When he finally creates the creature, he runs, consumed by “breathless horror and disgust” (Shelly 35). He - in his sickly state - failed to see the true nature of what he has made, and immediately regrets it.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein may be one of the most popular novels of the 1800’s. In her novel, it can be seen that it was, in fact, meant to be a horror story. One of the elements she uses to convey the horror of her story in through the use of manipulation of the creature. Manipulation and the use of manipulation is a great detail that most glance over when looking in a horror story. Manipulation is a common tactic used by many people who want to get another person to commit an act they want them to do. This can turn the reader from seeing a very kind and sympathetic character into a not so great and conniving monster. Manipulation is observed in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with Victor's creation. The creature uses manipulation to sway Victor’s
In reality, he is disgusted by the sight of his creation so he abandons it leaving it all alone in the world without any guidance and runs away to the next room. Victor himself suffered from being a social outcast and now he bestowed the same feeling onto the creature by abandoning him. By treating the creature as an outcast, “he will become wicked … divide him, a social being, from society, and you impose upon him the irresistible obligations—malevolence and selfishness” (Caldwell). Not only is Victor selfish for abandoning his creature but he is shallow as well. Instead of realizing that he achieved his goal of bringing life to an inanimate body he runs way because of how hideous it is. "Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such loathsome, yet appalling hideousness. I shut my eyes involuntarily" (Shelley 228). Even Walton is repulsed by the creature’s
Change can have a negative effect on the a person’s change. This is certainly the case for the main characters in the gothic novel, Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is an educated man from Geneva, but when he comes to Ingolstadt he becomes obsessed with his work. Victor creates a human and brings it to life. Then he feels disgusted with what he had created and leaves it to fend for itself, unknowing of the terror he could bring. Mary Shelley describes the changes that occur between Victor and the monster throughout her novel by using indirect characterization to show these transformations.
Mary Shelley was twenty-one years old when she wrote Frankenstein. Therefore, the effects of her parents were still fresh. That, combined with inspiration from her literary husband, created a large theme in her novel, the role of parents. Through the lack of caring progenitors in Frankenstein, Shelley is arguing that detached parents allow for a negative upbringing, therefore urging them to be present in one's life.
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.
An abandoned life from society and that doesn’t follow normal activities could make you a romantic hero. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, she portrays the main character, Victor, as a man that is intent of learning more about nature. Victor begins to make mistakes which causes him to be full of sorrow and exiled from society. Victor begins to possess some traits from Byronic list of traits that romantic heroes possess. Rejection from community and social norms, persistent loneliness. He is also similar to the Greek God, Prometheus, who saved mankind but, only after stealing fire and ignoring Zeus’ orders. She creates this perception by using strong word choice and diction.
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.
The creature’s mental knowledge is very small-minded and intolerant, causing his understanding of justice to be exceedingly narrow. The monster’s isolation from society is forced by its fate. Nobody could with handle the hideous looks given by the creature 's appearance, this made it nearly impossible for the creature to have any interaction with any sort of human. To illustrate, the creation said while reciting his tale to Victor “And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man” (Shelley 85). In this quote, it can be seen that
I just finished reading the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Although it was a complex book, it was very interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat. Here 's an overview of what the book Frankenstein is about. The book starts off with Victor’s life before he created the creature. Victor’s mother passed away when he was young, and from that moment, he knew he needed to find a way to cure death. Victor attended college and found a way to make his dream reality. After he created the creature is when everything went downhill. The monster was angry at victor and killed all of his loved ones and victor wanted to get revenge and destroy the creature. While reading the book I always asked myself who really is the monster is it Victor or the creature? I believe that
Examples such as prejudice and guilt are very conspicuous between Victor and Creature; their actions cause them to view each other as a target of hostility and anathema as Victor says, “ For this purpose I will preserve my life: to execute this dear revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever” (173). Both despise each other for their actions, Victor desires the Creature’s death since it brutally murders his friends and families leaving him tormented, while the Creature wants Victor to experience its pain from loneliness and retaliation destroying the female creature who would be his salvation. In the end, guilt from their actions plagues both of them resulting to their ends. Christian bible references consisting mainly of God, Satan, and Adam and Eve apparent throughout the Creature as it compares itself , “[...] no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator [...] He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him” (119). The Creature is immensely influenced by “Paradise Lost” using many references to relate itself to its scenario.It finds itself more similar to Satan since both have diffilcuties coping with rejection from their Creators. However, the Creature shares more similarities to Adam since
Victor was a very ambitious character who longed for knowledge and the presence of new life. He soon became obsessed with his creation and said,“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health”(p 42). Victor devoted his entire life to a science experiment that would become his biggest regret. When Victor first laid eyes on the creature he realized what kind
In the beginning, Victor reveals his timidity towards occurring disasters. When the creature comes to life, Victor realizes that it is grotesque and describes, “I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (42). Upon realizing the unfortunate turnout of the creation, Victor avoids confronting his fault by hurrying off and hiding in his bedroom. Accordingly, Victor is unable to control his creation. When the creature leaves after threatening Victor about a tragedy on his wedding night, Victor asks himself, “Why had I not followed him and closed with him in mortal strife?” Victor realizes that he has lost control of the monster’s actions and regrets not taking the proper precautions in seizing the monster when he has the opportunity. Ultimately, Victor is victimized. After the murder of Elizabeth, Victor reflects on the deaths of his loved ones and says, “The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife; even at that moment I knew not that my only remaining friends were safe from the malignity of the fiend” (174). Victor suffers watching his loved ones die one by one, yet lacking the ability to save them. Overall, Victor’s victimization is due to his timorousness dealing with his initial
Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victor to warn the reader of the dangers of aspiring to godliness, and the consequences one faces in the aftermath doing so, even going as far as to compare Victor to Satan, tempting the crew of Walton’s ship, in the book’s final pages. The Victor Shelley creates is very similar to the Satan created by Milton in his book, Paradise Lost, which explores the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. In Frankenstein, Victor speaks of his desire to create the Creature, saying, “I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow-creatures.” (152). Shelley’s diction choices, such as the word “useless” exemplify Victor’s excessive hubris, portraying him as a man who creates his Creature for, in his mind, the good of society. Additionally, Shelley repeats the word “use”
Victor studied anatomy and became fascinated with the thought of making life from the dead. Soon, he put a plan into action and began his endeavor to fulfill his fantasy. He “dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, [and] tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay.” (p. 48-49) This is evidence of Victor’s early immoral judgments as he tortured animals and stole from graves in order to create life from cadavers. After almost 2 years of research and development, Victor finished his work and finally, “beheld the accomplishment of [his] toils,” when he “saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open.” (p. 51) Victor was using his knowledge of science to play God and resurrect the lifeless, which was something only an all-powerful entity should do. After Victor created and soon abandoned the monster, “six years had elapsed,” (p. 70) and during those many years, Victor had no contact with the creature. He deserted his responsibility and commitment, a potentially dangerous monster that he constructed because, “breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart.” (p. 51) Even after all this time passed, Victor still did not learn from his mistakes and continued to make appalling