Frankenstein: Theme of Guilt Essay Example
Frankenstein
The story of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley is a classic piece of literature. Shelley once said: “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” This is exactly what causes Victor Frankenstein to go the route that he does. By choosing false happiness (or in his case knowledge), he unintentionally opens up other gateways of evil to come into his life, such as guilt, and this affects him severely. Shelley is a mastermind in the art of displaying various issues that truly affect people in the world today. This causes one to truly look inward and then outward into their world to see if they may be able to identify some of these issues. Guilt is a major theme (and issue) in this book; one sees this from the very beginning, to the very end. This is a problem that still affects many in the world today.
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who is in search for the secret to life; literally. After his mother died when he was young, he was never the same. He states that her death was “an omen,” of his “future misery”. Being the determined man that he is, he spent many tireless hours, days, and even months researching and developing life; a human being. (Or so he thought). This becomes an obsession of his because he wanted so badly to create life. He does all of this in a pursuit of knowledge, happiness, and completion. However noble those goals may seem, in his heart it was all wrong. The moment the monster as Frankenstein calls it comes to life, one sees Frankensteins point of view shift immediately. His life is changed forever. Immediately he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and pure hatred towards himself. He goes from calling his creation “beautiful!” to his heart filling with “breathless horror and disgust”; he is at war with himself. He is unable to “endure the aspect of the being” he has created, so he runs away from it. This entire event causes him to go into months of depression and sickness to
The story of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley is a classic piece of literature. Shelley once said: “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” This is exactly what causes Victor Frankenstein to go the route that he does. By choosing false happiness (or in his case knowledge), he unintentionally opens up other gateways of evil to come into his life, such as guilt, and this affects him severely. Shelley is a mastermind in the art of displaying various issues that truly affect people in the world today. This causes one to truly look inward and then outward into their world to see if they may be able to identify some of these issues. Guilt is a major theme (and issue) in this book; one sees this from the very beginning, to the very end. This is a problem that still affects many in the world today.
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who is in search for the secret to life; literally. After his mother died when he was young, he was never the same. He states that her death was “an omen,” of his “future misery”. Being the determined man that he is, he spent many tireless hours, days, and even months researching and developing life; a human being. (Or so he thought). This becomes an obsession of his because he wanted so badly to create life. He does all of this in a pursuit of knowledge, happiness, and completion. However noble those goals may seem, in his heart it was all wrong. The moment the monster as Frankenstein calls it comes to life, one sees Frankensteins point of view shift immediately. His life is changed forever. Immediately he feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and pure hatred towards himself. He goes from calling his creation “beautiful!” to his heart filling with “breathless horror and disgust”; he is at war with himself. He is unable to “endure the aspect of the being” he has created, so he runs away from it. This entire event causes him to go into months of depression and sickness to