There is a thin line between going too far with scientific research and what is acceptable for the greater good. Most people don’t know where this line starts and stops which can lead to problems. This is presently shown in Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein as the main character, Victor Frankenstein, goes beyond this line almost to the levels of “god”. He wants to create life from death to help some of the world’s problems, such as disease. He goes to great extents to fulfil his dreams, but in his arrogance, he doesn’t see the repercussions that his research could have on himself and others. His work is what gives his life meaning, but ultimately leads to his destruction. When your passion becomes your job, it could make you happy for the …show more content…
Shortly after his monster is created, Victor falls into a deep illness. Victor Frankenstein couldn’t handle the stress of what his passion has lead him to accomplish. Victor says, “But I was in reality very ill; and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attention of my friend could have restored me to life” (Shelley 50). He can’t even take care of himself because he is so sick. Shelley may be pointing out that Victor can’t bear the consequences that his, and the monster’s actions have brought about and is overwhelmed with guilt and sadness. In addition, Frankenstein’s monster starts to ruin his life. The monster wants revenge against Victor for leaving him to fend for himself, but the monster wants him to suffer. The monster decides to kill Victor’s family. Froma Walsh, a Professor, says “Loss is a powerful nodal event that shakes the foundation of family life and leaves no member unaffected. More than a discrete event, it involves processes over time, from the threat and approach of death” (8). This is especially cruel because Victor has to live with knowing he could have saved them. Lastly, the monster makes Victor goes through the process of making another monster. Even though the monster promises to leave with his mate, Victor still knows that there would be two of those “things” running around in the world. The monster promises to completely ruin his life because Victor decided to destroy the second monster. Victor knows of what’s to come, but he doesn’t stop
Frankenstein is a greatly male oriented novel, with woman as the side characters. The multiple woman in Frankenstein unknowingly shape the novel to what the world knows it today. The entire story would not exist without Margaret and the letters that she receives from her brother. Justine Moritz the one who took the fall for the monsters murder. Agatha and Safie who showed the creature kindness and educated it. Elizabeth, who greatly influenced Victor by just existing. The role women have in Frankenstein is more important than one may think.
In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the author shows the audience that not only that the character Victor is creating life but he is also making people and himself suffer. In the begining of the novel victor shows that he is so excited and fascinated he on creating a person, later in the novel he starts getting a feeling which contains the emotions of being scared, fearful, etc he’s scared of the monster once he creates him. In chapter 5 he sounds excited but then very frightened “I had gazed on him while unfinished, he was ugly then;but when those muscles and joints…..” he thought the monster was ugly he was scared of him on page 56 he expresses how he his night is going which he is very shock “I passed the night wretchedly. Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly that I felt palpitation of every artery at others ….. Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment”. Victor is suffering from the disappointment of the monster.
Unlike God, Frankenstein neglects his creation. Victor is not there for his creature to cast his burdens on, or to confide in or show direction. In turn, Frankenstein’s creation lashes out against humanity, against even his own creator. Frankenstein’s lack of affection and care for what he had created set forth a domino effect of the creature’s horrible
In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the character Victor Frankenstein illustrates betrayal in the way he abandons his creation, with no hesitation he leaves him behind. With the feeling of abandonment ,the creature feels anger towards Victor which leads the “monster” to become a villain. Love and family are all the monster wants, but it is something that Victor could not give due to his own internal battles. As result, the monster begins to take Victor’s loved ones such as: little William and his wife Elizabeth. The monster kills
Since the monster has been through so much, his once innocent heart cannot be repaired because of actions that occurred while he was being raised. The goodness he saw in the world will never be mended because no one ever gave him the chance to live a happy, normal life. If Victor contributed to his part as a parental, the monster would not have had committed the murders he did, but instead, Victors decisions when he first created the monster, made the monster into the horrid person he
The novel Frankenstein includes a disturbed and conflicted protagonist that journeys through his haunted years of when he first created what was thought to be his masterpiece but eventually turned to be his nemesis. Throughout the story there are multiple instances where the Monster tortures his creator; However, there are an equal number of times where Victor does not show pity towards his creation which leads his artificial offspring to destruction. Victor was driven to create life for the achievement not the joy of being a parent. When the Monster was animated Frankenstein immediately shunned his creation. On his journey of revenge he eyes the Monster and instead of reconciling he curses the time of its existence.
This incitement causes the monster to go into a killing frenzy and attack anyone around him, including Victor. With the monster being portrayed in such a feral way, the well developed, intellectual, human relationship that Shelley crafted gets obliterated from this retelling and is instead interpreted with no emotional, human connection between creator and creation. Victor Frankenstein also takes Victor's motive for creating the monster and adds reasons that make the expectation for the success of the monster even more
The way he describes the final creation of this monster to which he dedicates his whole life trying to create. It exemplifies how much of a toll this took on Victor because he begins to see that maybe it is not the best idea to create the monster, which he describes as a demoniacal corpse. Once again Shelley does not explicitly say whether this experiment that took such a toll on Victor is too far in terms of how much it adversely affects Victor. She only provides the examples of how sick and weak he is when he finishes creating the monster, which she does to explain that it it might not be good to potentially harm yourself for science. After he describes the monster as such he then says that he is the one who had so miserably given the monster life. Victor is not referring to the monster as miserable in this explanation, but he is referring to the grueling amount of time that he spent and how much of a miserable effect creating the monster had on him. This is Shelley’s explanation and introduction to what Victor did, which she follows with displaying the effects of what he creates, the monster, and possibly providing an answer to Barthes’ question.
Curiosity has always been the downfall of humans; dating back to the times of Adam and Eve, when their curiosity led to the eating of the forbidden fruit, to modern day scientific experiments that defy the laws of nature. When dealing with facts and truths, one can have delusions of grandeur, which ultimately becomes his/her downfall. This combination of delusion and curiosity has been the downfall of many greats including Shelley’s Frankenstein, whose intelligence suppresses his moral and ethical compass.
I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation, but now that I had finished,.. breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (35) This emphasizes how Frankenstein was eager to create a new life without considering whether or not he was fully capable of handling the responsibility, which he learns upon finishing his “project” and ends up running away. This is significant because the creature perceives Victor running away as an act of resentment towards his own creation, which creates an impetus for the creature to go into an obsessed state of mind so he can find any way to obtain the feeling of being loved. This obsession is further illustrated when the creature tells his story to Victor saying, “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing.” (86) This is the part of the creature’s story where
The Monster demonstrates this when he allows passion and revenge to control his life instead of balance and harmony which once reigned. This transformation highlights the impulses and passion that dictate the course of Victor’s life. The Monster slaves away for the DeLacey family, striving to establish a healthy relationship, but the family’s shortsightedness and rejection of the Monster based on his looks angers the once humble creature. Upon repudiation, the Monster feels alone within the world and feels “anger [return]” so he “turn[s] his fury towards inanimate objects” (123) even combusting the cabin later that night. The Monster, understandably frustrated, allows his anger to surmount his generally amiable person and take over his actions. Victor Frankenstein, cursed with a similar lack of control, also sought to destroy his life’s work when he found it unappealing. This anger of the Monster quickly escalates as he searches out Victor in his homeland of Geneva. While hiding in the forest, the Monster devises a plan to raise and capture a young child as his own. However, when the child, Victor’s younger brother, resists this kidnapping, the Monster exerts his strength over the child and kills him. Instead of feeling regret for killing an innocent creature, the Monster contently “gaze[s] on his victim” and feels “hellish triumph.” (127) Similarly, when Victor destroys all chances of the Monster to have a spouse, he is excited and has no regards for the consequences. As the Monster brings Victor to his deathbed, he realizes his pursuit of revenge took him too far and that “[he] was the slave, not the master, of an impulse, which [he]...could not disobey.” (187) This realization, although late, demonstrates the Monster’s awareness that impulses will lead to
Frankenstein came through many hardships to destroy the monster, including the death of himself, his loved ones, and innocent people who did not deserve to die. All the burden and deaths of the people fell onto Frankenstein’s shoulders. Victor’s goal was to defy the natural process of human life and in the end he met his demise. Victor Frankenstein grew up as a remarkably intelligent man with wealthy parents and a healthy lifestyle. Frankenstein undoubtedly believes that he must fix his mistake and goes on a journey to find and kill the monster; however, every clue and every close encounter ends with someone not involved dying.
This heartbreak leads the monster to commit the crimes that it did, inflicting a fairly equal amount of pain upon Frankenstein compared to the suffering inflicted on the monster. For example, Victor promotes the suffering by taking away the companion and creating the creature in a “wretched” form. Furthermore, the monster is extremely young, so like a child crying over a bump on a table, Frankenstein’s creation is overreacting to a situation that he has never encountered before. He solely acts out of a long for humanity and equality in the world he was forced into. This is seen on page 222, when Victor’s monster says to Robert Walton, “he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions form the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance” (Shelley,
Victor is isolated from society in the process of him making a monster. Once the ugly creature is created Victor disowns it and goes through
In the Kenneth Branagh’s film, “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, it can be argued that either Victor Frankenstein, or the monster he creates is more frightening. The fact that the characteristics of the monster’s personality mirrors Frankenstein’s inability to control his own emotions makes both of them even more fear-provoking.