Responsibility In Frankenstein

For many people, the creature was the antagonist of Frankenstein. People don't see him as human, even though he was created with human body parts. Many think simply because he was dead and brought back, the creature must be evil. Many people think he only wants to haunt his creator and make him suffer. However, the creature

Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with science and anatomy, and the balance between life and death while he was a university student. Frankenstein claimed to create the monster to better mankind, but it is more likely he created him out of the desire to become more like a God. “. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me; I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption. (Shelley 54)” This is basically Victor explaining how he wants to cheat death and create a new race of species. Victor wants the creature to look at him as a God figure or as his ruler. The irony is that Victor never gives the creature a chance and that is the reason the monster did all the

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the tale of a man whose entire life turns to misery after creating what he calls a monster, a demon and a fiend. However, the real monster in this story is pride and the feeling of superiority. This is evident in the novel with Robert Walton’s view of himself and his expedition, Victor Frankenstein’s attitude towards himself in comparison with the creature, and mankind’s perception of the creature and their ignorance towards him.

The idea of pursuing knowledge clouded Victor’s mind and when his creature is born he is shocked to discover that what he has created is far off his own expectations. Not only did the monster destroy his expectations of developing a creature that went beyond human knowledge, but it also affected his life, dignity, and fears. Victor himself admits to his own mistake when he says, “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature...but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless honor and disgust filled my heart ” (36). Victor Frankenstein realizes what his obsession with pursuing an extensive amount of knowledge has brought him. His destiny to achieve the impossible with no regard for anyone or anything but himself shows that he is blinded by knowledge when creating the monster and is incapable to foresee the outcome of his creation. Victor’s goal was meant to improve and help humanity, but instead it leads to

Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .

The monster was abandoned by Frankenstein. Eventually, he learns that he was a science experiment when he learns to read and finds Frankenstein’s journal. Slowly stripped from all that he wanted, he began to become vengeful, and ultimately evil. Many humans have run into this situation before, but the monster had nothing to hold onto except watching a family he would never be able to be a part of. When he was denied by the family he lost everything. The monster was thrown into an abyss with nothing to grab onto. When everything is taken from him, he is left with just a hatred for Frankenstein. Frankenstein created the monster just to leave him and the monster will never forgive him for this. He was born innocent and placed in a life of

If a child acted violently toward another child, should the parents of that child be held responsible for the inappropriate behavior, or should the child take full responsibility for his/her actions? This question of responsibility comes up often in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Her horrific and dark tale of the mad, science-obsessed Victor Frankenstein, wanting to create life from what had already been dead, evokes questions of who is at fault for the creature’s murders. Although some may say that the creature is at complete fault because he is own “person”, but ultimately Victor is at fault because he is the one who created a being that destroyed the lives of innocent people due to how he treated the creature.

Ultimately, knowing his mistakes does not change his behaviour; Frankenstein continues in a downward spiral after listening to the creature’s story, and unceremoniously deceives the creature, leading to more problems. One cannot simply blame the creature for the deaths that occur in the story because it is truly Frankenstein who is aware of consequences but succumbs to fear.

Parents and creators set the main foundation to their creation or offspring. Though Sharon Begley portrayed that the environment in where the creation or offspring were raised also hindered their outcome as an adult and the amount of violence contributed. Mary Shelley’s fascinating science fiction novel, Frankenstein, conveyed how the creation was a living proof of how without a creator or parent to guide him through as a child he would have a higher chance of committing a crime or becoming violent. Shelly further suggests that since the creation grew up isolated and rejected by the people around him it increased his aggression as he grew older and hindered his behavior vastly. The responsibility of a creator is not just to create, but to love and protect their children. They are a product of not just their own inherited nature, but also as important of their creator’s nurturing or lack thereof.

While Creature is full of humanity and has a thirst for knowledge, his longing for acceptance in society is met with constant rejection. Through this rejection, it sparks anger into the Creature for his irresponsible creator, Victor Frankenstein. Creature’s anger leads to greater tragedies for Victor. The greater of the tragedies are the murdering of innocent people including Victor’s family that is seen to be the fault of Creature since he is the one who murdered them. If Victor did not abandon the Creature and had taught him murder was not morally correct, Creature would not have committed the heinous acts.When Creature was first theoretically born, he was introduced into the world in a very harsh way. Metaphorically, Creature starts out into the world as a newborn, needing a parent 's guidance and teachings. Victor abandons him immediately with no sense of direction. Creature, after his “birth”, approaches Victor with a hand of longing for compassion. “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they maybe called, were fixed on me...He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out” (Shelley 35). Victor instead of showing acceptance immediately runs away at the sight of him.

Easily one of the most notable themes in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the role of nature versus nurture in developing children, recurs throughout the novel with the two main characters, Frankenstein and his creature, believing in opposite sides of this theme. Favoring nature, Frankenstein maintains that the creature was always evil from the moment of creation, regardless of the creature’s experiences. However, the creature, in his narrative to Frankenstein, argues that “[he] was benevolent and good; misery made [him] a fiend” (106). In adherence with John Locke’s concept of tabula rasa, the creature was born with a blank slate, and only through his experiences does he gain knowledge and personality. Struggling to persevere in the human world, Frankenstein’s creature merely wants humans to welcome him as one of them. The change of the creature from looking “upon crime as a distant evil” because “benevolence and generosity were ever present” in him to seeking revenge on Frankenstein results from a culmination of horrible experiences (103). While it may be hard to see the creature as a trustworthy narrator because of how he has acted and his ulterior motives, he does present physical evidence to support his tale. Facing rejection in different forms, he becomes truly evil, giving up hope of companionship as a result of his trials and lessons. From the moment of his creation, the creature encounters abandonment, violence, isolation, and rejection everywhere he turns.

Frankenstein’s monster is created through the desire of Victor Frankenstein to have control. He wants superior control over supernatural phenomenons, and attempts to successfully create life. “ To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death”, Victor narrates. The quote is provided within the novel to prove his natural drive for success, as well as his obsessive need for control. The monster, a mess of deceased flesh and bones, is created through this inherent desire of control. Victor moved away from his family to go to a university, proving his need for control in his own life. His desire of control over life in general created the monster, which ultimately

After being abandoned by Dr. Frankenstein, Creature wanted to be accepted by mankind. However, his grotesque appearance was enough for society to isolate him. The physical and psychological characteristics that a society finds difficult to acknowledge as “normal” is what monsters embody. Because people made snap judgements about who Creature was, Creature started thinking of himself as wicked and evil. The circumstances he was placed in incited fury within that turned into physical violence. Creature referred to Dr. Frankenstein as a “cursed creator”, and “For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled [his] bosom, and [he] did not strive to control them; but allowing [himself] to be borne away by the stream, [he] bent [his] mind towards injury and death” (Shelly 138 and 140). He became a powerful and threatening force. Creature fed the evil wolf and became more of a monster than just his physical semblance showed. By murdering innocent victims, he only fueled the monstrosity within him causing it to be his paramount

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

In doing so, Frankenstein condemns the creature to loneliness and persecution. The creature's hatred and violent acts are not an inherent part of his character, as he explains, "I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous" (81). If Frankenstein had raised and cared for him, the creature would have experienced compassion, and had someone to support him and be his advocate. Instead, the creature is left to learn about the world on his own, and develop a set of morals based on the way society treats him. Because he grows up outside of, and shunned by, society, he feels very little moral obligation towards other human beings. "...and tell me why should I pity man more than he pities me?" the creature asks Frankenstein. "Shall I respect man when he contemns [sic] me?" (122) The creature is not a monster in his own eyes; he is behaving rationally given the treatment he has received. If he were taught a better way to act, he would almost certainly behave in that way. The monster is not born a monster, his ugliness notwithstanding; he becomes one because society behaves monstrously towards him.