Selfish Desires Selfishness has caused the downfall of countless characters throughout a multitude of literary works. This selfishness is also what usually precedes a character’s isolation due to the consequences of their actions. One example of this can be found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when Victor Frankenstein defies the natural order to accomplish his personal goals. Likewise, in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Mariner makes a fatal mistake of performing a selfish action without thinking of the consequences. These works use the character’s actions and the main characters to explore how selfish decisions leads to one’s own isolation and the destruction of those around them.
Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply. The creature was known as a monster and was doomed due to his appearance.
Ambition as propelling it is, however can lead to the demise of the person influenced by it. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, informs the reader of the consequences of ambition, by telling a story of man named Victor Frankenstein who is overwhelmed by his ambition to see the atrocities he commits. In his ignorance created a monster who served to be Victor’s mistake as he slaughtered his family members. The novel illustrates the dangers of ambition because it is the main reason of Victor’s downfall. Pursuing a desire too strongly as to cause obsession is what destroyed Victor.
Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned about his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation because of the creature’s appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor 's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.
The ambition for knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially if that knowledge is kept a secret. The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, follows Walton who, while searching for new land, helps Victor Frankenstein and listens to his story. Victor Frankenstein is a wise character, but his passion for knowledge, his ambition, and his decision to keep his past a secret drives him and others around him to a short life. Frankenstein’s passion for knowledge drives him to isolate himself and make those around him worry. Frankenstein has a lonely life due to his pursuit of knowledge.
Victor Frankenstein caused his own misery and destruction, which is why he is to blame for what
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the story of passionate scientist Victor Frankenstein, whose devotion to science leads him to become obsessed with creating life, but his good intentions lead to a lifelong conflict with his problematic creation. This creature causes pain and suffering for Victor by killing his friends and family, which causes him to feel responsible for their deaths. Ambition’s dark and addictive side got the best of Victor, who became blinded by dreams of glory. Similarly, Don Quixote fails to identify the risks of ambition while exploring Spain. He wants to be a famous knight so badly that he begins to hallucinate obstacles that he must conquer.
Although the question of “who is to blame” Is up in the air, it’s quite obvious that the monster was directly to blame for the murders. But, when you think about the fact that he was merely created and not born, so he wasn’t able to differentiate right from wrong, or how to control his feelings. His anger was stemmed from his hate of his creator Victor. The wrongs that Victor did unto the creature is what caused the creature’s anger to overtake whatever bit of logical thinking and ability to reason and in a way, throw it out it out the window. So, physically speaking, the creature was to blame.
Over the past century, Frankenstein has been analyzed and interpreted in seemingly infinite different forms of literature, film, and television shows. Once solely recognized as the story about a brilliant scientist who creates a creature in whom he regrets making after the creature turns out ugly, Frankenstein now represents an internationally recognized and commercialized pop culture symbol for Halloween decorations and costumes. When analyzing and appreciating the true literary essence behind Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein, one of the most important comparisons to consider remains the underlying influences behind the Creature’s immoral actions and whether or not the blame for these actions belong to Victor or the Creature. When exploring the dichotomy of the Creature versus Victor Frankenstein, one of the biggest and most widely debated questions remains whether Victor should be blamed for the Creature’s destructive actions or if the Creature should be considered guilty for his actions based off of his own free will. Many consider Victor Frankenstein the villain of the story due to his repetitive decisions to abandon and avoid his own “mistake,” the irresponsible choice of creating the monster in the first place, and his obvious negligence of the Creature’s feelings.
Readers can conclude that Victor Frankenstein is the actual monster in Frankenstein because of how he views himself, how he creates destruction, and how he destroys himself. Many people characterize themselves as being a monster because of their self-image. Readers can deduce that Victor thinks he is a gruesome individual because of what creates. Even though he is not at fault, he blames himself for every atrocious act that his creation carries out. Additionally, Frankenstein permits readers to come the conclusion that Victor sees himself as being lethal and malignant.
Victor Frankenstein the main character in Frankenstein was going through depression, bipolar, and anxiety throughout the story because things in his life were going terrible for him. Victor never had a happy moment in his life after the creation of his monster. Once the monster became angry he tried controlling Victor into creating a love for him. Victor didn’t want to because he was afraid that he would create a violent species and they would take over. After the monster found out he wasn’t doing it, the monster wanted to kill Victors loved ones and not Victor.
Victor is held responsible for not teaching the monster Frankenstein right from wrong. As Victor Frankenstein created the monster he neglected it based on its appearance of imperfection and mentality. The monster was forced to teach itself the necessitates of life and common sense. For example, on page 79 Frankenstein says, “By degrees I made discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experiences and feelings to one another by articulating sounds.
This much is true for Victor’s failure to take responsibility for not only teaching his creation about life but also failure to take responsibility for the actions of his creation. “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy… you shall be my first victim” (153). Victor’s knows that he is responsible for the death of William because he abandoned his creation and made the monster learn the hard way that he would not be accepted into society. But he has no choice but to let Justine take the fall for the death of his brother because he fears being seen as a madman.
One of the strongest human drives comes from the human desire of power, and we see this theme occur a lot throughout the book Frankenstein. “I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life, nay more, I became myself more capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” (Shelley 37). This quote explains how Victor Frankenstein wants to turn something that is lifeless into a living thing once again. He wanted to have the power of having life in his own hands.
He is so invested in his work that he ignores his personal life. Although, when Victor finally succeeds at achieving his goal, it is not what it seems. Victor’s creation has lead to tragedy and destruction. Hence, Victor Frankenstein is responsible for the outcome of his fate because of his fixation with being god, his disregard to humankind, and his selfishness. Despite some critics statements that the creature Victor created is responsible for the tragedy and destruction that results after the experiment, it is Victor who is accountable because of his fixation
