How Victor’s Creation became a Monster in Frankenstein
The name of Mary W. Shelley somehow hidden behind the fame of her best known work, Frankenstein. The story of Frankenstein has past through the years without being forgotten, while the name of Mary Shelley is unknown to the general public. Following the plot of her own story, Mary Shelley is, somehow, the "victim" of her creation. Frankenstein can be seen as the story of a terrible monster who threatens society. It is the purpose of this essay to illustrate that it is actually society that has made a monster of Frankenstein.
Victor Frankenstein is a young and eminent student who decides to break the bounderies between life and death.
His
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From the moment in which Victor disowns his creation a hard relation is started between the two main characters , a relation in which both of them mean suffering to the other one.This relation is described by the monster when he says :
"You are my creator , but I am your master ". (p.180).
With these lines , the monster shows that , even though he recognizes that Victor is the one who gave him life ,he is now who decides about his future : now , the monster is ready to make him pay his indifference , he is prepared to return him the suffering that his irresponsability has caused him all through his life and there is just one thing that the monster asks : love .
The monster , from the moment in which is created , is searching for affection , all he wants is feeling that somebody cares about him :
"I intended to reason . this passion is detrimental for me ; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess . If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me , I should return them an hundred fold ; for that creature 's sake , I would make peace with the whole kind ! .But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realised . What I ask of you is reasonable and moderate ; I demand a creature of another sex , but as hideous as myself ; the gratification is small , but it is all that I can receive ,
Nwaneka Chinedu Ms. Hotalen Honors English III p 9/10 February 18, 2016 citation: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: Unabridged and Unadapted from the Original Text, and with Thirteen Related Readings. Lodi, NJ: Everbind Anthologies, 2002. Print.
Characters, such as Victor Frankenstein, struggled to convey themselves to the readers in “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley. It was difficult to understand their true thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. Victor, the protagonist, is viewed to be morally ambiguous because he says one thing and then takes it back, he goes back and forth being in the state of depression, he has difficulties in making his decisions, and he treated others completely different than how he treated his own creation. Before Victor began making his creation, he was hooked on the idea of expanding his knowledge and learning things beyond his capacity.
The monster and Victor are also related because they both know suffering. The monster knows suffering because he has no relations with any part of humanity. The only person he knows, his own creator, Victor, hates him. Victor suffers from all of the deaths he had to endure, as I mentioned before.
The novel Frankenstein, tells the life of Victor from his early childhood to adulthood. It follows him on the highs and lows of his life. In the novel, Victor begins the construction of a creature. He believes this creation will be a wonderful being. However, the monster begins to haunt Victor’s life with his own problems.
Victor believes he is at fate’s mercy, and on the other hand, the monster believes he is the master of his own fate when he declares that his life “shall not be the submission of abject slavery” and that he will “work at [Victor’s] destruction”… until [he] desolate[s] [Victor’s] heart” (Shelley 104-105). The monster knows that he is the one who makes the decisions and we refuses to be under the “slavery” of fate, which guides the audience to see the contrast between the two characters. In this quote, the monster uses his own free will to create destruction and desolation. So to him, making the decision to create destruction
Rather than just killing Victor, however, the monster decides to kill his loved ones. The death of a potential companion in the world incites the monster to create even more death.
Victor leaves with his best friend Clerval to Scotland so that he can begin his project. One night when Victor is working the following occurs… “As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like him, and, trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature whose future existence he depended on for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew” (Shelley 176). This moment of conflict is probably the most important in consideration with the story. This is the event which leads to the event of Victors family being murdered. Through a feminist perspective this can be seen as yet another way that Victor is rejecting his “child”. The monster gave him a second chance to redeem himself as a parent and do this one last thing for him. After Victor tears his second creation apart, the monster becomes furious and takes his anger out on Victor. If Victor had chosen a different path of action, things could have turned out well for the both of them but instead he rejected to request of his creation and the passion that got him into this
There were many events that made Victor feel anguished; William was died, Justin was executed, and others Victor's love. When Victor saw the monster, he felt the pain, bitter anguish, and full of resentment. Moreover his pain is pleasure of the monster. The demon’s life is full of suffering. Then, the monster began to destroy Victor's happiness. According to the monster, he said that Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy – to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim. (p.109) this text reflected, after the monster killed William, revenge is more violent. Victor will be doubly painful and there were many people have to die. Furthermore, he also augmented I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, I too, can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him. (p.110) This text to demonstrate that when the monster killed the member of family Frankenstein, he felt satisfied and full of contentment. It did not feel that this is not correct because the monster stuck on revenge. The monster hoped that the death of William would create a thousand sufferings to Victor. The demon did not want Victor to be happy in spite of it was left alone. He wanted to destroy the happiness of the creator. He became a devil because of
After the murder of Clerval, I returned to Switzerland, heart-broken and overcome” (Shelley, 221). The murders he commits doesn´t cause any joy to the wretch, in fact, it makes him even more sorrowful. A rather simple request is asked by the monster.” I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me… You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being”
He describes the monster as an ugly when it is simply a hopeless lifeless monster, but when it finally comes to life, the monster is uglier than Victor thought possible. This is the time when Victor realizes the burden of exactly what he has done. The monster gets to the point where he is lonely and isolated. He seems to go analyze the reason and he thinks to himself, "I was dependent on none and related to none. The path of my departure was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation.
Even after being rejected, the monster gave Victor another chance. The monster asked him to create a partner for it. But Victor denied the monster’s request. He thought that if he creates another monster, both of them together would only increase his problems. He wondered “Perhaps the two monsters would hate each other… and would kill. And murder, and destroy… without end.” (Page 37) So he cut the body of the female monster he made. This made the monster furious and more violent. The monster killed every person Victor loved and also became the reason for his death at the end. Here, the killings symbolizes the hatred of the
The monster simply wants someone he can be happy with, and Victor wants to happy in a world without the monster.
The definition of a monster is very arguable. A monster is typically seen as something inhuman and hideously scary. A human could also be a monster in that they could be extremely wicked or cruel. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, creator of the creature, is the real monster because he is a hypocrite, he created the monster and abandoned him, and he is extremely selfish.
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
Upon Victors return home he encountered this miserable creature whom he had created. The monster told him of the misfortunate events that led to the actions which he would later regret. The monster told Victor “Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded” he proceeded, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” (pg.69) with this being said he continued with his story. The monsters first encounter was being denied by his own creator. He told victor that if he his own creator hated him he had no hope that other humans who had no ties to him would love him. His many meetings with humans proved this to be correct.