In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creature, both display a sense of moral ambiguity. Each character has committed both good and evil alike, and neither knew the consequences of what they had done. However, Victor Frankenstein is generally the morally ambiguous character by his treatment of his creation and his own imperious personality. He wanted to be able to help science by recreating life or bringing it back, but at the same time, he did not want to consider the consequences of doing so.
In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ambition evolves into a form of obsession with revenge. But the result of vengeance is a curse to human life and its longevity. Both main characters in the novel, Victor and the monster become obsessed and let vengeance be their downfall.
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. The outcome of ambition is the defining factor between these novels. Victor’s
The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.
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.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, self deception eclipses Victor Frankenstein and clouds his judgment. Victor’s passion in breaking the bounds of nature guides him in making the creation, but when Victor regrets giving life to the hideous creature, he deserts it. The abandonment is just the first step Victor takes to introduce the creation to malevolence followed with Victor’s assumptions of evil and lost responsibility in the results of his own zeal. Victor Frankenstein’s self deception not only forges evil into the creation, but also incriminates him for the consequences of Victor’s ambitions.
The gothic fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley centralizes on humanity and the qualifications that make someone human. The content of the novel Frankenstein depicts a monster displaying human traits that his creator Victor does not possess: empathy, a need for companionship, and a will to learn and fit in.
As a child, Victor was emotionally neglected by his father. He was never taught how to be a father because he did not have a good role model to look after. Consequently, when Victor’s creation came to life, he did not know how to act. He was scared and tried to run away from his problems. Since his creation has no parental figure to support and teach him, he develops behavioral problems and is very confused. He grows angry at Victor for creating him, leaving him, and refusing to make him a female companion. Victor’s creation murders his friend Henry Clerval, his brother William, and even his wife Elizabeth. Once Victor’s creation comes to life, his life is ruined. If he would have accepted him from the beginning and taken on the rule of a father, his life may not have been so miserable. Victor and his creation ultimately needed each other’s love, because their separation ultimately destroyed them
In life there are many evils that will try to defeat a person but the key to living a happy, fulfilling life is learning to have empathy for others who are facing their own evils. Empathy is hard to have if a person has not endured any real struggles in their life. Being able to know firsthand how it feels to go through difficulties helps create a level of empathy that leads to compassion for one another. Victor Frankenstein is a prime example of someone who has faced evils in their own life but in the end did not find compassion for others, instead he found his own hell. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor’s lack of empathy opens the door into his world of selfishness, cruelty, and unhappiness.
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
He uses the little that he knows to fuel his hatred towards humans and his creator. This shows the exponential growth of the problems that Victor has created as a result of his desire for knowledge. Not only did he create the destructive monster, but now the monster is using a hunger for knowledge, the very thing that created it, to do even more damage. This root cause is linked to everything that is causing Victor’s suffering. The monster also compares his relationship to Victor to that of God and Adam, wishing that he had the same supplication to his creator that Adam did, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him” (Shelley 116). This shows how abandoned the monster feels, and how he could leverage that along with other things he learns against Victor and the other humans.
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. Not even hours after the Creature comes to life, Victor feels “mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were
What’s a man without his family? The most influential factor in anyone’s young life is their family, but all families are not created equal. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley provides an interesting commentary on how families should raise their children. This text compares two families with drastically different parenting styles. Throughout the text Mary Shelly suggests that a structured “formal” education is corruptive, while a more natural education is favorable.
The term victim describes anyone who suffers as a result of one or multiple unfortunate incidents. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays a number of different characters as potential victims, in particular: the creature, and Dr. Frankenstein. The similarities among the two in initial experiences create difficulty in labelling one as the true victim. However, as the story progresses, it is evident that the creature is able to overcome his fate of victimization by actively responding to his unsuccessful experiences. Whereas, Dr. Frankenstein suffers as a victim due to his cowardly reaction to his misfortunes. In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein is believed to be the true victim of the
Victor Frankenstein, blinded by ambition or driven by madness? In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley embodies a cloud of characteristics that follow Victor along for the entirety of the novel. As a young scholar, Victor was driven to invest in his interests of chemistry and science. Hence, Victor soon became enamored with the ideas that lie in between life and death. Further pondering led Victor to become obsessed with the idea of bringing inanimate objects to life. The death of his mother leads Victor into denial. As a result of his mother 's death, Victor’s emotions falsely lead him to believe that he could have some control over the fate of peoples lives. Thus, Victor’s beliefs soon equated to a set of rules that he himself must follow. Consequently,