Till Death Do Us Part Not many people believe good can come out of something so tragic such as death. Death has the ability to control a person’s life, such as Victor Frankenstein. In Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein, death plays a huge role throughout the story. Throughout Frankenstein, death brings people together, causes pain, and can be corruptive. In Frankenstein death brings many characters together. Victor’s parents, Alphonse and Caroline, meet through the death of Caroline’s father. Caroline’s father becomes very sick and dies within months, leaving Caroline an orphan and a beggar. Alphonse has been staying in the house with Caroline and her father during his sickness. Immediately after his death, Alphonse took in Caroline and marries her two years later. Victor meets his sister and future wife through the death of Elizabeth’s mother. Elizabeth’s mother dies during childbirth. The family is already struggling financially and emotionally, “He …show more content…
In the Frankenstein, death causes great amounts of pain to many characters. Death caused so much pain to Victor; he had to escape to nature numerous amounts of times. After the Monster’s first victim, Victor escapes to the mountains because he feels so guilty and sorrowful, “I took the boat and passed many hours upon the water” (Shelley 62). Also after the death of Elizabeth, he escapes to nature for good to try to catch the Monster. After the death of Henry Clerval, Victor became unconscious because hearing about the death of his best friend was too much for Victor to handle. Victor’s father, Alphonse, experiences so much sorrow from the death of his wife, William, Justine, Henry Clerval, and Elizabeth that it caused him to die of a broken heart. Elizabeth became sick and went into a depression after the death of William. The only way she can release her pain is by writing letters to Victor. Pain is something that everyone experiences with
The judicial events leading up to Justine’s death were dramatic and invoked suspense whereas William’s sudden death by Victor’s monster gave off a surprising tone. Victor, after the collective deaths of his brother William and Justine Moritz, blames himself for the fate of his brother and friend. “This was also my doing!... all was the work of my thrice-accursed hands!” (60). Emotion from those death related experience(s) induce what can also be called Melancholy Ideas. Melancholy Ideas is another theme in Frankenstein that is caused by to the theme of Death and Dying. Victor mourns and goes through bereavement a significant amount of times throughout the story like when he grieved over his mother’s death; “...the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very
Victor Frankenstein explains the emotions that are released after someone has passed away, in this case, it has been his beloved mother whom he will no longer see or hear. The emotion of emptiness is what is captured from the statement since he acknowledges that not having his mother is going to change how his daily life is. The statement plays an important part of the text because that emotion will become consistent throughout the text, due to the fact that the fiend will take from him his beloved family, Frankenstein will unleash misery on himself. A Loss is a feeling that most people will
He tells of the void he feels in his soul. He tells of the bitter grief one experiences after the death of loved one and what it feels like to no longer see them and hear their voice. Mary Shelley illustrates that this life is not the end, but there is another life where loved ones will be seen. Victor’s mother is demonstrating how special Elizabeth is to her and that she wants her to take care of the family and to someday marry Victor. Later in the novel, Victor leaves for school. Victor’s father tells him, “I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected”(33). After, Victor leaves for school to begin his studies he becomes self-absorbed in his work. Family is very important to Victor’s father. Victor realizes that he has become too involved in his studies and knows that it is unhealthy to behave in such a way. However, he does not want to quit and begins to justify his actions. He suggests that if others had given up, then history could have been altered. Victor feels isolated and lonely. He thinks of his family and how disappointed they are that they have not heard from him. Shelly uses this quote to emphasize the importance of human relationships and how important they are to a person’s well-being. The theme of human
This is suggested again, when Victor confides, "till death she was to be mine only” (Shelley 36). This exemplifies how Alphonse showed Victor, at an early age, how women were to be treated in society. Victor was displaced twice during his adolescence when his father allowed two nonmembers of the family into the house—first Elizabeth, then Justine. Although Victor was not outwardly agitated, these two displacements instilled within him a feeling of loneliness. In short, Alphonse’s dominating role as father led Victor to feel isolated. Alphonse did not think deeply about the impact that adding more members to the family would have on his son. This dominating role can be seen again when Victor is sent off to Ingolstadt, right after his mother, Caroline, died. Victor idolized his mother and was very attached to her. Instead of letting Victor grieve with the family, Alphonse sends him away, leaving Victor to feel more secluded than ever. Victor is isolated from his family and best friend Clerval, which fuels his obsession with creating the monster.
After his mother dies, Victor describes the evilness of death and how at first, it is difficult for people to comprehend how they will never see their deceased love ones again. He then says that it is only after a few days for people to actually experience grief, but that he doesn’t need to describe those horrible feelings because everyone has felt those emotions of sadness and loss at some point in their life. Finally, he says that after some time people must move on with their lives and attend to their own duties, and then moves on with his story about his attendance at Ingolstadt. From his brief telling of his mother’s death and quick transition to his studies, it is demonstrated how Victor may have neglected his grief about his mother’s
Victor tells the reader, “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures.” (NEED CITATION) Because of this overpowering guilt and depression, Victor even contemplates suicide; saying, “I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever.” (81). But throughout all of his suffering, Victor found hope and love in Elizabeth. In one of the letters he wrote to her, he proclaims, “I fear, my beloved girl, little happiness remains for us on earth; yet all that I may one day enjoy is centered in you.” (168). In this statement of love, Victor summarizes what he has to live for. His happiness does not remain in science, friendships, or family; but resides in his future with Elizabeth. He later talks about the last moments of his life during which he enjoyed the genuine feeling of happiness, his wedding. While alive, Elizabeth had been his greatest lover, encouraging him through all of his darkest valleys. And even in her passing, the vengeance of her death consumes Victor’s mind, dedicating his life to kill the horrific Monster which he had created.
Each cultures as a monster, they have travelled from centuries to decades always reappearing in in times of crisis or transformed to be used in the today’s belief. Although, we may ask what is a monster? Is it just an imaginary creature that sleeps under your bed or hide in the closet at night, is it supposed to be large, ugly and frightening. Well yes, part of this is true, some monster or should I say creatures were conceived with a disfigured or an unattractive physic which let them no other choice but to be seen as a monster.
The subtle, yet major theme of victory appears again at another key moment in Frankenstein, when Victor falls ill and dies in his pursuit of not only his creation, but also revenge. After a thrilling chase through the Arctic, Victor’s body begins to slowly shut down, leading him to his eventual death. Victor eventually dies from exhaustion with Walton, the narrator of the story, in his chase after the creature into the cold tundra. Once the monster realizes Victor had died, he rushed to his dead body and wept over it, knowing his creator was dead and there was no chance for happiness in his life anymore, especially without the wife Victor could have created for him (Caldwell par. 6). Furthermore, The monster finally recognizes that he allowed
Several fields have studied the relationship between creator and creation. The most significant aspect of this research considers the difference between nature and nurture. Sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and other professionals have tried to pin down the exact distinctions between these two types of upbringings. In literature, the same questions have been asked and studied using fictional characters, most famously in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in 1667, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in 1818. The complexity of the characters in these texts creates the theme of nature versus nurture before they diverge and arrive at differing conclusions.
Although Victor’s family was one of the most distinguished of the republic of Geneva and his parents were possessed by the “very spirit of kindness / And indulgence,” (Shelley 39) his days were not filled with happiness. His troubled past started the day Elizabeth caught scarlet fever, delaying his departure for Ingolstadt. Although Victor’s mother, Caroline, was able to cure her, she died in her place. The destruction of a dear bond by an irreparable evil surely would have caused anyone to suffer, but as time came, Caroline’s death became “rather an / Indulgence than a necessity” (Shelley 45) to Victor; it was nothing more than something that delayed his departure for Ingolstadt. Because Victor is in a situation where he no longer has control, his psyche must carry the burden
William is dead!” (Shelley 64) This is the second time Victor is experiencing the death of a loved one, the first was his mother. The death of his mother affected Frankenstein greatly it was the death of his mother that fuelled his desire to discover the elixir of life and to bring such a monstrosity into being. His monstrosity is what changed William’s fate and it is soon to be the same for Justine, for she is later found guilty and executed for a crime she did not commit.
Escaping From The Guilt “... for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… I had deprived myself of rest and health” (Shelley 43). Victor admits to letting his health go, proving that he is aware of his actions. Instead, he lets his bad health take over in order to distract himself from life. Victor Frankenstein says these words after he finishes the creature he has worked on for more than two years.
In the novel, Frankenstein written by Marry Shelley, Victor had undoubtedly become relentless in pursuing the reanimation of life in an inanimate lifeless being. Victor could have inevitabely be called obsessed with his work. Victor Frankenstein had always been curious about the reanimation of human life. Until he attempted it and suceeded was when he knew he made a mistake. Victor Frankenstein was blinded by curiosity and obsession.
Frankenstein stands as a victim, along with the very people he treasures most, to his own deeds. Victor noted, "For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. 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" (42). The fruit of his experimentation, his monster, murders many of those close to the scientist. He loses his long time friend, Henry Clerval, as well as his wife, Elizabeth, to his creation. His younger brother William and his beloved servant Justine were also brought to their sad ends at the hands of the creation. The monster brings fear and suffering to all those he meets, if not by cold blooded murder, then by the sheer horror of his corpselike appearance. Though not
Frankenstein’s characters suffer in a couple of ways, psychologically such as through loneliness or through emotional pain of the death of close ones, and physical suffering. Shelley herself was an only child, so could have been considered lonely when she was younger, and her mother died, which is obviously a death of a close one. While suffering is deserved by some of the characters as they bring it upon themselves, some of the characters are not deserving of their suffering as it is thrust upon them.