Playing God in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Essay

Victor Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity lies in good intentions with bad results. Victor evolves from an intellectually curious, innocent and blameless man to being remorseful, secluded and obsessed with the

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster commits a number of immoral acts out of rage. These actions are directly related to the monsters creation and upbringing. The burden of fault for the monsters actions rests on Victor Frankenstein’s shoulders alone.

Victor Frankenstein begins as a man of ambition, but ends in a tragic downfall. He turns

Victor Frankenstein in the book Frankenstein faces many terrible situations and has to face many consequences for trying to play God’s role in creating life. Victor seen and dealt with many situations as a young boy that will lead to his madness and obsession with science. Victor has always been intrigued with science and life ever since he was a boy. He studied natural science endlessly trying to master how to create a creature that could sustained life. When Victor finally creates his creature, he becomes disgusted with how it turns out. Victor runs from his creation failing to teach him any social or moral qualities. The creature haunts Victor killing many of his family and friends. Victor will try to run from the many problems he has caused. This causes Victor’s misery throughout the book. Victor becomes the true murderer in the book for trying to play God and create life with science.

Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian born professor of mathematics who had a great interest in the workings of the universe. Galileo served as a professor at the University of Padua, and it was during this time that he began to question the accuracy of the Churches representation of the world. Galileo’s approach towards knowledge was much different then the afore mentioned Copernicus. Where as Copernicus presented his finding to the mercy of the church, Galileo wrote his conclusions and left the Roman Catholic Church interpret them as they chose. The very nature of his findings pitted him as an opponent of the church.

Mary Shelley’s story of internal turmoil, the cruelty of altering the laws of nature, and the consequences of redefining the laws of nature is a harrowing one, known widely by many audiences, yet it is never the nature of the characters that is discussed, only the outcome. Shelley’s deliberate use of different character foils portrays the deeper connections and themes in her 1818 novel, Frankenstein. The creation and presence of Frankenstein’s monster directly foils the character of Victor Frankenstein himself, illustrating overarching themes of self inflicted isolation and internal conflict, exposing the dangers and consequences of complete and total narcissism, and revealing a truth many still refuse to accept: we, as humans, are capable

Victor’s driving, obsessive ambition ruined his life and led to his own death and the murder of his loved ones. Illustrate how ambition affects not only Victor and Robert Walton, but also the creature in Frankenstein.

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

Critic Northrop Frye once commented that "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscapes" (Frye 1). Few characters illustrate this characteristic of a tragic hero better than that of Victors Frankenstein, the protagonist of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. His story is one of a brilliant man whose revolutionary ideas brought suffering to himself, his family and friends, and his creation. Victor is an instrument as well as a victim to this suffering throughout his story.

misfortune that isn’t entirely deserved. In the end, the laws of the gods overcome the laws of

Although some critics view Victor Frankenstein as a Tragic Hero because of his one essential flaw, his overambitious desire to discover what cannot be known, he is truly a Byronic Hero by definition. Although Victor is of a higher social class than the average person and his essential flaw triumphs all of his others, he has a deeply troubled past, struggles with integrity, secludes himself away from society, and is a willful individual who seeks redemption by carving out his own path. Victor’s many, deep flaws, which often induce the reader to believe that he is actually the antagonist and the Monster the hero, and ultimate redemption in telling Robert Walton his life’s story make him a Byronic Hero.

Victor Frankenstein's upbringing in a perfect society ultimately led to the destruction of his life which coincided with the lives of those emotionally close to

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a critique of the Byronic hero, as exemplified in Lord Byron’s “Manfred.” The Byronic hero is a protagonist who has the following traits: self-inflicted agony, a high self esteem, isolation from society, an exaggerated sense of independence, and genuine guilt. All of these traits Manfred bears, but Victor lacks two of these attributes. The lead protagonists, Victor and Manfred, have two key differences: genuine remorse and independence. Victor’s guilt is false when compared with that of Manfred. Victor relinquishes some of his autonomy to the monster in Frankenstein, in contrast to Manfred’s steadfast hold of complete self government. These differences, seen in Victor’s personality amount to a critique of

They thought that religious truth also should be tested by reason. This was a great challenge to the former thoughts. Man¡¯s reason and the idea of order became the watchword of the day. Everything fell into some order, like Newton¡¯s ¡°clock¡± and all had a place in the divine plan.

Through the constant pursuit of knowledge, people began to put a greater emphasis on empirical evidence rather than religion and its faith in the unobserved, and parts of these sacred texts began to be ignored and upon the discovery of new contradicting information, even re-interpreted. In the Age of Enlightenment (1600-1800), there was shift from accepting traditional beliefs to challenging them. This raises the knowledge question, to what extent has knowledge in the natural sciences become more objective and less dependent on religious knowledge over time?