The monster that was created by Victor Frankenstein could have come to be as a result of many different things. Perhaps it is because he wants to one day revive his deceased mother. Or, maybe Victor hopes to better humanity by ending death as mankind knows it. While these factors could have possibly played a miniscule role in his building of the creature, there is one primary, underlying reason as to why Victor created such a hideous beast: greed. Victor materializes a wretched monstrosity all in the name of self-glory, and generally keeps his gaze astray from the betterment of humanity as a whole. Victor’s true motive, being of a self-fulfilling and selfish nature, becomes extraordinarily evident in a few main passages and excerpts. Victor first shows his colors when he refers to the creature as the, “most gratifying consummation of [his] toils”(38). This quote reveals a lot about Victor and just why he is doing this experiment. He views the creature solely as a project, not as a living, breathing solution to one of humanity’s greatest problems. If Victor hadn’t simply been in it for himself, …show more content…
Victor even goes on to say the following: “I became myself capable of bestowing animation on lifeless matter”(40). This quote by Victor is another example of his selfish reasoning for the project. By bragging about his new ability to create life, he is showing that he is in it for all the wrong reasons. If Victor hadn’t been primarily concerned about himself, he likely would’ve said he was then capable of saving the human race, rather than giving life to a lifeless creature. Based on how he bragged about himself, it is safe to assume that he likely had full intention of letting his new creation be known and gaining fame for his extraordinarily unique experiment. However, his creation turned out hideous and disturbed him deeply, so he became more embarrassed of this and never got this
Victor worked continuously on his experiment, obsessed with finding the correct building material. It would seem that after all this arduous work he put into making this Creature, he would be in awe when it was finally finished. Upon the completion of the Creature, he finds himself in shock, explaining in vivid detail about the Creature’s “yellow skin which scarcely covered the works of muscles and arteries underneath” and its “shriveled complexion,” and “straight black lips” (42). In the human nature, it is known that when a person creates something, no matter how ugly, or how deformed it is, the creator is proud of his creation. Although, immediately after he sees his creation, Victor is unable to stare at the “monster” any longer, and paralyzed with fear and guilt, abandons the creature all alone in the world, like a new born baby. Although it might not seem like this, this particular scene conveys a deep sense
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
However, in Victor's role as God he is so enthralled with the thought of bringing life to a lifeless corpse that he ignores the moral affects that his creation will have on society. He wants so badly to understand, and potentially prevent, the mortality of man that he never thinks there may be a reason we can't create life or live forever. He thinks nothing to altering a system that has existed in the world since the inception of life. It is not until after he completes his experiment, he can only begin to understand some of the consequences. In discussing the shock of his creation Victor states, " how can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pain and care I had endeavoured to form?"(34). Much like with the current stem cell and genetics research ethical questions being raised, there are a lot of things to consider when one begins messing with the complexity of life. Life itself is complex beyond our understanding; relatively little is known today about its inner-workings. Therefore, it can be nothing better than irresponsible to create life from death, when you don't understand what is already alive. The admittance of his disappointment in his work causes one to question why he would create such a monstrous creature that would obviously not fit into society. The most obvious explanation would be that he is so overpowered with the possibility of his own death, that he hopes to gain the knowledge of
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
Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .
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.
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
Victor pursuit of desiring to build a creature makes it seem as if he was an evil and mad scientist. Shelley demonstrates Victors madness by saying “a resistless and almost frantic impulse urged me forward; [he] seemed to have lost all soul and sensation but for this, one pursuit” (55). This reveals that because Victor was emotionally attached to his creation, he was willing to have sleepless nights just to create a creature. Victor is beginning to show signs of madness scientist because he starts to lock himself up trying to bring this hideous monster to life. Because Victor starts to “lock himself up in his apartment” Shelley makes it seems as if Victor is turning into a mad man and evil scientist (52). Victor’s fundamental quest for knowledge leads to his isolation because he locked himself in his apartment for 6 years without having any connect with his family in Geneva and becoming so fanatical with creating the monster he craved for in his
Victor has become obsessed with studying (something no one should ever be interested in) and has locked himself in his room studying for days on end. He "applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that my progress was rapid. My ardour was indeed the astonishment of the students, and my proficiency that of the masters... Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries which I hoped to make". (7) This early application of himself is what drove him to become lonely and reclusive, shying away from all who attempted to come into contact with him. He is also inspired in this chapter to start his reanimation project. He becomes consumed in this one project spending many months alone in the top of his apartment assembling his creature. He raided slaughter houses, grave yards, and dissection rooms to furnish what he needed to create his monster. The lines between life and death became blurred
Victor’s blindness to what his end result will produce is immediately revealed when his final work is a hideous creature. Victor, through repulsion, neglects caring for the creature in its blank slate, gradually fuelling the ambition it feels for revenge. With the monster isolated, he begins to learn, “I learned to distinguish between the operations
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.
Throughout the novel, Victor ignores and shows no interest or empathy towards human beings. He is an alchemist himself who is interested in making things come to life from the dead specifically. He was unable to differentiate the “impracticability” of this creation he had in mind (Shelley 54). Victor has this big idea of taking body parts of the dead people and creating this creature that also becomes known as the Monster. He does not think about the future of the
The possibility of Victor Frankenstein’s reason for created the monster has to do with his inner desires. In a sense Frankenstein creating the monster is showing who he really is upon the inside. As victor open his eyes and wonder why the monster wanted a companion he realized he released a monster upon the world that had no one. In a sense victors work is an “expression or symbolization of repressed desire” (Franco, Dean). Maybe victor desires someone attention upon him or he has the desire to be more than just a scientist. Victor’s is also searching for his identity is very clear within the book when he flees to different countries such as his journey to college and when he fled in order to escape the terrors of home .
Later in the novel this involuntary actions cause the creature to commit murder. I believe that Victor 1st thought was that his creation would have been something beautiful. Something he would have been proud to claim as his creation. He does not see that this creation is hideous until the last minute. Victor was so involved with his fantasy that he could not see what he was really creating.