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The Character Of Victor Frankenstein In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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In Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s creature battles a perpetual misery as a result of a quality he has no control over – his appearance and its relation to evil. His malicious actions reflect “vices [that] are the child of a forced solitude that [he abhors]” (Shelley 121). There are multiple instances where Victor Frankenstein’s monster portrays an evil demon, not by his actions but because of his physical attributes. Shelley exploits this characterization as a representation of society’s natural instinct to link beauty with goodness Additionally, Shelley argues the nature of goodness is not bound to a superficial condition but rather on a basis of compassion and virtuous actions. In many occurrences, Victor Frankenstein’s creature never intends harm and solely seeks companionship and compassion in return. However, he is met with instantaneous disdain due to his physical features. As he appeals to Victor for the creation of a companion to end his misery of solitude, “[Victor] compassionated him, and sometimes felt the wish to console [the creature]; but when [he] looked upon him…[Victor’s] feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred” (121). Victor is unable to completely sympathize with the creature due to his ugly nature. While the creature attempts to plea for compassion and kindness, Victor reverts to his instinct and shuts down the creature’s request. It is through his appearances that …show more content…

The assumption that beauty and goodness correlate defines the characteristic of goodness superficially. While it is an innate reaction to correlate beauty and goodness, the quality of goodness more accurately lies in an individual’s compassion and virtuous actions. Shelley argues through these other conditions; others are able to more accurately determine whether one is good or

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Dialectical Journal For Frankenstein

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In the book, Victor becomes too involved in reading rather than making friends at his university in England so he decides to create a monster out limbs from dead people. He soon realizes that he is terrified of the creature and flees his apartment; later the monster escapes. After the death of Victor’s mother, he soon falls into a deep depression while his younger brother William is mysteriously murdered and his sister Justine pleads guilty and is killed because of her “actions”. This makes Victor go down a deeper hole of depression and goes to the forest to rehabilitate himself. In the forest he runs into the monster and the monster, now educated and able to speak, tells him his story of what happened when he left.

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1120 Words | 5 Pages

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819 Words | 4 Pages

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1220 Words | 5 Pages

In 1818 Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a novel that follows Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious man on his journey to defy the natural sciences. In Volume I of the novel, Victor discusses his childhood, mentioning how wonderful and amazing it was because of how his family sheltered him from the bad in the world. “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” (35). When Victor brings up his childhood, he suggests that parents play a strong in how their kids turn out, either "to happiness or misery" (35). In particular the main character was sheltered as a child to achieve this “happiness” leading to Victor never developing a coping mechanism to the evil in the world.

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

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933 Words | 4 Pages

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