The Most Sympathetic Character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

to make the elixir of life in order to create life. He tries to play

The tragic figure in Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, is truly an instrument of suffering for his loved ones in his life. Frankenstein’s Creature horrifies Frankenstein and sets off a series of events that corrode his relationships and harm his family and friends; furthermore, Frankenstein’s actions cause the innocent characters to suffer the most, which contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human

For as long as man has encompassed this world, the divisive enigma of humanity has prevailed. Seeping its way into each generation, while sparking heated conversations, it has become evident that there is much we do not know about what truly makes us human. Regardless of our genetic composition, philosophers often ponder the deeper meaning of humanity. We know that, biologically, recreating the genetic makeup of a human does not yield humanity, so what is the missing aspect? Humans -have the ability to contemplate their own existence in this world. Awareness of existence. This driving force enables us to analyze situations while placing ourselves within them. Our involuntary ability to understand the impact of our actions and the affect they have on others causes us to be inherently human. Our actions evoke strong emotions within us that allow us to learn through our experiences. We retain the resonated feelings of certain occurrences and apply them to others in order to deduce outcomes. Often this facet of mankind is taken for granted, yet we are reminded, through both literature and hypothetical scenarios, of its importance. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, constitutes as one of these profound reminders. Shelley develops a theoretical story in which the humanity of Frankenstein’s monster is questioned. Despite having the accurate organs and framework of a human, Shelley causes the reader to seek the missing aspect that is preventing the monster from being human. Likewise,

Frankenstein follows Victor Frankenstein’s triumph as he reanimates a dead body, and then details his guilt for creating such a thing. When the creation realizes how he came to be, and is rejected by mankind, he seeks revenge on his creator’s loved ones. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein as the true monster of the story through the use of literary devices revealing the characteristics that Frankensteins and monsters share, and shows how Frankenstein’s irresponsibility leads to his monstrous labeling.

The monster notices that humans are afraid of him because of his appearance, he feels embarrassed of himself, as humans do when they don’t seem to be accepted. He admires the De Lacey Family that lives in the cottage, he also learns from them, and hopes to have companion as they do. The monster is like humans, as mentioned, in the way that he wants someone to listen and care about him. He is discovering the world and his capacities, he seeks knowledge and understand plenty aspects of life by learning how to speak and read. “The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 47). The monster developed feelings and emotions as humans. The creature is different from humans also, since he never got to grow up as a normal human, and

Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Frankenstein for many people is a huge fiendish monster, a brainless oaf with a couple of neck bolts, who is a horrible murderer. This image has been created by Boris Karloff and other television/film images. I also thought like that, believing Frankenstein to be a monstrous murderer, so when I was met with the text I was surprised to find as a mad scientist who creates a monster. This changed my opinion greatly at first.

Victor has a has a dark side and the monster is living out his dark side. Often in the book

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s Creation reach similar conclusions humanity by seafaring to the North Pole, delving into the dark depths of science, and observing the rejecting nature of humans. The three tragic heroes Walton, Frankenstein and the Creation are all character doubles in their initial enthusiasm for knowledge, inner dualist personalities, religiously glorified personal goals, possessive relationships and negative effects of gaining knowledge. The three character’s views of humanity are a microcosm of the culturally accepted importance of beauty, and how the culmination of knowledge can be blinding and lead to utter ruination.

I agree, readers may find Victor Frankenstein to be an unlikable or unsympathetic character. Since he created the monster and never told anyone, it resulted in the deaths of the people he loves. If Dr. Frankenstein was to have given the monster love and attention, which is all that the monster wanted, then monster would have turned out to be a gentle, loving creature. The monster was made into an outcast because everyone rejected him due to his looks, but in reality the monster had good intentions at heart. For example, he saved a little girl who fell into a stream but he ended up getting shot since others thought he was attacking the girl.

The female characters in Frankenstein represent the treatment of women in the early 1800’s. Women who are deprived of their female roles and are enclosed in a feminine sphere of domesticity. In the novel, Frankenstein, the women characters are treated as property and have little privileges in relationship to the male characters, the women suffer and are eventually destroyed showing how unimportant they are in the book’s society, and when it comes to reproduction of human’s, man thinks it pointless to have women play that role. These attacks on the innocent prove that women are second-rate in the novel.

“But Sorrow Only Increased with Knowledge:” A Critique on Romantic Ideals in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become a classic in modern literature. Her tale is full of moral lessons that encompass a wide variety of subjects but one of the most prevalent is the theme of knowledge and its pursuit. Frankenstein, Walton, and the Monster all have an appetite for acquiring knowledge and actively pursue their perspective interests, but it soon turns to the obsessive and proves to be dangerous. Each of the character’s desires demonstrates to be detrimental to them when no boundaries are established. Through the use of consequences, Shelley’s Frankenstein shows that the relentless and obsessive pursuit of knowledge can lead to dangerous and disastrous situations.

The term gothic fiction implies a British literary genre from the late eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. The modernized term seems to have been generalized into anything that is dark, gloomy, or depressing. Gothic novels often time posses an emphasis on portraying the terror, a prominent use of supernatural circumstances, the presence of highly stereotyped characters, and the attempt to display techniques of literary suspense. There are also other parallels among this vastly popular genre. Gothic novels often time describe the city of London in corresponding ways. Also a common theme amongst gothic literary works is the duality of human nature, or the quality or characteristic of being twofold. These mutual themes are apparent in

Gothic Novel- A Gothic novel are novels that are part of a gothic fiction. This means that the genre of literature is based on a combination of horror, romanticism, and fiction. This type of literature is originated from an English author named Horace Walpole with his novel that was published in 1763 named “The Castle of Otranto”. This style of writing began in the mid 18th century and from there on continued to gain popularity, especially throughout the Victorian Era. Walpole began this style of writing because his goal was to “combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism.” (Wikipedia)