The search for dominance is always evident in the story of Frankenstein, the story even begins with Victor Frankenstein in the search for strength. Everyone in the story has some kind of moxie that they can use over the other characters, but the desire for power takes everyone on a different path. Any time in the story when Victor Frankenstein needs to find and regain himself he looks to nature to find it all. Nature holds a great part of the power that happens in the story, but the creature is also filled with the crave for prestige as well as Victor. Authority controls the actions of all the characters in the play whether or not they realize it. In the story whenever Victor feels like he needs to find himself and gain control of himself he goes out into the nature to find motivation inside himself. Victor has a knack for using the nature to his advantage, he uses it to find himself while in the wild, but he also uses it to create the creature. His drive for success became so great that he went to make a creature that would make him very influential in the scientific world once he proved that he could create life with his bare hands. Victor was successful in creating the creature, but once he had created the creature he was disgusted with his creation and all his work became an eminent failure. He then proceeded to abandon the creature because of how hideous it appeared. Little did Victor know that when he abandoned the creature that he would go on his own hunt. The
Victor worked continuously on his experiment, obsessed with finding the correct building material. It would seem that after all this arduous work he put into making this Creature, he would be in awe when it was finally finished. Upon the completion of the Creature, he finds himself in shock, explaining in vivid detail about the Creature’s “yellow skin which scarcely covered the works of muscles and arteries underneath” and its “shriveled complexion,” and “straight black lips” (42). In the human nature, it is known that when a person creates something, no matter how ugly, or how deformed it is, the creator is proud of his creation. Although, immediately after he sees his creation, Victor is unable to stare at the “monster” any longer, and paralyzed with fear and guilt, abandons the creature all alone in the world, like a new born baby. Although it might not seem like this, this particular scene conveys a deep sense
While attempting to uncover the meaning of life and death, and though he believed his experiments would further the paths of science, Victor fails to see the potential consequences of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 37). This, in turn, creates a monster. After his “great” experiment, Victor spends his life in grief. Despite this, he manages to belittle his creation, and act superior to him, claiming that “I [Victor] will not hear you. There can be no community between you [the creature] and me; we are enemies” (Shelley 84). Even later on, when assured by the creature himself that Victor would be left alone if he creates a female counterpart, Victor cannot see past the shreds of pride he has left and refuses, causing the death of his family and loved ones. It’s Victor’s pride and his fear of the creature that clouds his judgement and in the end leads to his
Due to Victor’s unwillingness to accept him, the creature was unable to conform to societal norms. From the creature’s very first moments, he is feared by others - the instant his eyes open, his creator cries out in terror and runs to his quarters. If only Victor had stayed and attempted to nurture his creation, instead of having “turned from [him] in disgust” (93), the creature may have enjoyed a gentle, upbringing in which he
Introduction: Frankenstein, a novel written by Mary Shelley, is one of the most popular representations of the romantic era. The romantic aspects of the book allow for a unique analysis of the human personality and its emotions and potentials. This includes many interpretations of a human personality based on one’s socioeconomic status. Using this perspective one can easily analyze the interclass and intraclass social power imbalances and interactions. It is also possible to survey the novel through the unbalanced justice provided to each class. Through various events and trials in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows that one’s lack of social power leads to vulnerability because it forces the person to have less of an advantage when compared to others with more power.
The Creature symbolizes the war between passion and responsibility with the effects of society. Victor abandons his responsibility for his passion, the creature, this begins when Victor goes away to ingolstadt to increase his knowledge in the field of anatomy and gets lost in his project of piecing together a non-living creature. When he finishes with his Creature victor states “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 43). “-For this i had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation” (Shelley 43). Victor says he has deprived himself of sleep thus causing his health to decrease, this is an example of victor abandoning responsibility for for his passion “by being connected with the favourite projects and passions of the times Victors health declined rapidly ( Baldick).” When Victor begins his creation in ingolstadt, he locks himself away from his social life. Inside his apartment he is away from family and any social ties, causing his mental health to decline rapidly. Victor abandons his passion, the Creature, when he thinks through the eyes of society causing his responsibility for the Creature to fall to next to nothing. Victors first impression of his creation is, “Now that i had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”(Shelley 43). Victor judges his creation based off of its appearance instead of its thoughts much like society has always done. Victor doesn't give the Creature a chance and instead abandons it, leaving it to its own devices. Here in the story the Creature is depleted of all its rights simply because of its appearance, this throws shade on society simply because society shapes who we are as
Anitionaly Victor is not interested in hearing about the life story of the monster, however, after begging Victor for his attention he takes notice. The story
When Victor Frankenstein was in the two year long process of creating his monster you have to think about what his personal morals were, principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Everyone has varying personal morals. Dr. Frankenstein goes against the morals of a medical doctor when he wastes his life away slaving over his experiment. He also tries playing God when he sparks the life back into the stitched together corpse. This corpse comes alive and is abandoned by his creator to roam the country without ever having the experience of growing up. Finally, Victor Frankenstein is burdened with the guilt of creating such a horrible creature, proving what he did was wrong. So, in the novel Frankenstein, the extension of life is the real moral question.
Victor’s blindness to what his end result will produce is immediately revealed when his final work is a hideous creature. Victor, through repulsion, neglects caring for the creature in its blank slate, gradually fuelling the ambition it feels for revenge. With the monster isolated, he begins to learn, “I learned to distinguish between the operations
The enormous difference in the way Victor views the creature before and after its completion shows that he has an altered state of mind while he works on it. As a result of Victor’s secrecy about his creation, he sacrifices his health and happiness to make a creature that disgusts him.
In “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, good intentions are destroyed by ambitious, selfish, and disrespectful behavior. Frankenstein along with the creature, although seemingly different in personalities, have many characteristics that interlock with each other creating a suspenseful plot filled with good intentions that are never fully executed. Dominance is a reoccurring theme in “Frankenstein” as both Victor Frankenstein, himself, and the creature strive to be perfect in every task they preform. Although that strive for excellence may be a quality that many wish to attain, the intentions of both Frankenstein and the creature are shattered due to their behaviors. As Frankenstein embarks on adventures whose outcomes are not what he predicts,
In the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, the creature and its creator, Victor Frankenstein, share a lot of similarities throughout the story. The relationship shared between the two resembles that of a father and his son. Since Victor created it , the creature inherits certain traits of Victor’s without realizing it. Victor and the creature both have an overpowering thirst for knowledge, a love for the beauty of nature and a tendency to use it as a scapegoat, a depressing feeling of isolation from people, a desire for revenge, and the ability to play God. The relationship between Victor and the creature does not develop like a normal father-son relationship, nor does it develop as a good versus evil relationship. Both characters show hero and villain qualities throughout the novel as their relationship develops.
It is Victor's story that truly exposes the true theme of the story, with him speaking of his days as a child and his first friendship with the girl his parents adopted. He lives a fine life, full of joy and happiness with friend plentiful. When he goes to college he is without friends, but soon befriends one of the professors and engaged in lengthy conversations with him. This isn't the same friendship as before, lacking the real love and companionship of his family, and he soon begins work on his creation. He so overwhelmed by the idea of creating a perfect person he is blinded from the deformity of the creature. When the creature is finished he examines his work and is mortified by it, running and hiding he escapes the creature that soon wanders away. Soon after Victor becomes sick and deathly, he shuns society and people and is almost dead when his friend Clerval arrives at the college. Clerval nurses Victor back to health, but Victor isn't physically sick, he has just
This need of power led Victor to create what he believed would be a beautiful human being. But he failed to see that combining the most beautiful human features does not necessarily create a beautiful human being. He was inspired by scientists who ...acquired new and almost limitless powers... (Shelley, Frankenstein, P. 47). Victor sought this unlimited power to the extent of taking the role of God. He not only penetrated nature, but also he assumed power of reproduction in a maniacal desire to harness these modes of reproduction in order to become acknowledged, respected, and obeyed as a father. While bringing his creation into the world he was himself alienated from society, and isolated himself from the community. Isolation and parental neglect cause viciousness within man. Because of his upbringing, Victor had no sense of empathy, and therefore could not realize the potential harm he was creating towards himself and his creation. The sole purpose of his project was an attempt to gain power, but instead of power Victor realized that a morally irresponsible scientific development could release a monster that can destroy human civilization.
The creature is renounced by Victor throughout the book, which removes any positive role model that the creature might have had. The two encounters that Victor has with the creature when it is first created are evidence of his rejection. The first is when Victor finishes creating the creature. During the process of creation, Victor dedicates himself so greatly that he "pursued [his] undertaking with unremitting ardour" (32). He puts aside everything else in his life, and concentrates completely on his purpose, which is to bring a being to life that would serve him. In order to do so, he spent an entire summer "engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit" (32). Because of the hard work that Victor puts into his work of creation, he never really examines the fruits of his labour. He is too caught up in his work, and has "lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" (32) of finishing his work on making the creature. So in the process of his creation, Victor is never really aware of what he is creating because he is too focused on the actual act of creation. However, when Victor finally finishes the work of making the creature, and takes time to look at what he has done, he is horrified by his accomplishment. As the creation opens an eye, and