Victor And Frankenstein Similarities

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. In the novel Frankenstein, both Victor and his creation shared various similarities between each other. One of the most notable similarities between the two characters involves their robust desire to acquire knowledge. During the novel Victor goes off to the University of Ingolstadt where he excels as a star pupil in his chemistry and natural philosophy classes.
Frankenstein’s chemistry professor, Mr. Waldman sparks his interest in a science that could explain the “big questions” such as the origin of life. In result, lead Frankenstein in becoming eager to learn more during his studies at the University; that combination of the urge to obtain more knowledge and an indistinct curiosity led him to create a life at his own will. The creature Frankenstein made resembled that of an unwanted child he gave birth to and since the creation carried many of the same characteristics and flaws possessed by himself.
It became apparent that the creature inherited these traits from Frankenstein following the creature’s artificial birth. Just like Frankenstein, the creature had a yearning to become intelligent and absorb knowledge. In the meantime the creature begun to understand the ways of a poor family he came across, the Delacys who lived in the same woods like himself. The creature began a relationship with the family by stealing their food unknowing of his actions eventually proving wrong and initiated harm towards humans, but from then on the creature stops stealing from the Delacy’s and begun to help better their lives instead by providing them with firewood at night. It became evident that the creature gained knowledge from the Delacy’s when he contemplates the family's way of speech sequentially allowing him to understand the English language articulately. In the meantime Frankenstein and his creation meet again long after he made his creation and the creature explains how he first felt when he came to life saying, “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and
smelt at the same time” (Shelley 99). Without delay the creature goes on to apprise Frankenstein on how he learned to accomplish the basic motor skills needed to do different things like open and close his eyes, walk, as well as overcoming hunger and thirst. In the creature’s explanation it becomes obvious that creature processes the drive needed to become an intelligent and normal being. That drive that consumed the creature to become a normal human enabled him to gain knowledge more swiftly than Frankenstein could have foreseen. By the same token, Frankenstein and the creature shared an additional similarity, they both used nature as a refuge or safe haven from their problems, mistakes, and when they felt like they had nowhere else to wander off to.
Likewise, both characters found contentment of nature and augment a strong relationship correspondence with their natural surroundings. The creature, disregarded by his creator Frankenstein, forced him to run to into the mountains and woods since he wasn’t welcomed in local towns and villages due to his frightening and hideous appearance. Nature, the only place where the creature became welcomed and not judged based on his appearance, and it soon became his home and safe haven from all humans. In the same way, Frankenstein utilized nature as well to avoid his problems and relax his thoughts. Regarding the deaths of William and Justine, his sorrow made him retreat to the mountains of Chamounix in order to seek relief from his pain and grief. The Alps and it’s scenic view enabled Frankenstein to clear his mind and really process his life saying, “But my grief was augmented and rendered sublime by the mitchy Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings” (Shelley
90). In the end, the creature and Frankenstein’s relationship developed and grew more indistinguishable than previously before. With that said the main cause for this development involved the revenge that both characters sook. Sympathy towards the creature became evident since the creature’s cognitive thinking restricted him from fully accessing the ways of humanity and neglect from his creator, forced him to seek refuge elsewhere. Frankenstein never took the time to accept and take care of his creation and negative feelings toward the life he had made resulted in him losing everything he held dear , even his own life.