Frankenstein: Selfish And Selfishness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The monsters revenge on Frankenstein, drives him too to be full of hatred and need for vengeance because he destroyed everything good in his life. He feels as the death of his loved ones is his fault because he is the one that created the horrid creature in the first place (Brackett). “As time passed away I became more calm; misery had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for me was the consciousness of them” (Shelley 158). The monster wanted Victor to feel the same thing as him, lonely and sadness. The monsters revenge works, Victor becomes rejected by people and has nobody but himself.

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.

But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature

Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

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

Frankenstein’s excessive drive for knowledge is his flaw because it goes against human limits and natural order. Although Victor realizes that his dream is no longer possible, he does not yet see how glory enthralls his life and consumes him to pitfalls – deaths of his surrounding people. Victor’s denial of the monster pushes it to kill William and impute the crime on Justine, who also dies because of the wrongful execution. Although Victor can clear Justine from blame by claiming the existence of the monster, he does not do so. His helplessness proves that his creation, the monster, is out of control.

Throughout Frankenstein, most readers will notice how egocentric Victor appears from messing around with his own monstrous creation as well as the people he cares about. Victor doesn’t realize what

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.

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. Throughout the novel Shelley emphasizes empathy as a critical humanistic trait. The monster displays his ability to empathize with people even though they are strangers. On the other hand Victor, fails to show empathy throughout the novel even when it relates to his own family and friends.

The monster is spurned by society because of his horrific appearance, his body, alone and hated, unfit for the company of strangers, just as Frankenstein fears he is. He is miserable which makes the hatred grow, as he says, “all men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!” In fact, this wretchedness and enforced isolation is the monster’s main character trait, parallel to the isolation being Frankenstein’s biggest fear. Now that Victor is in college, he does not have his family to fall back upon for affection.

He learns from his previous rash actions. But still, Victor doesn’t take on complete responsibility. Victor isn’t at Mary Shelly’s ideal yet. Taking on full responsibility would mean either taking the creature into his own arms as a father would a son, or killing the creature. Instead, Victor sets out to make a female companion for the creature, so that Victor doesn’t have to see the creature ever again.

He fulfills this and creates the creature. Victor is horrified by the monster's appearance however. He later abandons the creature despite being his own successful creation. What does this say about the creature? If its own creator was horrified, then the rest of society would be horrified as well, but the creature does not know this.

To make Victor experience the feeling isolation, the creature sets out to destroy what he hold most dear, Elizabeth. Victor describes his spouse as the “body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy.” Nowhere else in the novel does Victor come even close to describing another human in this manner. Once the monster escaped, Victor realized how important it was to be near people he loved, he had learned the terrors of isolation. The creature then uses this against him by killing the person who brought Victor out of isolation, pushing him back into an even deeper sense of isolation from which Victor

Only until then, witnessing that horrific and table turning experience did the creature turn on his creator and wanting revenge by killing all the people Victor loves. At this point, in the book Frankenstein’s creature says “ I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! you may hate; but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever” (122).

He only thought of all "wonderful" things he would be doing for the world. He was selfish and only thought of what he would get out of his work. His greed and desire for glory and power temporarily blinded him. Victor had already shown his selfish ways before he created the creature. He had a decent childhood, and his mother even brought home a young girl to be his wife.