Research In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Unlike God, Frankenstein neglects his creation. Victor is not there for his creature to cast his burdens on, or to confide in or show direction. In turn, Frankenstein’s creation lashes out against humanity, against even his own creator. Frankenstein’s lack of affection and care for what he had created set forth a domino effect of the creature’s horrible

Since the monster has been through so much, his once innocent heart cannot be repaired because of actions that occurred while he was being raised. The goodness he saw in the world will never be mended because no one ever gave him the chance to live a happy, normal life. If Victor contributed to his part as a parental, the monster would not have had committed the murders he did, but instead, Victors decisions when he first created the monster, made the monster into the horrid person he

I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation, but now that I had finished,.. breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (35) This emphasizes how Frankenstein was eager to create a new life without considering whether or not he was fully capable of handling the responsibility, which he learns upon finishing his “project” and ends up running away. This is significant because the creature perceives Victor running away as an act of resentment towards his own creation, which creates an impetus for the creature to go into an obsessed state of mind so he can find any way to obtain the feeling of being loved. This obsession is further illustrated when the creature tells his story to Victor saying, “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing.” (86) This is the part of the creature’s story where

The novel Frankenstein includes a disturbed and conflicted protagonist that journeys through his haunted years of when he first created what was thought to be his masterpiece but eventually turned to be his nemesis. Throughout the story there are multiple instances where the Monster tortures his creator; However, there are an equal number of times where Victor does not show pity towards his creation which leads his artificial offspring to destruction. Victor was driven to create life for the achievement not the joy of being a parent. When the Monster was animated Frankenstein immediately shunned his creation. On his journey of revenge he eyes the Monster and instead of reconciling he curses the time of its existence.

This incitement causes the monster to go into a killing frenzy and attack anyone around him, including Victor. With the monster being portrayed in such a feral way, the well developed, intellectual, human relationship that Shelley crafted gets obliterated from this retelling and is instead interpreted with no emotional, human connection between creator and creation. Victor Frankenstein also takes Victor's motive for creating the monster and adds reasons that make the expectation for the success of the monster even more

In the Kenneth Branagh’s film, “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, it can be argued that either Victor Frankenstein, or the monster he creates is more frightening. The fact that the characteristics of the monster’s personality mirrors Frankenstein’s inability to control his own emotions makes both of them even more fear-provoking.

In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, an egomaniacal scientist, named Victor Frankenstein, conducts experiments in an attempt to reanimate a lifeless body by giving it new life. Frankenstein’s experiments were successful and he was able to bestow life upon a corpse made of body parts from various cadavers. The deformed, hideous appearance of his creature caused Victor to flee from his responsibilities and abandon his creation. Without the guidance of Victor, the creature became consumed by revenge and committed horrendous acts, considered evil, in order to punish Victor for leaving him. However, the creature was never inherently evil, he was originally compassionate, but descended into evil because of his obsession with revenge.

This heartbreak leads the monster to commit the crimes that it did, inflicting a fairly equal amount of pain upon Frankenstein compared to the suffering inflicted on the monster. For example, Victor promotes the suffering by taking away the companion and creating the creature in a “wretched” form. Furthermore, the monster is extremely young, so like a child crying over a bump on a table, Frankenstein’s creation is overreacting to a situation that he has never encountered before. He solely acts out of a long for humanity and equality in the world he was forced into. This is seen on page 222, when Victor’s monster says to Robert Walton, “he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions form the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance” (Shelley,

Curiosity has always been the downfall of humans; dating back to the times of Adam and Eve, when their curiosity led to the eating of the forbidden fruit, to modern day scientific experiments that defy the laws of nature. When dealing with facts and truths, one can have delusions of grandeur, which ultimately becomes his/her downfall. This combination of delusion and curiosity has been the downfall of many greats including Shelley’s Frankenstein, whose intelligence suppresses his moral and ethical compass.

The Monster demonstrates this when he allows passion and revenge to control his life instead of balance and harmony which once reigned. This transformation highlights the impulses and passion that dictate the course of Victor’s life. The Monster slaves away for the DeLacey family, striving to establish a healthy relationship, but the family’s shortsightedness and rejection of the Monster based on his looks angers the once humble creature. Upon repudiation, the Monster feels alone within the world and feels “anger [return]” so he “turn[s] his fury towards inanimate objects” (123) even combusting the cabin later that night. The Monster, understandably frustrated, allows his anger to surmount his generally amiable person and take over his actions. Victor Frankenstein, cursed with a similar lack of control, also sought to destroy his life’s work when he found it unappealing. This anger of the Monster quickly escalates as he searches out Victor in his homeland of Geneva. While hiding in the forest, the Monster devises a plan to raise and capture a young child as his own. However, when the child, Victor’s younger brother, resists this kidnapping, the Monster exerts his strength over the child and kills him. Instead of feeling regret for killing an innocent creature, the Monster contently “gaze[s] on his victim” and feels “hellish triumph.” (127) Similarly, when Victor destroys all chances of the Monster to have a spouse, he is excited and has no regards for the consequences. As the Monster brings Victor to his deathbed, he realizes his pursuit of revenge took him too far and that “[he] was the slave, not the master, of an impulse, which [he]...could not disobey.” (187) This realization, although late, demonstrates the Monster’s awareness that impulses will lead to

Victor tries his hardest to keep the existence of the monster as a secret but fails when too many of injustices happen. As time goes on his feeling of guilt and remorse expands and cannot prevent the disaster that will happen. “I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever” (Shelley 81). Frankenstein is resorting to suicide to rid all his problems and fear that he must deal with. He believes that he can save himself from misery by ending his life.

Victor is isolated from society in the process of him making a monster. Once the ugly creature is created Victor disowns it and goes through

The way he describes the final creation of this monster to which he dedicates his whole life trying to create. It exemplifies how much of a toll this took on Victor because he begins to see that maybe it is not the best idea to create the monster, which he describes as a demoniacal corpse. Once again Shelley does not explicitly say whether this experiment that took such a toll on Victor is too far in terms of how much it adversely affects Victor. She only provides the examples of how sick and weak he is when he finishes creating the monster, which she does to explain that it it might not be good to potentially harm yourself for science. After he describes the monster as such he then says that he is the one who had so miserably given the monster life. Victor is not referring to the monster as miserable in this explanation, but he is referring to the grueling amount of time that he spent and how much of a miserable effect creating the monster had on him. This is Shelley’s explanation and introduction to what Victor did, which she follows with displaying the effects of what he creates, the monster, and possibly providing an answer to Barthes’ question.

If it walks, if it talks, if it feels, it’s alive. If it can learn, eventually speak, or came about because of another, it’s a person. The Creature of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is no exception. Victor’s creation needs nourishment, education, and morals, which should be provided by it’s creator, it’s parent, just like any other child. The way that needs of an individual are met shapes the outcome of their life. In her novel, Shelley demonstrates this impact that parents have on their child’s life through the contrasting upbringing of Victor and his Creature.

Few fiction novels accurately display the relationship between education and personality development as well as Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, which follows the story of a well esteemed youth becoming educated enough to form a creature from lifeless matter and his subsequent fall from grace. Despite the fact that the novel is from the 1800s, it is effective in depicting the way surroundings impact one’s learning and decision-making process. The relationship between the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, and his birth family contrasts with the relationship he shares with his creature and leaves the reader with an understanding of how upbringing has direct