Analysis Of Victor's Imagination In Frankenstein

Emily Littles
Teacher: Toni Weeden
Honors Senior English
17 November 2017
The Story In the novel Frankenstein the creature is a figment of Victor's imagination. Mary Godwin, not Shelley at the time, wrote Frankenstein about a nightmare that she had one night, “The dream was a morbid one about the creation of a new man by a scientist with the hubris to assume the role of god.” (Mary Shelley, Biography). One night in June 1816, Mary Shelley joined a group of friends in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. These friends included Lord Byron, who hosted this gathering, John Polidari, Jane, Mary’s stepsister, and Percy Shelley, who at the time was Mary’s new boyfriend. The group of friends decided to pass time by telling ghost stories, but they decided

However, each time Victor faces the monster he created he becomes very ill and passes out and then falls into a sickness for months. When he wakes from these illnesses his creation is gone and has “traveled somewhere else”, or Victor’s just hallucinating at certain times which is when the creation disappears. This theory makes sense due to the fact that in the book the creature travels to the mountains by foot very easily and travels around various places. Any human wouldn’t be able to travel through the mountains in those conditions with the minimal clothes and food that he had. According to “How Humans Deal With and Survive Extreme Cold” ,by Paul Ward, in the cold with no protection and with the condition Victor’s creation was already in his cells should’ve died due to the blood flow loss and should’ve resulted in at least severe frostbite. However in the story nothing ever happens to Victor’s creation and he is perfectly fine. “ A naked person will start to feel cold if the surrounding temperature drops below around 25°C (77°F). Physiological responses such as shivering and diverting blood away from the extremities and surface of the skin will then kick in.” The warmest

While on a voyage Walton’s ship gets stuck where he then get lonely and longs for a friend. Soon after Victor appears and they become friends and share stories with each other. Victor tells him everything and Walton listens. Finally, after Victor dies Walton sees the monster and conversates with him. This is weird because Walton only sees him after Victor dies even though the monster had existed the whole time but was just never seen which doesn’t make sense for the simple fact that throughout the story Victor saw the monster . Maybe Walton finally sees the monster because he gets lonely again after Victor dies and longs for someone else to talk to so he then imagines the monster since Victor disappeared from his imagination and all he wants is someone to talk to since he has no one. So not only is the creation a figment of Victor’s imagination but Victor and the whole story is a figment of Walton’s imagination.
Citations
Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, www.biography.com/news/mary-shelley frankenstein-i-frankenstein-movie.
“How Humans Deal With And Survive Extreme Cold.” Science of the Cold How Humans Deal with and Survive Extreme Cold, www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/cold_humans.php.
“Scientist: 'We Didn't Create Life from Scratch'.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 May 2010,