Empathy In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with the need for revenge on his monster. The demon that Victor creates kills Elizabeth, one of his many victims that are close to Victor’s heart, and this sets Victor over the psychological edge. Victor gets consumed with a burning sensation and hatred for the monster: “I was possessed by a maddened rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head” (Shelley 147). This heated quote shows the intense hatred Victor has for his creation. He actually prays for the opportunity to get his hands on the monster so he can kill him himself. Victor’s desire for the monsters life to come to an end becomes an internal need and obsession. Victor vows that he will do everything in his natural power to destroy his monster: “My rage is unspeakable… I have but one resource; and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (148). Victor has gone mad with the idea that he must destroy this monster, which he devotes his life to doing. His own creation, the monster, has caused him countless melancholy feelings, and it has pushed him to the brink of insanity.

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein does not mature, as illustrated when he lets Justine die for her accused killing of William, when he destroys the female creature in front of his first creature, and finally when he tells Walton’s crew to endeavour upon a dangerous trip, with no regard for their safety. Through analysis of Victor’s actions throughout the novel, his immaturity is proven during many encounters, especially by his inaction during vital situations.

Mary Shelley’s horrifying tale of a monster and man of science is known far and wide for its captivating story, complex characters and surprising relatability. However this is where most knowledge commonly ends.. Frankenstein’s t underlying themes of isolation, human connection and balance of nature become evident through Shelley’s use of character foils throughout her infamous tale. In her 1818 novel, the monster serves as a foil to Victor Frankenstein, emphasizing Victor’s greed, poor judgement and lack of true understanding in regards to human emotion.

Frankenstein is the tragic story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster. The Gothic style of writing in this book gives the reader opportunity to easily observe the gift of darkness and the positives it can contain despite the horrors that also result. Victor Frankenstein begins the novel as an arrogant and irresponsible man who has yet to have any real problems of his own. Victor decided to

During the Regency period in England, the lack of modern medicine contributed to many women dying from disease or during childbirth, resulting in the desertion of a parental figure. Parental abandonment affects us all in different ways; some of us grow into functioning adults, while others live in an ocean of guilt and a constant need for attention and love. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, she uses rhetorical devices such as symbolism, powerful ethos and the motifs of a lust for companionship and self-hate to illustrate the difficult ways that parental abandonment and rejection affect us and how deeply it can influence how we grow and mature.

The fictional horror novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is driven by the accentuation of humanity’s flaws. Even at the very mention of her work an archetypal monster fills one’s imagination, coupled with visions of a crazed scientist to boot. Opening her novel with Robert Walton, the conduit of the story, he also serves as a character to parallel the protagonist’s in many ways. As the ‘protagonist’ of the story, Victor Frankenstein, takes on the mantle of the deluded scientist, his nameless creation becomes the embodiment of a truly abandoned child – one left to fend for itself against the harsh reality posed by society. On the other hand, Walton also serves as a foil to Victor – he is not compulsive enough to risk what would be almost

Victor Frankenstein is a murderer. Though he is a murderer, he is not one in the physical sense. Frankenstein is a horror novel pertaining to a man’s hopes to create life. He creates this life from non-life, and in doing so, destroys himself and all those around him. When examining Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, through a physiological lens, many interesting and deeper meanings may be found. Shelley unveils to the reader that Frankenstein's monster is a manifestation of Victor Frankenstein's personality.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an attempt at connection—a narrative woven by its three principal narrators that attempts to share their legacies, dreams, and destructive secrets. The novel begins with the sea captain Walton writing to his sister about his longing for a companion, a wish paralleled by the other collaborators of this tale. The whole narrative, therefore, is an effort to connect with others and alleviate loneliness and seclusion. It is fitting then, that this very notion of isolation is the greatest destructive force in the novel, as it facilitates and prompts monstrous behaviors. Emotional isolation from both family and society drives Frankenstein and his creation to dangerous and vengeful behaviors, which ultimately cause their

An eye for an eye or the law of retaliation is the principle most people live their lives by. As Gandhi once stated, “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind” (Gandhi). For the characters in Frankenstein, this concept is apparent as the main character, Victor, creates a monster and instantly abandons him which sets off the chain of events revolving around revenge. Throughout the novel, the creature and Victor engage in a recurring cycle of vengeance, but these acts of revenge are bittersweet as in the end it destroys both of them. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley reveals how revenge consumes and destroys those who surrender to it.

Power, the one thing everybody desires, plays a major role in the lives of the characters of Frankenstein. Throughout the story, Shelley frequently emphasizes the theme of power and the constant struggle that the characters face to gain power over themselves and others. The two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and The Creature, show the most struggle for power throughout the story, both internally and over each other. They look to gain power of knowledge, power of themselves and power over one another. This struggle for power creates a constantly shifting dynamic amongst characters.

His appearance scares the people he encounters, and his only desire is love. Further in the novel, there are many situations where the Monster is the victim. Shelley uses words that provide imagery for her readers. Readers will think Victor is the antagonist. He realizes if he would show the Creature love, the Monster would not kill the people. Love seems to be all he seeks, but he gets his feelings hurt when people reject and talk about him. The Monster should have to go through the bad experiences, if people would treat him with respect and and not judge him. Love and attention are the key factors that all children should experience from their parents. The Monster did not experience the love and that is what led him to being the victim in

Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two.

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is one of the most important and popular novels in the Romantic genre to this day. The novel was originally controversial because it touched on many fragile subjects such as the human anatomy and the development of science. The structure of Frankenstein begins as an epistolary, narrative story told by Robert Walton to his sister in England. Walton’s letters tell us that he is exploring, searching for what lies beyond the North Pole, and he eventually connects with Frankenstein. Shelley creates the protagonist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who has a fascination with life and death. Gensis states; “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” Humans, therefore, were created as a likeness

Isolation and abandonment can cause many different reactions from people. In the words of William A. Sadler Jr., a sociology professor, “We often do not know how to cope. It can make us confused, distraught, depressed, frightened, and even outraged” (Sadler 105). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, several of these effects are presented in Victor Frankenstein and his creation. They both suffer from being isolated from their creator, society, and family units. They ways in which they are affected by this abandonment proves that isolation has grave effects on human interaction and social development.

There is no other creature in existence that is as communal and gregarious as human beings, due to this, whenever one feels deserted or segregated by the rest of society, they tend to become cold and bitter. In Frankenstein, or, The Modern Day Prometheus, Mary Shelley portrays the monster, as well as its creator, as outcasts from society. Although, Victor has a family, and a wife while the creature does not, Victor feels he is emotionally detached from the rest of his loved ones. Due to his emotional confinement, Victor feels that he cannot trust even his wife with the knowledge of the horrible creature in which he has created. This sense of being an