The issue of the moral culpability of the Creature for his actions in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is marked by a complex closure with valid arguments supporting both sides. With the ambiguous nature of the creature's action, his upbringing being created by Victor Frankenstines lust for science, and other avenues, they all serve a purpose in portraying why and how the creature may be morally responsible. Although the nature of his actions can be argued through the Creatures initial benevolence the novelty of his life being faced with hardships, it is evident to state that the Creature had a moral responsibility through his acts with revenge and hatred towards Victor Frankenstein and the diction of his words making him knowledgeable/well aware …show more content…
On the contrary, there are plenty of counter arguments in support of Victor Frankesntin being more responsible than the creature due to the creature not having a true moral compass or being taught right from wrong, hence Victor being a “bad” creator/father figure towards his own creation. “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out the room” or when it was stated “One hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed down stairs” (45-46). People can argue on the other hand that Victor being the creator of this creature that he had a father-like presence and abandoning that innocence can put some blame on victor. For the creature's side, others can state that he himself even understood he was once benevolent, hinting towards the blame of victor for his misery. “But I am rather the fallen angel…I was benevolent and good; misery made me fiend. Make me happy and I shall be virtuous” (90-91) In the novel, the creature was shown being helpful to the De Lacys and the little girl who was seen drowning that he saved. That is ultimately besides the point because his negative actions outweigh his positives through the entirety of his life. Overall, many things can be looked at to shift the moral responsibility but overall, due to the creators actions and his diction, he has a moral culpability over the murders he
Victor selfishly creates the Creature to gain prestige, pretentiously claiming himself as a human god when he succeeds and saying it was for the sake of humanity. In reality, he creates a grotesque being and abandons it the moment his illusions shatter, making the creature a victim because he denies the responsibility of raising it causing hardships for it. Victor also believes the creature is a reprobative individual since it kills his brother and foists Justine’s execution, thus he acts inimical towards it throughout the whole novel as he invectively exclaims, “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes” (93).
The character that was affected the most was his creator. Victor’s creation effectively made his life a living hell. The creature murdered three of Victor’s loved ones. And in doing so, the creature made Victor the target of many false accusations. But, the effect of the creature’s actions not only had an impact on Victor.
Mary Wolstencraft Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein raises the question of a maker’s responsibility for their creation’s actions. While Frankenstein himself is responsible for the creation of his monster, the creation quickly develops a moral understanding of the world, yet chooses to ignore it. He picks and chooses his moments of violence with malice against those that he believes have wronged him. The creation is fully aware of his actions and their consequences on others and still chooses to ignore them and kill, harm, and torment people. The creation’s actions of cruelty are ones in which he is solely culpable because he became knowledgable about right and wrong before he committed his heinous crimes and then went on to cruelly harm humans,
Guilt can either be an emotion that makes a person feel remorse for his or her’s actions toward another, or can be the conduct involving the executions of such crimes and wrongs. In the novel, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, both definitions of guilt were the common theme. However, the main problem was whether the creature or the creator, Victor Frankenstein, were guiltier for their actions. The one presumed to be more guilty was Victor Frankenstein who created the monster in the first place causing his family pain and failed to take responsibility for the monster’s actions. Although he didn’t directly kill his family, the monster is guilty too.
First, Frankenstein is responsible for his actions as he is the one who had created him in the first place. Frankenstein likes to finish on what he has started. You can tell he was determined to create a creature as he working on it for six years. Even though he had finished it, it was not what he wanted. As seen on page 26 Frankenstein wanted to create an angel, but since he judged the monster on his appearance
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.
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.
The monster was deserted without an advocate to speak for him, as his appearance would not allow him the opportunity to be heard. Despite the monsters revolting appearance he still manages to display many human characteristics such as compassion, love, and intelligence. Victor is both guilty of negligence and the murders, as he did not guide his creation is the ways a creator