In the novel, “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein demonstrates unethical behaviour many times during the major moments in the book. Frankenstein‘s poor decisions include leaving loved ones to pursue education and making a creature, his method of dealing with the creature, and his method of dealing with the deaths of his friends and family. Victor Frankenstein’s moral and ethical misjudgements spark the tragedies in the novel.
Early in the story, Victor Frankenstein isolates himslef from his family to pursue education. Victor’s first poor ethical decision is his choice to value his own work and education over his loved ones at home. He never visited his family once in the two years he was studying, and makes minimal attempts
…show more content…
If he had admitted his creatures existence earlier or not abandoned it, the lives of his loved ones would be protected. However, Victor acted shy, selfish, and passive when his family’s lives were at danger. William Frankenstein, Victor’s six year old brother, could have been saved if Dr. Frankenstein kept his creation away from society and raised it like a normal father would. Since he he left the creature exposed to the world, it didn’t know any better and killed William. Since no one knows who committed the crime, Justine Moritz, the house servant, is blamed. It would be ethical and morally right of Victor to admit he is responsible for the crime, but he stays quiet, allowing Justine to unjustifiably die. He states, “During the whole of this wretched mockery of justice I suffered living torture. It was to be decided whether the result of my curiosity and lawless devices would cause the death of two of my fellow beings” (pg.68). Victor is also shown as selfish when he values his own desire for revenge over his wife Elizabeth's life. On his wedding night, Victor leaves his wife alone in bed, unguarded, and starts searching for the creature. He suddenly hears Elisabeth scream and realizes the mistake he made. Instead of guarding his wife through the night, he leaves her exposed by herself. This was a very unethical and self centered decision. If Victor Frankenstein put aside his selfish desires and knew how to properly react when his loved ones were in danger, his family would be
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the unnamed creature brings terror to civilians and commits horrific acts against his creator, Victor Frankenstein. However, his redeemable acts of kindness makes his character morally ambiguous. He struggles between doing well and causing trouble because of isolation, the excerpts of society, and his pursuit for love.
Originally able to persuade his creator to create a companion, the monster follows Frankenstein to a remote island to see its wish realized; near completion, Frankenstein destroys his work to prevent a potential “race of demons” in addition to the monster’s one chance at beating loneliness. Victor’s negligence toward his creation throughout the novel arguably turned it wicked, leading to the monster’s strangling of William, the framing of Justine, the murder of Henry Clerval and Elizabeth, and the inadvertent death of Alphonse. While the monster has a lengthy death toll, its innocence and kindness are shown through its reaction to spring and the elements, willingness to learn, collection of wood and admiration for the cottagers, enjoyment of books such as Paradise Lost, and the friendly recollection of the family that rejected it despite the kindness it had shown to them. The bad acts interact with the good revealed the monster to be human, with the capacity to commit both extremes. The seriousness of its murderous rampage was dulled by its kindness and desperation for a companion. If Victor had accepted responsibility for his creation and tended to it, all horrid acts might have been avoided
Victor Frankenstein created a creature which he knew not what would become of it. Having decided not to speak at Justine’s trial for the murder of William, Frankenstein chose to let an innocent individual die, simply to hide the horrendous monster which he created. This leaves two people dying innocently and this matter could have actually been prevented if Victor Frankenstein had not begun thinking he could conquer death and overreach human powers. By not speaking at Justine’s trial, Victor Frankenstein became the culprit of two murders which he could have prevented due to his pride as well as his guilt.
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
In Mary Shelley's popular novel, Frankenstein, there are many scenes where betrayal is a main problem between the character. Both friends and family betray the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, and each other along the way. Along with the betrayal between characters, there is also evidence of betrayal within the character's own values and self. The nature of the betrayal in Frankenstein is a recurring theme and is present from the first ideas of creating the monster to the destruction of the monster. Betrayal contributes to the meaning of Frankenstein because it leads to extreme illness, and even death in many cases. The novel, which is mainly focused on the creation of Victor Frankenstein's monster, is infused
Throughout Frankenstein, Victor proves to be quite an egotistical person. Victor’s actions will sometimes be selfish and not as noble as he would like others to believe. He creates the monster with a desire to obtain awe and fame and to make sure that his name will be remembered throughout history. “… a light so brilliant and wondrous… that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret” (Shelley 37). While this discovery of Victor’s may be groundbreaking, he fails to think of the negative consequences, only thinking of himself and what this could potentially
Victor Frankenstein is a very cowardly man. He is unable to stand up to mistakes and problems that occur in his life. Instead of facing dilemmas V. Frankenstein runs away. In the beginning of chapter five after he has brought life to his creature he expresses his cowardliness “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation… the beauty of the dream vanished… Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 42) V. Frankenstein’s inability to deal with problems is atrocious, instead of comprising a plan about his creature, he simply runs in fear unable to fix his mistakes. The consequence of not dealing with his creation V. Frankenstein faces for being a coward not only affects him, but it affects his family. When his brother,
Victor Frankenstein in the book Frankenstein faces many terrible situations and has to face many consequences for trying to play God’s role in creating life. Victor seen and dealt with many situations as a young boy that will lead to his madness and obsession with science. Victor has always been intrigued with science and life ever since he was a boy. He studied natural science endlessly trying to master how to create a creature that could sustained life. When Victor finally creates his creature, he becomes disgusted with how it turns out. Victor runs from his creation failing to teach him any social or moral qualities. The creature haunts Victor killing many of his family and friends. Victor will try to run from the many problems he has caused. This causes Victor’s misery throughout the book. Victor becomes the true murderer in the book for trying to play God and create life with science.
The novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a work of fiction that breaks the ethics of science. Ethics is defined as rules of conduct or moral principles which are ignored in the story. The story is about a person named Victor Frankenstein who creates an artificial being. Victor abandons the being out of fear and the being is left to discover the outside world on his own and be rejected by people making the monster go on a violent rampage. Victor’s decision would affect him later on by the monster killing his loved ones causing Victor to suffer. Then Victor chooses to seek revenge on the monster and this choice will bring him to his death. In novel Frankenstein one might say that the main character, Victor, breaks the ethics of
In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster commits a number of immoral acts out of rage. These actions are directly related to the monsters creation and upbringing. The burden of fault for the monsters actions rests on Victor Frankenstein’s shoulders alone.
Victor Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity lies in good intentions with bad results. Victor evolves from an intellectually curious, innocent and blameless man to being remorseful, secluded and obsessed with the
Mary Shelley expresses various ethical issues by creating a mythical monster called Frankenstein. There is some controversy on how Mary Shelley defines human nature in the novel, there are many features of the way humans react in situations. Shelley uses a relationship between morality and science, she brings the two subjects together when writing Frankenstein, and she shows the amount of controversy with the advancement of science. There are said to be some limits to the scientific inquiry that could have restrained the quantity of scientific implications that Mary Shelley was able to make, along with the types of scientific restraints. Mary Shelley wrote this classic novel in such a way that it depicted some amounts foreshadowing of the
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.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the tale of a man whose entire life turns to misery after creating what he calls a monster, a demon and a fiend. However, the real monster in this story is pride and the feeling of superiority. This is evident in the novel with Robert Walton’s view of himself and his expedition, Victor Frankenstein’s attitude towards himself in comparison with the creature, and mankind’s perception of the creature and their ignorance towards him.