Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

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

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the tale of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and his creation. Both Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s creation’s questionable actions lead them both to be considered morally ambiguous figures. Victor is ambitious with good intentions, but his ambition leads to bad results. The Creature is an innately kind and compassionate person who commits abominable actions due to how others treat him. Their moral ambiguity is significant, as it reveals that an obsession with ambition distorts one’s morals.

Victor’s questionable actions are apparent, however his benevolent qualities are greater. Victor truly does possess a lot of good qualities, but sadly, the creation of another human tainted him. One of his most predominant moral characteristics is his love and cherish for Elizabeth Lavenza. For example, Victor states “I would die to make her happy” (Shelley 167). This is evidence that he cares about others and he is not entirely immoral. On the other hand, Victor’s only major evil quality was his desire to become God. “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley 48). This is proof that he wanted to become godly and control life and death which ultimately caused his downfall.

Victor was raised in a very caring and loving home. His parents gave Victor everything he wanted and Victor grew up with great friends. Victor’s parents even adopted him a lifelong companion in Elizabeth so he would never feel lonely. Victor had very strong relationships with those who surrounded him.

Victor obsession with his creation represents the dark side of ambition. By creating the monster, “darkness” follow him wherever he goes through the representation of deaths and daunting weather like lightning. After his release from prison, he saw around him “nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me” (Shelley 160). By trying to turn himself into a god through the creation of the monster, that is, the unnatural, Victor is deprived of joy and is tormented by fevers, anxiety, and stress because he had thrown nature into the state of imbalance. Rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment through his scientific achievement, he lives in fear and guilt knowing that he is the cause for the destruction of his

Though Victor Frankenstein and his creation both have qualities that are clearly monstrous, Victor’s selfishness, his abandonment of his responsibilities, and his inability to recognize his own faults and the monstrous qualities within himself qualities within himself make him the true monster while his creation is rather the opposite.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. Frankenstein’s direct association with fundamental Gothic literature is extremely renowned. However, the novel’s originality is derived from the foundational thematic values found within the relationship (or lack there of) between Victor Frankenstein and the monster he had created, in combination with a fascinatingly captivating plot. Understandably, Frankenstein can often be associated with a multitude of concepts; however, in this particular instance, the circumstances in the book seemed remarkably coherent with Shelley’s Romantic beliefs in preserving the natural world, and one’s natural existence. These values present themselves as metaphorical symbols that

Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man 's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation 's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.

Frankenstein had many choices, one better than others, and ones that could have saved his family. Yet, Frankenstein made a choice that one may consider incredibly heroic or undeniably foolish, he was worried that The Monster and his female companion would create a ‘race of devils’. This worry is understandable, but instead of dumping the remains into the ocean knowing The Monster is watching, he could have went to more covert means because he knew what The Monster was capable of doing. Moreover, Victor Frankenstein was given multiple warnings to stop his studies, but he chose knowledge over the wise opinions from the people in his life. In one case M. Krempe tells Victor, “every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems and useless names. Good God!” (43). In this example, it can be seen that Victor was given warnings from M. Krempe, but one could also see the idea that these warnings represent foreshadowing. As a reader the end result of Victor’s knowledge is known, so one could conclude that if Victor had listened to the warnings his pursuit of knowledge would have ended positively. Lastly, Victor’s pursuit of knowledge held him back from visiting his family and focusing on what he cared most about; Elizabeth his only true happiness. In the novel Victor states, “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for

When first reading the book of Frankenstein does one just think of a mythical science fiction book that really has no meaning? Frankenstein can have numerous meanings depending on how a person perceives it. Frankenstein can be analyzed into many themes; some say religion, feminism, or scientific symbolization, it all depends on ones own perception. When one analyzes further into Mary Shelly’s life and then interprets the novel it is obvious that is a sociological theme. One can simply assume that Mary Shelley creates Frankenstein through on her own life experiences and the sociological symbolism shows that. Mary Shelley experiences many tragic events throughout her life that are synonymous with the monster in her book Frankenstein. Mary

Throughout the novel, the creation begins to slowly murder the people closest to Victor until he is left in solitude as he is forced to bear the burden of this knowledge of the murderer in addition to his own accountability of the deaths since he is responsible for the creation.

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.

This need of power led Victor to create what he believed would be a beautiful human being. But he failed to see that combining the most beautiful human features does not necessarily create a beautiful human being. He was inspired by scientists who ...acquired new and almost limitless powers... (Shelley, Frankenstein, P. 47). Victor sought this unlimited power to the extent of taking the role of God. He not only penetrated nature, but also he assumed power of reproduction in a maniacal desire to harness these modes of reproduction in order to become acknowledged, respected, and obeyed as a father. While bringing his creation into the world he was himself alienated from society, and isolated himself from the community. Isolation and parental neglect cause viciousness within man. Because of his upbringing, Victor had no sense of empathy, and therefore could not realize the potential harm he was creating towards himself and his creation. The sole purpose of his project was an attempt to gain power, but instead of power Victor realized that a morally irresponsible scientific development could release a monster that can destroy human civilization.

The monster believed that Victor would accept him, but after he realized that not only did Victor not want to assume his position in the monster’s life, but society also rejected him, it became a transitory thought, and instead became replaced with his bloodthirst towards Victor and his loved ones, which he knew would hurt way worse than just killing him; making him lonely like himself. Both Victor and the monster partook in horrid acts, in which held horrendous actions; the main one being Victor creating the monster in the first place which in result caused the both of them heartbreak, loneliness, and pain. If Victor wouldn’t have created the monster, then his life would not be filled with so much grief and emptiness; Victor is the true monster, although they are both the primal protagonists as much as they are the antagonists because of the display of the emotions they both portray as lamenting humans/monsters, and the power they give to nature in order to destroy one another. Victor used nature to his advantage, although it was wrong; Victor used nature to create and destroy the monster; he used the

Griffith further supports the idea of Victor being the problem and his ignorance becoming increasingly detrimental to his family’s health. Victor’s actions inevitabely brings death and pain to his family although the monster is responsible. Victor is the real monster for creating the monster and negleting his very own creation. Also, after creating the being, he neglects its needs and wants and runs away from his responsibility as the creator. This quote from Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, shows that Victor, being too binded in his ambitions, did not think through the process of creating a human and rushed it creating a bitter and crushed soul: