The True Monster in Mary-Ann Shelley’s Frankenstein In Frankenstein, written by Mary-Ann Shelley, Shelley portrays Victor as the ultimate monster. Throughout the novel, Shelley tests Victor’s morals and reveals him to be arrogant and selfish. She depicts his immorality through the creation of the creature, his decision to uphold his reputation and sacrifice mankind, and through abandoning his creature. Shelley illustrates Victor’s monstrous characteristics through the creation of the creature. When Victor attends university at Ingolstadt, he decides to pursue his studies in the Sciences. Fascinated by the creation of life, he begins to study human anatomy and decay. He seeks to be omnipotent, and therefore, creates “[a] new species …show more content…
Consequently, the creature is left- abandoned and alone, and experiences the cruelty of mankind. Months following the death of Victor’s younger brother, William, Victor encounters his creature on Mount Montanvert. The creature implores for Victor’s guidance and compassion, but Victor attacks him and demands that he leave. Consequently, Victor is immoral for having neglected his own creature, and for treating him as “the fallen angel” (96), which represents the devil. Furthermore, whether the creature will “lead a harmless life or become the scourge of [Victor’s] fellow creatures and the author of [Victor’s] speedy ruin” (98) is in the hands of his creator. Out of pure detestation, however, Victor chooses to deprive the creature of happiness. He describes the “fierce vengeance of [his] arm wreaked on [the creature’s] miserable head” (95), and vows to avenge the death of his brother. Through the brutal treatments from humans and his own creator, the creature alienates himself and resorts to inflicting pain on mankind. Essentially, Victor’s betrayal and inability to sympathize nor accept his own creature depicts him as the true monster. Moreover, Victor’s immorality is depicted through his decision to save his own reputation, rather than admitting his wrong doings. In addition to withholding critical information, Victor does nothing to prevent the possible massacre of humans. Two years following the creation of
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
A morally ambiguous character is a character whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as either purely good or purely evil. The creature brought into being by Victor Frankenstein is the principle morally ambiguous character in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" which is demonstrated through the sympathy that the reader feels at the moment of his creation and instantaneous abandonment, his present but questionable morals, and the feelings of immediate hatred that the reader has towards him as he slaughters everyone that Victor cares about. The creature, or monster as he is referred to in much of the novel, has guilt piled
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.
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
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.
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
This experiment places him out of society and in isolation for months, showing his obsession with creating something that is his own. In addition, Frankenstein knows he has the ability to create the monster where he "[emphasizes] the necessary deference to nature that empirical science lacked, [Shelley] found her portrayal of Victor's artificial human complicated by the materialism of his genesis" (Willis 2). Victor's arrogance in knowledge led him to create the monster only because he knew he could. The monster is purely experimental and Victor creates the monster because his knowledge overcame his decision between morals and achievements.
The creature is miserable because the creator just made him and right after he got afraid and then he wanted to kill the creature because Victor thinks that he killed his brother William.According to the text it said, "The tortures of hell are to mild for thy crimes you've done. So what he is trying to say is that he hall go to hell for the people he killed including William. In my opinion I think that the creature didn't kill William because he said in the text that his soul is full of love and community.An other reason is because he lives in the mountains and in
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.
Shelley explains how Victor has a great mental turmoil after he indirectly caused the death of people who were close to him by the actions he took to create the monster. Shelley’s description of Victor’s feelings show the deprivation of hope and fear in his soul and the emphasises the pain in which he was indirectly the cause of. Victor not only caused his own mental illness, but he also caused his own physical illness. Victor makes himself physically sick by his actions during the creation of his monster. Victor’s work unintentionally causes himself to decline in health and become vulnerable to illnesses. “When Victor is working on his experiment, he cannot love: he ignores his family, even his fiance Elizabeth, and takes no pleasure in the beauties of nature. Moreover, he becomes physically… ill, subject to nervous fevers”(Weiner 83). Victor is shown to focus directly on his work, causing him to forget most of the outside world and not be influenced by forces that usually comfort and heal him. His work makes Victor subject to nervous fevers, causing himself to become sick more often and need help from family and friends more often. Although the process of creating the monster was physically taxing on Victor, the end product caused him even more pain. The creation of the creature impaired
Victor had an obligation to care for his creation, but chooses at first glance of his construction to abscond from its presence. The comparison of Victor as God-like highlights Enlightenment philosophers who have gone beyond the limits of humanity in order to attain knowledge. Victor is characterized then as a savant manipulating nature. The Creature acts as a balance for philosophers to stop and reflect upon their own enterprise and determine the fine line between acceptable and unacceptable knowledge as it pertains to nature. To this end, Shelley enforces that humanity must pay due respect to the limits placed in front of them by avoiding the Enlightenment philosophy that man is to find a definite definition for every phenomenon he encounters.
Victor, after being convinced to create a female companion for the monster, realizes that this will only create double the amount of destruction, he then makes the choice to discontinue his project to prevent more devastation. Instead of less damage resulting from this choice it only brings more harm to his life and everyone around him. First, his good friend Henry Clerval is murdered by the beast and Victor is accused of this murder, “The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions.” (Shelley 129). This was Victor’s reaction upon seeing Henry’s corpse and demonstrates how deeply his pursuit for knowledge affects him. Even though he is later released on circumstantial evidence, he will be scarred for life knowing that he responsible for yet another death. Given that Victor destroyed the monster’s only hope of having someone else like him in the world; the monster swears revenge and that he will return on Victor’s wedding night. Victor misinterpreted this warning and instead of the monster attacking Victor, his creation attacked and
Young Frankenstein is noted as being “The Broadway musical at its dizziest, glitziest and funniest!” This entertaining musical comedy performed in the Main Stage Theater at Lee High School October 13-21. This theatrical production was put on by Independent Musical Productions, Inc., which produces four major productions each year. I saw the play on October 19th during the 7:30 pm show. This viewing was not a sold-out performance. This production was intended for the adult audience. But it is also recommended to teens as well. It was good clean fun and laughter could be heard throughout the auditorium. In Young Frankenstein, the grandson inherits his family’s estate. His mad scientist antics appear to rival late of his late grandfathers.
The monster is created towards the beginning of the story as a middle-aged creature. He may be characterized as manipulating, and intelligent, and from kind by nature to malevolent. He is a round character, is described as being eight feet tall, and simply hideous. The monster kills Victor?s younger brother, friends, and lover, and does not stop until Victor himself is ruined and killed. He may easily be considered Victor?s downfall. The monster is never named, so he is referred to as his description, a monster or a daemon. He wants, more than anything, a companion. The monster tells Victor, ?You are my creator, but I am your master? (116) after his heart turns cold from lack of love.