Victor Frankenstein seemingly goes through several moral pitfalls throughout Mary Shelley’s novel. Between playing God and inviting life to be placed upon a concoction of otherwise left-over body parts, or, completely abandoning the Creature during its first second of life. Is either one morally correct? No. But in my opinion, one is far worse than the other. Frankenstein is equally as defiant of that of a teenager. As soon as he is told not to do something, there is no turning back, and he must then follow through with his plan. For example, when he is told by both his father and more forwardly so by his professor, M. Krempe, that “Every minute, every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost” after he mentioned his studies of natural philosopher’s Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, Frankenstein immediately finds another professor who enables his interests and urges him to continue, which he does. However, that all soon spirals out of control and he finds himself in his laboratory day in and day out, obsessively carrying out his experiment, until finally, he sparks life into his new creature. Playing God, when one is in fact a mere human, can never have a good outcome. We as humans have a nasty habit of wanting instant gratification, and in this case, to also prove the naysayers wrong. As human, there is no way for Frankenstein to ever understand every possible outcome that may occur after this creature is brought into the
Character Analysis: Give your ideas about the main characters(s). Include what you like and dislike about the characters and why they deserve praise or criticism. Does the author intend for you to like/dislike them? How do you know?
Mary Shelley’s ability to create such multidimensional characters in Frankenstein proves that writing is a powerful tool that has the ability to provoke vastly different opinions amongst readers. Even though each individual reading the story is reading the exact same words, their interpretation of those words often leads to opposing views in regards to the fate of the characters. The creature, in particular, has been a popular topic of discussion when conducting a close read of the novel due to his arguable versatility as a victim and villain. The concept of the villain has evolved over the years, however its basis still rests upon the simple fact that as a character in the story, their actions are a result of malicious intentions
There is a contradiction in the beginning of Frankenstein’s downfall when he was formulating his creation - if humans should obtain the power to “play God” given medical tools (used for good) to create a living creature consisted of corpse body parts (which is seen as immoral). In page 39, Frankenstein states the reason behind his commitment to something wicked, “The materials at present within my command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking, [...] yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” In this dialogue, we can draw that Frankenstein is merely an ambitious character that did what he did because of the elements and philosophy he had within reach. The myriad of components combined would have never
Friends will determine the direction and quality of your life. Loneliness is a battle that all people will once face at a certain point in their life; it is how they handle it that determines the outcome of that battle. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein loneliness is the most significant and prevailing theme throughout the entire novel. Shelley takes her readers on a wild journey that shows how loneliness can end in tragedy.
The novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a work of fiction that breaks the ethics of science. Ethics is defined as rules of conduct or moral principles which are ignored in the story. The story is about a person named Victor Frankenstein who creates an artificial being. Victor abandons the being out of fear and the being is left to discover the outside world on his own and be rejected by people making the monster go on a violent rampage. Victor’s decision would affect him later on by the monster killing his loved ones causing Victor to suffer. Then Victor chooses to seek revenge on the monster and this choice will bring him to his death. In novel Frankenstein one might say that the main character, Victor, breaks the ethics of
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.
But what are we to make of Victor Frankenstein? We know that he is in fact a human being. However, he displays several traits that lessen the level of his humanity. The first of which being his desire to make his creature in the first place. By bestowing life
Victor Frankenstein is a very cowardly man. He is unable to stand up to mistakes and problems that occur in his life. Instead of facing dilemmas V. Frankenstein runs away. In the beginning of chapter five after he has brought life to his creature he expresses his cowardliness “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation… the beauty of the dream vanished… Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 42) V. Frankenstein’s inability to deal with problems is atrocious, instead of comprising a plan about his creature, he simply runs in fear unable to fix his mistakes. The consequence of not dealing with his creation V. Frankenstein faces for being a coward not only affects him, but it affects his family. When his brother,
person to unleash such a terror on the world to benefit only himself and his
In the Bible, the book of Genesis 1:27 states that "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Creating both men and women in His image, God is the only person who can do this successfully, giving us unconditional love and never abandoning us throughout our journey in life. On the other hand, Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist creates a life form due to his love of natural sciences. His desire to create this life form only for an experimental purpose unknowingly leads to disastrous outcomes for both Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the monster. In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein uses his knowledge
When man decides to assume the role of God, consequences are bound to plague such an ambition. In the case of Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the product of such an ambition is a creature born of the dead. Despite the frightening process of his creation, the creature wakes into the world as a benevolent being. He simply longs for acceptance and friendship, but due to his unsightly features, the world is quick to condemn him as the monster he appears to be. With an unbearable sense of rejection in his heart, the monster begins to turn wicked. Soon enough he is responsible for multiple deaths in the name of revenge. Although many treat him unfairly, the monster is fully aware of his actions
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.
Fictionally, the greatest-written villains in history possess attributes that give them cause for their behavior, with the most universal and essential of these core traits being a deep, personal backstory behind their acts. For instance, in classic stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Monster presents thorough reason to its Creator in terms of why it has turned to wickedness. The Monster does not kill purely for the sake of being evil, its actions are resulted from its desire to be loved by man, yet failing at every attempt to achieve it. Motivation behind monstrous acts is necessary in works of fiction because non-fictionally, people labeled as monsters by society possesses motivation behind their actions as well, whether it be
Opponents of human body part replacement claim that tweaking man in this manner is a form of playing God, and the replication of bodily structures does not mean the human body is “replaceable.” The fear of playing God has been a worry for centuries; man does not want to put themselves into a position in which they have the ultimate say over life and death. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein attempts to create a new species made from spare parts of humans, but in doing so creates a horrific monster seen as a morbid abomination (Shelley). This morbid abomination eventually becomes more and more humanlike, such as showing compassion for the drowning girl (Shelley 120) and wanting Victor to create him a companion to prevent his terrible loneliness. Although not physically accepted as being human, the
A family is the most important and fundamental processes of development in childhood. There are many examples of works that deal with family. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the reader sees how neglection from a family setting can invoke horrible events. In The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, presents how Isolation and dislike can and will lead to unfortunate events. In Macbeth by Shakespeare, shows the betrayal of a family and how it affects the mind by playing with it in several different ways. Before a person can see effects of isolations, neglection, and betrayal of a family he/she must “climb into his skin and walk around in it.”