In Mary Shelly`s book, Frankenstein, Frankenstein tells Walton this story to attempt to free him from being a slave to his desire to be something greater than he was destined to be. Frankenstein tells of how he turned from his human nature and created another human being, thus giving way to how the story moved on. However there were many repeated themes such as those of heaven and hell, God and Adam, as well as the ideal of a master and a slave. This, the master and slave, comparison is brought up a few times within the book between the monster and Frankenstein. Through the text, it would be implied that even though the Monster or Frankenstein could be viewed as the “masters”, neither of them are truly free, but rather slaves to their own emotions. …show more content…
They could also be led to this conclusion because of Frankenstein is able to create the monster a companion, as the monsters asks him too. The monster directly asks Frankenstein to do this in the book, “You must create a Female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.” (Shelley 140). From that we can see how the monster feels that he needs a companion, and demands that Frankenstein makes him one, and even demands it, directly stating that, “…I demand it of you as a right that you cannot refuse to concede.” (140). From this, the idea could be pulled that the monster is not the master, demanding his slave to do as he wishes, but instead a slave begging for his master to give him what is rightfully his. Frankenstein would even have been able to hunt down the monster, and kill it before it caused any trouble, however he was unwilling to because it would harm his reputation and possibly kill him. The reader would also be able to pull out of the text that the monster may be the Master, seeing as how it (the monster) causes Frankenstein pain by killing his friends, family and even having a direct effect on Frankenstein `s emotions, but that leads my directly to my next
Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with science and anatomy, and the balance between life and death while he was a university student. Frankenstein claimed to create the monster to better mankind, but it is more likely he created him out of the desire to become more like a God. “. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me; I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. (Shelley 54)” This is basically Victor explaining how he wants to cheat death and create a new race of species. Victor wants the creature to look at him as a God figure or as his ruler. The irony is that Victor never gives the creature a chance and that is the reason the monster did all the
At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.
Frankenstein’s monster is created through the desire of Victor Frankenstein to have control. He wants superior control over supernatural phenomenons, and attempts to successfully create life. “ To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death”, Victor narrates. The quote is provided within the novel to prove his natural drive for success, as well as his obsessive need for control. The monster, a mess of deceased flesh and bones, is created through this inherent desire of control. Victor moved away from his family to go to a university, proving his need for control in his own life. His desire of control over life in general created the monster, which ultimately
Mary Shelley makes us question who really the “monster” is. Is it the creature or Victor? While the creature does commit murder, he does not understand the consequences of his actions. He is like an infant who is unfortunately left to learn about the workings of society, and his place in it, on his own. He has no companions and feels a great sense of loneliness and abandonment. The creature voices his frustration and anger and seems to try to project his feelings of guilt onto Victor, as if to show him that he is the ultimate cause of the creature’s misery while he is simply the victim of Victor’s manic impulse. Shelley utilizes words, phrases, and specific tones when the creature vents his misery to Victor and this evokes, amongst the
The monster notices that humans are afraid of him because of his appearance, he feels embarrassed of himself, as humans do when they don’t seem to be accepted. He admires the De Lacey Family that lives in the cottage, he also learns from them, and hopes to have companion as they do. The monster is like humans, as mentioned, in the way that he wants someone to listen and care about him. He is discovering the world and his capacities, he seeks knowledge and understand plenty aspects of life by learning how to speak and read. “The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 47). The monster developed feelings and emotions as humans. The creature is different from humans also, since he never got to grow up as a normal human, and
From the start of Mary Shelley's novel, the monster is identified as this psychotic murderer, abnormal. The gigantic, grotesquely horrid creation of Victor Frankenstein, like Frankenstein himself, had only positive intentions at first. He was a delicate, smart monster attempting to alter to human behavior and social skills. From beginning to end, Shelley made sure to target how the monster had to learn everything solo in order to live. As the creature's creator, Victor's role was to provide and teach the creature, taking responsibility instead of running away. The fact that the monster was left unattended in the world led to his raw actions. For instance, Shelley suggest the consequences of isolation when the monster says, "You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains -- revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery." (Shelley 153) The Monster is talking in rage after Victor Frankenstein rejects his proposal to create a mate for him. The Monster is so secluded that he, himself, had to ask for a friend. This, however, was not the end of this conversation. In counter play for being deserted, Shelley writes that the Monster went off
Though the conclusions arrived at here are of the same theoretical place as the philosophical minds had deliberated before, the explanations had by Burke and Shaw circumvented parallel processes of thought, to more rely upon their similar conclusions, both rooted in historical precedent. With Frankenstein, however, Shelley stays committed to its endgame in practicing metaphorical weight and symbolic meaning, not only for setting the classical arguments incorporated here, in definite terms. This isn’t even in creating some microcosm of a singularized case in which man had sought to defy the natural barriers, and replicate the things he saw, and experienced. Instead, interactions between characters and unfolding conflicts set upon them, are to represent both these spheres converging. They are depicted less as staunch absolutes, but more so met with being altered, and changing the perceptions drawn up all along. Conferred later in an accounted byproduct of a more recent mindset, this nonetheless stands for lessons at the underpinnings of how we have grown as a society in general, which Shelley would seem to remind us of. As opposed to some alleged “Modern Prometheus,” Victor’s pursuit comes up barely mythicized, and as Bate says, “is a healthy disorientation… to realize that the Western man may not after all be the master of all things” (Bate 480). Likewise, the creature takes on a role within the self-fulfilling prophecy, subject to the maltreatment of human benefactors, and,
monster avoid pain again and how he is able to sit and think about how
In the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, the creature and its creator, Victor Frankenstein, share a lot of similarities throughout the story. The relationship shared between the two resembles that of a father and his son. Since Victor created it , the creature inherits certain traits of Victor’s without realizing it. Victor and the creature both have an overpowering thirst for knowledge, a love for the beauty of nature and a tendency to use it as a scapegoat, a depressing feeling of isolation from people, a desire for revenge, and the ability to play God. The relationship between Victor and the creature does not develop like a normal father-son relationship, nor does it develop as a good versus evil relationship. Both characters show hero and villain qualities throughout the novel as their relationship develops.
What is a monster? The word "monster" causes one to imagine a hideous, deformed or nonhuman creature that appears in horror movies and novels and terrifies everyone in its path. More importantly, however, the creature described generally behaves monstrously, doing things which harm society and acting with little consideration for the feelings and safety of others. "Thus, it is the behavior which primarily defines a monster, rather than its physical appearance"(Levine 13).
Like most horror stories, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a wretched monster who terrorizes and kills his victims with ease. However, the story is not as simple as it seems. One increasingly popular view of the true nature of the creature is one of understanding. This sympathetic view is often strengthened by looking at the upbringing of the creature in the harsh world in which he matures much as a child would. With no friends or even a true father, the creature can be said to be a product of society and its negative views and constant rejections of him. Although this popular view serves to lessen the severity of his crimes in most people’s eyes, the fact remains that the creature is in fact a cold-hearted wretch whose vindictive nature
In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is the true monster, not the creature himself.
Throughout the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the creature is subjected to countless acts of violence and rejection. For a monster to develop, one must have been formerly exploited either by an individual or their society. The creature is not only a physical product of science, but his atrocious behavior is also an explicit result of Victor’s actions toward him. The creature was not born a monster, but slowly morphed into one as he experiences violence and rejection from his society.
The book of Genesis was created by God to express his image of companionship, but also bring awareness to the idea of sin. Shelley forms Frankenstein around Genesis, however, she separates the two by stating, “Frankenstein’s monster is created as a test of Frankenstein’s power” (Shelley 34), implying that the monster is simply created to challenge the power of his creator just as God’s power was challenged by Adam and Eve. Following the creation of the monster, Victor wants absolutely nothing to do with it. The monster is composed of decomposing human bodies and therefore it is not anyone’s ideal image and has no one to look up to in the aspect of, “let us make man in our image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Due to the monster being created with the limps and interior of dead bodies, it promotes an extraordinary element of not having an original origin. Victor takes advantage of the fact that the monster is not a
Throughout the story the Frankenstein’s monster is referred to as a true monster because of the different acts that he has committed, yet throughout the story the reader is made aware of the compassion and morality that Victor’s” creature possesses, like a real human. Victor is the true monster in this horror novel, because he possesses many of the characteristics that would define what a monster is. Victor Frankenstein created his monster due to his eagerness for alchemy and his unnatural obsession with being like God. Victor does not take into account the consequences of his actions. Victor rejects his creation the moment he lays eyes on it, and this caused the monster to perform the acts that he did. The cruel rejection is what begins the a journey that will soon enough be end of Victor. After Victor decides to go back on creating his monster a mate, he then destroys the half made creature which anger Frankenstein’s monster and this cause him wreak revenge on his creator. The monster tells Victor that he will be at his wedding night and the killing spree beings, Victor loses his father, and his friend Henry Clerval because of what Victor had done. In my opinion I believe that should have stuck to creating his monster a mate and this would have made things easier for him and