Bildungsroman, Literary Genre

While attempting to uncover the meaning of life and death, and though he believed his experiments would further the paths of science, Victor fails to see the potential consequences of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 37). This, in turn, creates a monster. After his “great” experiment, Victor spends his life in grief. Despite this, he manages to belittle his creation, and act superior to him, claiming that “I [Victor] will not hear you. There can be no community between you [the creature] and me; we are enemies” (Shelley 84). Even later on, when assured by the creature himself that Victor would be left alone if he creates a female counterpart, Victor cannot see past the shreds of pride he has left and refuses, causing the death of his family and loved ones. It’s Victor’s pride and his fear of the creature that clouds his judgement and in the end leads to his

Perhaps what led Victor to this rejection, why he was so horrified of his creation, was because he had had such high expectations. In chapter 1, he talks about his life and his parents, he says he was an “innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven”. Perhaps this is what he wanted from his creation, for it to be a gift from heaven, and when it turned out it was ‘hideous’ and not so heavenly, he was disappointed. He wanted something that was “perfect”, “human”, but what he made was something hideous, and his gigantic structure made him different from a human. However, what we realise later on in the book is that it’s what’s on the inside that makes him human. This monster is capable of human emotions and intelligence, he learns to read write and think like a human. This is what makes us have sympathy to the monster- that we can relate to his feelings.

Due to Victor’s unwillingness to accept him, the creature was unable to conform to societal norms. From the creature’s very first moments, he is feared by others - the instant his eyes open, his creator cries out in terror and runs to his quarters. If only Victor had stayed and attempted to nurture his creation, instead of having “turned from [him] in disgust” (93), the creature may have enjoyed a gentle, upbringing in which he

He was brought into the world with no one to give him knowledge, support, and guidance. He was completely deserted by his creator. When he tried to make friends, everyone either ran away from him or tried to kill him. Calridge states, “At the time of his first violent act, he is merely seeking fellowship with another human, and he assumes little William, the “beautiful child” so unlike himself, to be too young to have formed prejudices based on appearance. Enraged to the point of murder…” This statement shows how everything the creature feels or does stems back to Victor. If Victor had just accepted and loved his creature for what he was, then he wouldn’t have killed little William or any of Victor’s other loved ones. His rejection and misfortune was not caused by his actions, but rather his appearance, a physical trait that Victor had created and the creature could not change. The creature's problem was that he was “ugly” and “deformed”, but he did not choose to be physically deformed. Victor created him that way. Thus, Victor is ultimately responsible for the creature's rejection.

Victor’s first possessive experience with a relationship imprinted-how his next relationships throughout his life would go. After going away to school, Victor felt quite isolated and longed for a friend or an equal. He obsessed over the thought of possessing an equal to the point of him bringing a creature to life. He dedicated all of his energy and time into creating the ultimate equal who was beautiful and as intelligent as he, but immediately after the creature came to life, Victor was disgusted: “I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me” (Shelley, 59,60). Drawing back to the fact Victor’s family is privileged, I believe the

When reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, it can be discussed in recurring themes of procreation and death. Erik Erikson's Theory of psychological development can be applied to modern society and the texts itself. Erikson believed that each stage of life has it’s own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution. At each stage, a conflict is emphasized between society and ego, one will succeed or fail. Success can be described as a (healthy personality and acquisition of basic virtues). Throughout the story the characters acquire traits described by Erikson's eight stages of psychological development.

While Victor is looked upon to be a normal man while the creature is seen as a monster specifically because of his physical appearance. At eight feet, with a gigantic body and a disfigured face, society only looks upon the creature with fear and disgust. However, I wonder, couldn’t Victor be a monster as well? He abandoned the creature in the horror of the moment and even attempts to take the creature’s life at one point. To me, the creature’s feelings of rage, revenge, and hurt are what any “normal” human would have felt if left to fend for themselves on their own, with no experience of love or kindness from anyone.

So Vengefulness and Family ties are one of the best significant aspects affecting the resemblance of both victor and this monster created by him. As a Youngin victor was left without a mom and as a result he missed out on the experience of (one would say) a mothers love and warm touch. Like the monster not only missed out but didn’t have anyone at all to love, but he had to teach himself things. Back on track to what I was saying, as a result, the missing feelings in there lonely lives caused the two to be driven with way more rage then patience and true pure love.

The enormous difference in the way Victor views the creature before and after its completion shows that he has an altered state of mind while he works on it. As a result of Victor’s secrecy about his creation, he sacrifices his health and happiness to make a creature that disgusts him.

Some people see Frankenstein and his creature as complete opposites, but they are not as different as they may seem. Victor and his creature have no mother figure in the novel. Victor’s mother was there for Victor in the beginning but “resigned cheerfully to death… she died calmly” (Shelley 53), whereas the creature was born without one. Therefore, throughout the novel, both Victor and the creature have to depend on their fathers for guidance. Frankenstein and the creature are both intelligent. Frankenstein gains his intelligence through his schooling and experience, while the creature gains intelligence through observations, experience, and “Paradise Lost, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and the Sorrows of Werter” (Shelley 155). These characters want to be accepted in the world. Frankenstein wants to be accepted in the

It is Victor's story that truly exposes the true theme of the story, with him speaking of his days as a child and his first friendship with the girl his parents adopted. He lives a fine life, full of joy and happiness with friend plentiful. When he goes to college he is without friends, but soon befriends one of the professors and engaged in lengthy conversations with him. This isn't the same friendship as before, lacking the real love and companionship of his family, and he soon begins work on his creation. He so overwhelmed by the idea of creating a perfect person he is blinded from the deformity of the creature. When the creature is finished he examines his work and is mortified by it, running and hiding he escapes the creature that soon wanders away. Soon after Victor becomes sick and deathly, he shuns society and people and is almost dead when his friend Clerval arrives at the college. Clerval nurses Victor back to health, but Victor isn't physically sick, he has just

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells a story about the creation and the destruction of a man considered by society to be a “monster”. In the novel, there is profound meaning to be found in the monster’s self-education. Patterned after the evolution of human learning, the monster’s spontaneous learning proceeds through major stages. First, is the accidental discovery of fire, this is followed by a realization by the monster that knowledge yields power.

The monster believed that Victor would accept him, but after he realized that not only did Victor not want to assume his position in the monster’s life, but society also rejected him, it became a transitory thought, and instead became replaced with his bloodthirst towards Victor and his loved ones, which he knew would hurt way worse than just killing him; making him lonely like himself. Both Victor and the monster partook in horrid acts, in which held horrendous actions; the main one being Victor creating the monster in the first place which in result caused the both of them heartbreak, loneliness, and pain. If Victor wouldn’t have created the monster, then his life would not be filled with so much grief and emptiness; Victor is the true monster, although they are both the primal protagonists as much as they are the antagonists because of the display of the emotions they both portray as lamenting humans/monsters, and the power they give to nature in order to destroy one another. Victor used nature to his advantage, although it was wrong; Victor used nature to create and destroy the monster; he used the

The creature is renounced by Victor throughout the book, which removes any positive role model that the creature might have had. The two encounters that Victor has with the creature when it is first created are evidence of his rejection. The first is when Victor finishes creating the creature. During the process of creation, Victor dedicates himself so greatly that he "pursued [his] undertaking with unremitting ardour" (32). He puts aside everything else in his life, and concentrates completely on his purpose, which is to bring a being to life that would serve him. In order to do so, he spent an entire summer "engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit" (32). Because of the hard work that Victor puts into his work of creation, he never really examines the fruits of his labour. He is too caught up in his work, and has "lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" (32) of finishing his work on making the creature. So in the process of his creation, Victor is never really aware of what he is creating because he is too focused on the actual act of creation. However, when Victor finally finishes the work of making the creature, and takes time to look at what he has done, he is horrified by his accomplishment. As the creation opens an eye, and