Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply. The creature was known as a monster and was doomed due to his appearance.
He developed a deep love for the noble, albeit impoverished, family. Seeking some kind of human relationship, to be more accurate, just any kind of contact, he first tried to talk to the oldest family member as he was blind and the monster knew that his hideous physiognomy, excites not only disgust but more so fear. However, the other members of the family returned unexpectedly, and drove him with stones from the cottage. Upon this, the monsters sorrow increased, and he cursed his creator and his own hideousness.
The use of the word monster in the book also correlates to appearance, and when the creature is called a monster, he feels forced to act like one. After being rejected by society because of his appearance the creature cries to Frankenstein, “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust” (Shelley 93). This shows that the creature internalized all of the hate he received from his appearance, to the point where he viewed himself as a monster. When he internalizes all this negativity about himself that stems from his appearance, and begins to see himself as a monster, he then begins to behave as one.
Victor and The Monster In Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an impulsive man on a quest to create artificial life. The Monster, a being with different body parts dug up from a graveyard, is created. He has the intellect of a normal man, but he is only judged by what shows on the outside. Throughout the book, Victor is irresponsible: he fails to control the monster he created, and a string of tragedies unfolds around Victor’s family. His relatives are killed one by one.
The Monster believes and mentioned several times that the reason that he is so angry is because of Victor. Shelley writes,
However, Victors reckless and unthoughtful actions pushes the monster into a state of rage and hatred that overrides his ability to stop from exacting revenge on Victor. Victor initially creates the monster thinking that it will be an amazing creature, built from the best human body parts Victor could procure. After he views the outcome of his work he is repulsed by it and abandons it, hoping that it would cease to exist. Not only did the monster survive, but it learned to speak, write, and read. After reading the book Paradise Lost, the monster thinks of its own situation and states the following:
I believe most of us are proud of our succeed in doing what people have not done before even though the results are not good as we expected. However, as the inventor of the Creature, Victor already does an impossible thing. Instead of being satisfied with his creature, he is disappointed because of its ugly appearance. Obviously, Victor’s attitude indirectly affects to the Creature personalities.
Jealousy and rage cause him to lash out and commit murder without giving the acts much thought. His inability to regulate his feelings and effectively process his experiences is what causes him to act so irrationally and take such drastic measures in order to cope with what are actually basic emotions. Likewise, Frankenstein also has trouble with his emotions. He, too, acted hastily when he first created the Creature and chose to abandon him and his laboratory in response to his fear and disgust.
In the novel Frankenstein, both Victor Frankenstein and his monster live tragic lives. Between the death of Victor’s loved ones and the monster having nobody to love him in the first place, it becomes difficult to decide who really deserves the most pity. Although it may seem that victor lost more, his misery does not compare to that of the monster’s. Because the monster was ridiculed by society for his appearance and had no one to connect to, the monster deserves the most pity.
When telling Victor everything he experienced the creature says, “Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (138); meaning that all these events he experienced mold him to be wicked and spiteful. Without human interaction, he becomes an actual monster, when he at first only craved company and longed a friend yet all he received was mistreatment and insults. When he saw Victor’s younger brother he thought “I could seize him, and educate him as a companion and friend…” (138), but sadly the boy was prejudice against his looks and insulted him, and shortly reveled he was a Frankenstein and the monster killed him out of spite. This shows the importance of social connections and just having someone to talk to and lean on. In a way, it is societies responsibility to care for the misfortune and treat them with not only respect but with kindness.
Also, the monster 's appearance leads many to believe that its behavior is immoral and ruthless. One of the most memorable reactions from the book is the reaction of the old man in the hut. " ...perceiving me [the monster] shrieked loudly, and quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly seemed capable. " The man ran because he believed that the monster was about to hurt him, from the monster 's gruesome appearance, the man automatically assumed the monster was evil. Again because of his appearance, in which Victor created him with, many people often created similar reactions to that of this man.
In many novels throughout literature, enemies often share striking similarities. They push and pull at each other to the point where they lead to the each others undoing, yet they share tremendous likeness. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly Victor Frankenstein and his creature are two sides of one person. Both despise each other, and in doing so they are despising themselves. There is a power struggle between the two adversaries, which leads to both Frankenstein, and his creature ending up alone.
The first, and possibly worst case of this is a result of the creation’s unnatural appearance. We are all aware of the amount of pressure society puts on us to look a certain way, and it is so much worse for the creation, seeing as he was not made in the same way we were. Mr. Frankenstein did not consider how the creation’s life would be affected by his unsightly appearance. Mr. Frankenstein caused the creation an immense amount of distress by removing any chance of the creation gaining acceptance into the human society. This caused even more distress once the creation discovered his appearance.
People are often very intuitive, they gets feelings that motivate them to make decisions regardless of if they are morally right or not. They are able to make the right decisions, maybe not for the betterment of themselves, but for the betterment of all humans in general. In the story “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley Victor Frankenstein is given a choice. He is given the choice to either create the monster he created a wife, or be tormented and undoubtedly have more of his family killed. Victor at first agrees, he is promised by the creature that they will travel to South America and be away from
Carter Eckhardt CP Eng IV 3rd hr. November 11, 2015 Science - Knowledge - Responsibility A recurring theme in “Frankenstein” is the pursuit of scientific discovery and knowledge. Through the main events of the book this pursuit is responsible indeed; through his quest to find out the secrets of creation, Victor Frankenstein builds and designs his monster.