A famous writer, C.S. Lewis, once said, "Relying on God has to start all over everyday, as if nothing has yet been done”. People struggle daily with their faith lives, some reject faith altogether, some just question everything, and others just go through the motions. Men and women face obstacles and experiences daily. Individuals have the option of either learning from their obstacles and experiences through their faith life or ignore God and blame almost everything on bad luck. People can learn from other individual’s spiritual messages and learn from their mistakes. Mary Shelly in Frankenstein wants to help others in their faith journey through the lens of Victor. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly, uses the negative example of Victor Frankenstein’s …show more content…
Victor announces in chapter one that, “whose future it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” pg. 38. Victor feels that he does not owe anyone anything, but people owe him. He thinks that if he creates the creature we would receive accolades by the creature and others. Mary Shelly gives the spiritual message on entitlement. God created men to love others and to aim to act more like Jesus did. Entitlement leads to spiritual laziness and laziness in general. Mankind is called to go out and help others by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, attending mass, praising God, and putting others before themselves. God does not anyone anything. God sent down his only son to die for mankind’s sins. Entitlement damages not only a relationship with God but others. God created mankind to work hard and have faith. Entitlement prohibits individuals from using their God given talents and caring for Gods people because the person feels everyone owes them something. In chapter five Victor describes his creator as tall, powerful, muscular and, “his features as beautiful…his hair was of lustrous black and flowing: his teeth of pearly whiteness” pg. 75. Victor sees himself in the creature, and a reflection of how he sees himself. A walking monument. People need to bow down to him and praise him. Victor sees …show more content…
After the creature is created and runs away, the creature kills his brother, William, Victor does nothing to stop Justine from facing trial. Victor says, “I believed in her innocence, I knew it. I did not for a minute doubt the demon murdered my brother…Justine was condemned” pg. 123. Victor is resentment towards the creature for putting him through so much misery and ruining his life. Victor wants to destroy the creature and blames the creature for all his problems. Victor does not help to prove Justine innocence and lets her die for his irresponsibly. Victor thinks not helping Justine was not wrong because he will destroy the monster himself. Mary Shelly gives the spiritual message of sin. People try all the time to justify their sins and give the message that if it feels right and makes one happy than nothing wrong was done. Mary Shelly wants to spread the message that the devil plays with the mind to manipulate people and sin does not change upon feelings. Victor explains that, “My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge” pg. 48. Victor has resentment towards his father because he did not support Victors passion for science. Victor rebels against his father and goes to study science and create something. Victor goes to create the monster to prove to himself that his father knows nothing, and victor goes on a
After the death of his brother William and servant Justine, victor begins to think he is guilty of the murders. He begins to think since the creature was his creation, he was responsible for the murders indirectly. However, he refuses to tell anyone of what he has done out of fear. He created the creature's life before thinking of the consequences of "playing God". He didn't even accept his creation and abandoned him for his hideous
However, the results of the creation of the Creature are egregious, as the creature begins to murder people, specifically Victor’s loved ones, including his brother William upon realizing that William is related to Victor. Victor here is partially at fault in his brother’s death, as he abandoned the Creature, leaving it to terrorize the people. Though he is overwhelmingly contrite for their deaths, he neglects to admit who the true culprit is in William’s murder and allows Justine Moritz to take the blame, an example of his morally ambiguous actions. His inconsiderate actions cost Justine her life, though he feels horrible for it. Even then, he argues that the action he regrets the most—the creation of the monster—was the work of destiny, which was “too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.” (Shelley 23) Again, Victor places blame on fate to justify his obsession with ambition that led him to create the thing he regrets the most. His failure to recognize his role in William’s, Justine’s, etc. deaths while concurrently feeling remorseful for them solidifies his status as a morally
The pity that the reader once felt towards this child-like creature who was abandoned upon creation, is turned to hatred and fear towards this monster who slaughters innocents. One doesn't blame the parents of a mass murderer for the crimes of their offspring simply because they gave birth to him. So why should Victor be held accountable for the treacherous deeds of his creation? The portrayal of the monster as the villain in this story attributes to the conflicting feelings of whether he is purely good or evil.
While Creature is full of humanity and has a thirst for knowledge, his longing for acceptance in society is met with constant rejection. Through this rejection, it sparks anger into the Creature for his irresponsible creator, Victor Frankenstein. Creature’s anger leads to greater tragedies for Victor. The greater of the tragedies are the murdering of innocent people including Victor’s family that is seen to be the fault of Creature since he is the one who murdered them. If Victor did not abandon the Creature and had taught him murder was not morally correct, Creature would not have committed the heinous acts.When Creature was first theoretically born, he was introduced into the world in a very harsh way. Metaphorically, Creature starts out into the world as a newborn, needing a parent 's guidance and teachings. Victor abandons him immediately with no sense of direction. Creature, after his “birth”, approaches Victor with a hand of longing for compassion. “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they maybe called, were fixed on me...He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out” (Shelley 35). Victor instead of showing acceptance immediately runs away at the sight of him.
His friend from home comes to surprise Victor but he ends up consoling him for months — he does not want to confront the horrors he has single handedly created. He is such a disaster that he cannot write his family, only putting them under more stress. Finally, after months go by Victor begins to regain his mind and consciousness. He receives a letter from his father stating that his child brother was murdered. This, of all things, is what finally pushes Victor to return home to his family. Once Victor has returned to his family he realizes what exactly he had done. Victor’s creation had made its way to his family’s home and had taken the life of his brother. Not only is has the life of this young child been stripped away but Justine, a family friend, has been accused of killing the poor boy. Justine had never done anything but love and care for the child as if he were her own. He claims Justine’s innocence but he does not come clean— he cannot. If Victor were to mention that of a monster he would be institutionalized and Justine would still be found guilty. Justine is put to death, the second being stripped of life at the his monster. Victor feels “a weight of despair pressed on [his] heart,” (Shelley 111). These murders are the fault of Frankenstein and the weight he feels is overwhelming guilt. Without the construction of a new life, of a monster, these lives would not be lost… still he manages to fond great comfort in
After two innocent victims die in the hands of Victor because of the monster’s thirst for revenge, the monster confronts his creator insisting “Thy justice…is most due” . As he begs Victor to create another being, a female partner as hideous as he is, he admits the hurtful remorse he feels of his actions, promising “I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.” This reveals the monster understands right from wrong, justice from injustice, as he realizes he should stop his murder
Power corrupts, and any person put into a position of power has the ability to be corrupt but also to corrupt those around them. Victor Frankenstein and Lord Henry are both in positions of power and influence over others, the creature and Dorian Gray respectively. The desire to control people, for power over people, creates systems that allow a select few into the position of control. These systems, that created a patriarchal society, are what allowed women to be considered less than human, possessions, with no autonomy outside of what is deemed correct by those in charge of those systems. The corruption is not limited to people; the arts act as a different means to the same end result. Abuse of power is so inherent that anyone in any circumstance
He believed that his Creature murdered his brother and framed Justine, the Frankenstein’s maid, in order to achieve vengeance for Victor abandoning him, but according to Levine, Victor is the cause for this evil, “...evil is a consequence of maltreatment or injustice,” (Levine 31). Victor’s internal flaws and shortcomings prevent him from revealing the truth about his Creation and therefore he is unable to disclose details of Williams death to save Justine. Victor cowers and stands by as the town unjustly convicts and “executes” Justine, (Shelley 117). The cowardly act committed by Victor shows that he does not possess a strong enough moral compass to do the justified act.
This concept of injustice is also captured in his attempt to “save a human being form destruction” only to be rewarded with “the miserable pain of a wound” [Shelley]. The creature can recount no positive memories an is only reminded of his pain and societal injustices and the negativity of exile. Therefor, the creature Victor created becomes a monster because of its observations and experience of man. As a blank slate, it is not evil nor spiteful but is driven through learned behaviour from the absence of guided knowledge showing the importance of parents on childhood growth. The creature’s misguided information of justice from observation makes him assume revenge is the answer because he is only responding in the only way he knows how, through how he has been treated by others. Had he been raised to a degree by an authority, his outlook would be
The Other is configured in the two writers’ works as victims of power play, their unjust mistreatment subsequently exposing underlying social inequalities. Through adopting the Gothic medium characteristic of Romanticism, the texts induce within the reader emotions of terror and pity towards the marginalised, leaving a profound effect which impactfully conveys the intended social criticism.
The monster is not faultless for the awful things that he has done. He kills three of the people that his creator was very close to including his adopted sister Elizabeth. Losing these people is very hard on Victor. The loss makes Victor so distraught that, “he calls the spirits of the dead” (179) to help him make the monster feel the pain of loss that he feels. In addition to killing those close to Victor, the monster destroys the house of the De Lacey’s with fire and then “dances with fury around the devoted cottage (123). Additionally, the monster appears to like the trouble and anguish that he is able to trigger in Victor: “your sufferings will satisfy my everlasting hatred” (181), the monster writes
The lack of an origin causes the monster to exhibit characteristics of Satan. While talking to Victor the Monster states, “Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”(81). The monster demonstrates feelings of betrayal and abandonment as he is seen by Victor as a lesser being due to his “fallen angel”(81) status. A continuous reference to Adam demonstrates the Monsters desire to be loved by Victor for being a successful creation. However, the Monster faces reality in that he was abandoned, since Victor was “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created”(44). The Monster’s expulsion from Victor’s life fuels his insecurities as he begins to “considered Satan as the fitter emblem of [his] condition”(110). Victor’s abandonment parallels to the story of Satan as he was cast out of heaven by God, similarly to how the Monster was cast out of Victor’s life. Not only, does the Monster take on the name of Satan, but also a few of the
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
Sometime after Justine’s execution is the next time that Victor encounters the Monster and now it has learned how to speak and function with no help from his creator. During this encounter the monster demands a mate and reluctantly Victor obliges. He then isolates himself as he did before and begins construction on this female monster but, Victor’s destructive impulses and sudden realization of what could transpire with these two abominations, sets the stage for the final blows that the monster will unleash on Victor’s loved ones.
for resurrection, Many beliefs decree that the administration of creation is reserved only for divine beings, however, Victor breaks this unspoken law. Victor’s pursuit of an experiment that would allow him to bring life to lifeless things is his first and most desperate attempt to play the role of God Victor wanted to create a new species for the betterment of humankind. Once he completed his experiment, even he, along with the rest of human society, view his creation as an inhuman morbidity, which he did not intend it to be.