleep and no food which also shows us that he worked really fast. This tells us that he put a lot of effort and determination into making his monster perfect and explains why Victor got frustrated and eventually ran away from the monster. He was obsessed with making new life and worked in ‘secret’ and ‘silence’. He didn’t contact his family during this time.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Stunned by the monster’s ugliness and the option of a second creature like him, he destroys his work in progress under the gaze of his creature. The monster turn into a rage at Victor for breaking his promise, and at the vision of the loneliness of his future life. Later in the night, he comes in Victor’s bedroom and swears that they will face again on Victor’s wedding night.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soon after Victor’s recovery he receives a letter from his father telling him to return home immediately because his brother William has been murdered. This is the turning point for Victors realization that the monster was a real presence and a threat not only to him but to his family, because up till now the monster has been pushed to the back of Victor’s mind and now he is asserting himself into Victors’ life as a child might when they are tired of being ignored. The monster is not only responsible for the death of Victor’s brother but for the death of the Frankenstein’s beloved servant Justine, who is accused of the murder. Victor is now suffering for the consequences of his actions as are those around him. Haunted by the thoughts of how he ruined so many lives, he sinks into a deep depression. He tries to escape to the Swiss mountains but the monster finds…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Imagine a world where you create a being out of disembodied people. A said being that has such a terrifying effect that you are horrified to look at. The main character of the Frankenstein does such thing. The novel Frankenstein is a well known source of literary canon and is worthy of continuous study. Mary Shelley’s Romantic novel, Frankenstein, is worthy of continued study due to its literary canon, achieved through her commentary of men in a State of Nature and their Marxist struggle of power. The Creature who is created by Victor, goes through a journey of self discovery and lets his persona be shaped by outside forces. State of Nature essentially makes him bad, and his Marxist struggle for power over his creator Victor leads to his downfall.…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor still wants to go on killing the monster, even on his deathbed. When talking to Walton, he tells him, “You may give up our purpose, but mine is assigned to me by heaven, and I dare not” (Shelley 161). No matter what, Victor wants the monster dead and he wants to do it. However, upon learning of Victor’s death, the creature is very upset and ultimately decides to kill himself. He knows that without Victor he has nothing left to live for and is worthless. He says, “If thou wert yet alive and yet cherished a desire of revenge against me, it would be better satiated in my life than in my destruction” (Shelley 166). Even though the creature spent his life taunting and chasing Victor, it was his fate, and he has no purpose in life now that the other half of him is gone…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Foil Essay: Frankenstien

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the novel, The Monster is characterized as a sensitive being; he wants to be loved and resents the fact that he was rejected by Frankenstein. As he gains knowledge and begins to grow more intelligent, The Monster comes to the realization that Victor abandoned him, that he is unwanted. This frustrates him as he continually gets rejected by society. Although Victor seems to think very highly of himself, The Monster has a very low self-esteem, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (pg #), which stems from his rejection by both Victor and society as a whole. This character trait of The Monster makes the sort of selfishness of Victor, as it shows that, in his search for fame and glory, he was uncaring of the consequences. In creating The Monster, Victor’s intentions were not what they should have been; instead of trying to create life in order to make the world better, he was doing is for the sole purpose of becoming a God-like person. His God-complex is apparent in other parts of the novel as well, when he meets The Monster in the mountains and they have a conversation about Victor’s want to destroy The…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    After the monster found victor in his room he was filled with anger “You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend?” (120). In addition, the monster asked “endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?” (120). Subsequent to the monster braking in to Victor’s room and escaping in his own boat, Victor was filled with rage. “The night passed away, and the sun rose from the ocean; my feelings became calmer, if it may be called calmness, when the violence of rage sinks into the depths of despair” (121). One main event that started the quench for the undying hatred and sorrow was the death of Victor’s son, William. The monster decided to give the humans one last chance. When he stumbled upon a child, “suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me, that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short of a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity” (100). Soon after his encounter with the child, the monster realized that the young boy was just like everyone else he has met. “Hideous monster! Let me go; my papa is a Syndic-he is M. Frankenstein-he would punish you. You dare not keep me” (100). The creature also learned that the child he gave one last chance to was the son of Victor Frankenstein. “Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy-to him towards whom I have sworn…

    • 1568 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As soon as the monster comes to life, Victor is filled with intense revulsion. He explains, "the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.(41)" He is so surprised that it actually happened that he didn’t take time to think about what to do. He doesn’t take care of the creature and he just wishes he had never created it. Victor thinks about creating another creature but then remembers what a bad idea it was to make one in the first place. So he just doesn’t create it at all. This is one of the reasons that the monster becomes so angry with Victor and seeks…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When Victor created the monster he did not have the intention to get rid of him. He created the monster and regretted it but he did not know he would feel that way before he made it. “You see for knowledge and wisdom, as i once did and i ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (9) Victor also seeks knowledge and wisdom so that he can do good. He had good intentions to seek those things and was planning on doing good which it acquired. Victor Frankenstein and the monster have good intentions when they do things and do not intend for them to go wrong yet things tend to go wrong for them. The monster had good intentions also. The monster may have had hate for Victor since he created and abandoned him but the hate was not sincere because he actually cared for his creator. He could die once his creator was dead. When the monster killed the boy he did not have the intention to murder him.. The monster did not know its strength even though he did not intend to hurt anyone, this is seen when the monster says “I drew his hand forcibly and said, “Child, what is the meaning of this? I do not intent to hurt you””(16). Whenever he does something with good intentions and it goes wrong, he gets very angry. He only wants to do good but he does not know how so his anger is because he can't do what he wants to do. He never had the intention to…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, secretly blames Victor throughout the course of the novel as the cause of his own suffering and pain. Victor ultimately is the one and only monster within the novel because of relationship that has built between him and the monster. Victor Frankenstein has created a monster that throughout the novel harms him because of his lack of responsibility and selfishness. The monster commits a number of different crimes which in return causes Victor to view him as the true monster however if Victor wasn’t so self- concerned with achieving his own goals, he would have seen the negative effects of the way he treated the monster earlier then he did.…

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people are so different from one another that they don’t realize that they have so much in common. Just like how the monster is different from Victor in the book Frankenstein. Today we are not going to talk about how they are different, today we will go into the similarities of the two. As you know that if you read the book you will find out things that are pretty interesting about the two characters. One instance Victor Frankenstein was the man that created the monster, but yet he has not got any control over the monster, Victor is scared that the monster will retaliate against him if he tries to exert any type of control over the monster. Victor throughout the whole story has been tracking down the monster before it brings more damage…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Some claim knowledge is power, but is it ethical to use that knowledge and tamper with nature? It has often been said that “progress is born from doubt and inquiry”, however, when the inquirer takes this knowledge and uses it to play God, can his actions be justified? That is the dilemma in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, where protagonist Victor Frankenstein attempts to artificially create life, only for it to end in death and tragedy. The novel blatantly displays how taking things too far and meddling with matters that are beyond human capacity is something that should never be done.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emotional and physical isolation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are the most pertinent and prevailing themes throughout the novel. These themes are so important because everything the monster, Victor, and Robert Walton do or feel directly relates to their poignant seclusion. The effects of this terrible burden have progressively damaging results upon the three.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the two years it took Victor to create the monster, he was completely isolated, caring only about learning and creation. “Natural philosophy is the genius that regulated my fate” (22). Victor was so concerned about creating life, that he blocked all his family and friends out of his life for two whole years; therefore, after the monster was created, he had nobody to turn to except the monster, which he was utterly ashamed of. The monster is very vindictive, not because he is evil and hateful, but because he knows what people think of him, causing him to go into isolation. After discovering the notes that Victor wrote during the creation of the monster, he realizes that nobody likes him, not even his creator. “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (94). The monster is furious and confused as to why he was even created if nobody appreciates him; after reading the letters, this causes the monster to go into isolation, all while creating a plan to seek revenge on Victor.…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sympathy In Frankenstein

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley and first published in 1818, follows the set of extraordinary events encompassing the life of Victor Frankenstein; natural philosophy devotee and reanimation pioneer. Characterization plays a major role in encouraging different attitudes in Frankenstein, an example being how the reader is encouraged to feel sympathy for Frankenstein and his creation throughout the novel. Aided by the differing narrative perspective, these sympathies are continually evolving, changing as the reader’s perception of the two is altered, and at the end of the novel, the reader is left questioning who the real monster is: Frankenstein, or his creation? The…

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics