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Mary Shelley's Eyes In Frankenstein

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Eyes are a lens of how we perceive and interpret the world around us. Eyes are beautiful, entrancing, and mesmerizing. However, eyes can also blind us to the harsh realities of society and they can deceive us in unthinkable ways. Throughout the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the symbol of eyes represents the blindness that characters face in regards to their relationship with Victor’s horrendous monster. Eyes represent curiosity which leads to a disastrous creation, innocence which leads to death, and finally the overall realization that creating life can lead to catastrophic results. Victor Frankenstein’s blindness to the results of his experiment causes him to become regretful in pursuing the creation of a life-like creature. Victor …show more content…

When Catherine Frankenstein decides to take in Elizabeth, an orphan, it’s up to Victor to take care of her. Elizabeth is Victor’s adopted sister whom he loves very much and admires her many features including “her smile, her soft voice”, but most importantly, for Victor, “her celestial eyes”. Her eyes “were ever there to bless and animate” everyone (19). It’s ironic that Victor describes Elizabeth’s eyes as “celestial” because in the end of the book, Victor’s monster murder’s Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s innocence and lack of knowledge of the monster was what ultimately killed her in the end.The monster also is the cause of Justine Moritz’s death. After the passing of Catherine Frankenstein, Justine comes to live with the Frankenstein family. When Victor discovers Justine was accused of killing William, he is appalled that someone so innocent could be incriminated of such a crime. Victor describes Justine as having “mild eyes [that] seemed incapable of any severity or guile” (58). Victor knows it was his monster who did the devious deed, but he could never admit that or he’d seem insane. Justine would never harm anyone as seen through her “mild” eyes, and yet it’s ironic that she was accused of manslaughter. It can be seen through both Elizabeth and Justines’ eyes, literally, that they were both innocent women who were taken advantage of by Victor's monster and thus they were both killed. Victor’s blindness to the monster’s capability to kill his family members makes him realize how he shouldn’t have pursued the action of creating this

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