Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley

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

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

It is knowledge that causes Victor to gain dangerous ambition, the ambition that causes him to undertake the immoral and laborious task of creating life. The creature ends up ruining Victor’s life, and he has only the knowledge he pursued to blame for that. Victor used his enormous range of knowledge for this shady invention; however, he could have used it to benefit mankind. Knowledge causes Victor to become ambitious, and it is this ambition that leads to his solitude, sadness, and eventual death. Knowledge can be beneficial; however, it can also be destructive if used for dangerous

The Creature symbolizes the war between passion and responsibility with the effects of society. Victor abandons his responsibility for his passion, the creature, this begins when Victor goes away to ingolstadt to increase his knowledge in the field of anatomy and gets lost in his project of piecing together a non-living creature. When he finishes with his Creature victor states “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 43). “-For this i had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation” (Shelley 43). Victor says he has deprived himself of sleep thus causing his health to decrease, this is an example of victor abandoning responsibility for for his passion “by being connected with the favourite projects and passions of the times Victors health declined rapidly ( Baldick).” When Victor begins his creation in ingolstadt, he locks himself away from his social life. Inside his apartment he is away from family and any social ties, causing his mental health to decline rapidly. Victor abandons his passion, the Creature, when he thinks through the eyes of society causing his responsibility for the Creature to fall to next to nothing. Victors first impression of his creation is, “Now that i had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”(Shelley 43). Victor judges his creation based off of its appearance instead of its thoughts much like society has always done. Victor doesn't give the Creature a chance and instead abandons it, leaving it to its own devices. Here in the story the Creature is depleted of all its rights simply because of its appearance, this throws shade on society simply because society shapes who we are as

The creature's physical grotesqueness makes the creature unable to attain affection from the human societies. The creature is initially rejected by his creator, who is the closest resemblance to a mother or father figure. Despite this relationship, Victor finds the creature to be a "miserable monster" (39). Consequently, as soon as life is present within the creature, Victor abandons his child. Victor claims that he "escaped, and rushed down the stairs" (40) away from the

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.

The theme is clearly outlined by how much hate Victor has for his creature. He is just seeing him fleeing the scene of his dead brother and subconsciously says “Bruh, this is the thing that killed my brother”. He mulls over the fact and almost in disbelief tries to deny the fact. “Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother?” (Shelley, 63). He thinks and after a millisecond he knew the creature committed the heinous act. “No sooner did that idea cross my imagination than I became convinced of its truth,” (Shelley, 63). He knew it right away and the anger he felt for the death of his brother became remorse that he is the cause for his brother’s death as he created the

During adolescence, Victor develops a fascination for the mysteries of natural science. He goes to Ingolstadt to enhance his knowledge where he engrosses himself in his studies eventually developing a deep passion for science and human anatomy. After attending the university, Victor’s thirst for more knowledge leads him to take on the project of creating a living creature. He submerges himself in his work and refuses to give up, even sacrificing his health. “After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelly 41). Victor’s obsession with learning the secret to life causes him to become isolated and unhealthy. He removed himself from his social life and never did anything else besides work on his creation. Victor’s thirst for knowledge is what urges him to make the creature, eventually leading to him

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

A major similarity between Victor and the creature is their thirst for knowledge. He attended a college called Ingolstadt, where he gained an abundant amount of knowledge in science. Victor had accumulated a great love for science, which is what sparked the creation of the creature. After the creature was created, the creature expressed the same eagerness to learn that Victor did. The creature wanted to learn to read and speak French. He wanted to learn these things in hopes of being able to interact with mankind. He was excited by the thought of learning new things just like Victor.

What purpose does it serve to have multiple narrators telling a story? In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, three main narrators tell the story about the creation of a monster and the events that follow. The job of narrator shifts between Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster that Victor creates. As each narrator shares his own recollection of the events that occurred, new facts are introduced to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Although Frankenstein uses multiple narrators to tell the story, it is important to look at the effects it might have on the stories accuracy. In this essay, I will closely examine the motives, differences, and similarities of each narrator to see what influences, if any, they have on the narrative.

Victor Frankenstein was a regular scientist until he became obsessed and mentally ill. “This state of mind preyed upon my health… all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation-deep, dark, deathlike solitude” (Shelley 77). Mary Shelley created the character Victor, who devoted most of his time, research, and effort into creating a being which can hold life. Victor became successful, yet mentally scarred after the sight of his creature. This hurt Victor, but not as harshly as the creature's following actions. The creature goes on to kill members of Victor’s family and kill his closest and dearest friends. The creature’s actions cause Victor to suffer both mentally and physically. Victor then falls back

Victor’s initial reaction to his creation is the first taste of what the world has to offer the creature, an identity. However, this is not the identity that the creature wishes to posses. He desires to be someone’s son, yet when he goes to Victor for this relationship, he is rejected. In the beginning of the creature’s existence he has "one hand…stretched out" (35) to reach towards his creator. This is parallel to a Sistine Chapel painting in which Adam reaches out to God. However, there is a significant difference in 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

These phenomena hide a danger that Victor is aware of after the creation of his monster, who illustrates this risk of connecting nature and science. Victor even warns of trying to be greater than your nature which is a consequence of a growing knowledge. To summarize, he believes in creating new life with the help of inanimate body parts and scientific approaches and creates a monster that reflects the power of nature and