Is Victor Frankenstein a victim of circumstance, or is he responsible for his own destruction. In the early pages of the book, Victor already tells Walton and the reader that he is enticed by world and won’t give up on his dream of being successful in science, “The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover” (Volume 1 Chapter 1 pg.20). Victor explains to Walton how he enjoyed the recollections of his childhood before hardship had soiled his mentality; he altered his future because of his obsession with Natural Philosophy, which would later lead from obsession to repugnance and the reader gets a sense of this as he narrates in and out of his story with little bits and pieces of negative words like his “misery”, or his “fate”.…
He then becomes ill from the thought of creating such a hideous thing. “But I was in reality very ill; and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life. The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him” (39). Frankenstein worries so much about his monster, which he was proud of, before it came to life, that he falls very ill. Frankenstein falls so ill on the search for his monster that he eventually dies. Not only does Frankenstein die in pursuit of the creature, but his friends and family are…
Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein hides in constant fear of the creature he has created. However, he had one opportunity to live his life free of this constant fear. That was to simply create a partner for his creature and the creature promised to leave him alone forever. He took the agreement and began making the partner. However, in the middle of the process, he betrayed his creature’s trust in him. He destroyed what he had created and vowed to never create another creature ever again. This betrayal of the creature’s trust is what prompted the monster to continue his monstrous rampage and is what led Victor to live his life in constant fear. This one simple act of misdeed, due to the fear instilled into Victor by the creature, allows…
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…
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…
As his mind is clouded with anger, Frankenstein decides, through thoughts about Elizabeth and consideration for his own possible death, “not to fall before [his] enemy without a bitter struggle” (121). Although Victor reflects on the sorrow his “beloved Elizabeth” may experience if he dies, he is still completely determined to, at least, try to fight if ever face to face with his creation (121). Shelly implies that Victor disregards the consequences of a “bitter struggle” because his thoughts still display his persistent desire for vengeance, to not “fall before [his] enemy.” Muddled with vengeful thoughts, individuals are prepared to withstand any afflictions that may follow the attempts to exact their lust for retribution. This indifference to consequence shows the lack of rational thought within individuals that seek to exact revenge, a clear warning from Mary Shelley. As he kneels in the graveyard, following Elizabeth’s murder, Victor “swear[s] to pursue the demon, who cause[s his] misery, until he or [Victor] shall perish in mortal conflict”(145). With the death of his fiancee, best friend, and younger brother, Victor Frankenstein declares his only purpose for existence is to seek vengeance until death. The lust for retribution ignites intense emotion which proves to be in direct correlation with mental instability. Similarly, the monster’s hatred for all things, including Frankenstein, intensifies his lust for revenge and as a result, leaves him a victim of irrational, detrimental thought. The monster “for the first time” experiences “the feelings of revenge and hatred” and he “[does] not strive to control them, but allow[s]..[his] mind” to focus on “injury and death” (95-97). The search for vengeance sparks within the monster, and without hesitation, the monster allows the feelings of rage to take control, and his mind’s focus turns…
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.…
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and his horrid creation had various aspects in common that one might not notice. Despite the fact that the two parted ways they still shared parallel similarities between one another. These similarities would eventually lead to the downfall of both characters in the end of the novel due to the choices they made throughout the book.…
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…
It is proved that his mental state is unbalanced when he states, “My internal being was in a state of insurrection and turmoil” (Shelley 36). As his mental health becomes unstable, he then becomes obsessed with science, making it his highest priority, even above his own health and family. Victor then suddenly became consumed with the concept of creating life artificially, and of the elixir of life. Although Victor does succeed in his dream of creating life, he is soon horrified at the sight of what he has created. He is not proud of the Creature, but disgusted at the sight of it, stating, “the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 57) Victor abandons his creation and leaving it to fend for itself, indirectly causing the murders of loved ones on account of his own shallowness, selfishness, vanity, and disregard of moral…
Victor brings the isolation he experiences upon himself. Victor has two of the most loving and caring parents. Because of the loving and care he received from his parents, Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, Victor found himself unable to function around a new group of people. "I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavoring to bestow mutual pleasure. I was now alone. In the university whither I was going I must form my own friends and be my own protector." (26). The isolated Victor is different in many ways including his manner, and the way he goes about his education, now much more focused and almost obsessive. He has no one to comfort him and this leads to the madness of creating the monster. Victor has had supportive people around him since birth; however now that he is at the university he has nobody to help keep him level headed. "Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime" (35). The isolation being portrayed by Victor is now moving from not only psychological but physical as well. Countless hours that Victor has spent creating this monster has caused him to become ill, malnourished, and deprived of sleep. Obsessiveness has driven Victor into this state of mind which then pulls him…
Imagine being sewn together from patchwork body parts and brought into this world because a brilliant man 's arrogance to achieve beyond what any other scientist or doctor had, then rejected by that creator. "The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart." (Frankenstein, p. 74). Victor, horrified by the creature 's revolting appearance, attempts to save his reputation by abandoning the monster. Victor thought to himself, "I had gazed on him unfinished, he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became such a thing as even Dante could not have conceived." (Frankenstein, p.…
Throughout the novel, emotion of all kinds of heights and depths are explored. Shelley writes “This discovery was so great and overwhelming” (Shelley, 52), to exemplify the exhilaration Frankenstein feels exploring his interests. Frankenstein claims that he “fell senseless on the ground” (Shelley, 212) to encapsulate what he felt when Elizabeth was taken from him and the monster says “To him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge” (Shelley, 153) to show the extent of his hate for his creator. Frankenstein in its entirety shows the whole spectrum of human emotions. From Victor Frankenstein’s perspective, the childhood and even collegiate years have have no major trauma aside from his mother’s death. Frankenstein’s childhood depicts a very elated and passionate state as he mentions “I read and studied the fancies of these writers with delight” (Shelley, 38). At this point he’s very jovial and all those he holds dear including his mother, father, Elizabeth, and Henry Clerval are all close by. Before he enters Ingolstadt, there is a marked change in his life as his mother passes away. He narrates, “It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw everyday and whose very existence appeared a part of her own can have departed forever” (Shelley, 43). His mother’s death causes an emotional toll on Victor and even delays his journey to Ingolstadt. Although this stage of his narration is not as jolly as his childhood, it is less terrifying than the later portion of his story. Despite the tragedy of his mother’s death, Victor is still immersed in the studies that he is passionate about while at Ingolstadt. However, he still isolates himself and his health deteriorates, as his friend Henry Clerval notes that Frankenstein looks “so thin and pale” (Shelley, 62). Frankenstein’s life makes a turn for the worse once he reaches fruition of his…
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 or Doctor Frankenstein is obsessive, preoccupied with his work, and ambitious. The drive to success pushed his experimentation too far. Most often think that the monster is a villain, however reading the novel makes it clear that Doctor Frankenstein should take responsibility for the monster’s crimes that were committed. Victor does not shoulder the monumental responsibility of his actions, he is only driven only by ambition and not by the regard for others: "I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart."…