The Quest For Glory In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein
Glory is the focus of the first part of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Glory is an impersonal relationship where one is held above as superior to many. In the characters Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein we see a perfect example of this pursuit for glory. Both men are compelled to seek glory, out of an inner passion which at its heart is illogical. The quest for glory is a potentially fatal flaw in Walton and was the downfall of Frankenstein. Their desire to discover or create and be great among men makes them reckless and dangerous to those around them.
Robert Walton seeks glory and knowledge from his expedition to the North Pole. He is fascinated by what he might learn there, but seems to be driven more by the thirst for recognition and
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Victor borders Megalomania. This can clearly be seen when he explains his ambitions, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.” The theme of learning reflects the ideology of knowledge for good or evil purposes. This quote also shows insight into Victor's state of mind, how he had built up his own ego thinking that he would be revered by the creature he creates.
Victor is changing into a different person. His work is taking over his health, even though he knows, "a human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule." But his work is taking over his life, and he knows it. He says, "every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime." The last line in particular, "guilty of a crime," seems important. Victor knows his work on the monster is morally repugnant and that if any person knew of his work, the outside world would be repulsed by the nature of his
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Dangers Of Responsibility
974 Words | 4 PagesThe Dangers Of Responsibility Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Responsibility is something that every human needs. A lack of responsibility can be harmful to the person and the people around them and a plethora of responsibility can change a person 's life. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley’s portrayal of Victor as selfish suggests that not taking responsibility can lead to pain, death, and the suffering of others as the reader sees in the novel which relates to today 's society of powerful countries not taking responsibility for the weapons that they create, and the damage that is revealed as a result.
Examples Of Moral Ambiguity In Frankenstein
790 Words | 4 PagesIn this, Victor brought up things that no mortal should know about, such as: cloning, stem cell research, and IVFs. Examples of these were shown when the author states, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn… my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical… the physical secrets of the world” (43). Victor is knowingly tampering with knowledge that is essentially too great for man. He is also essentially trying to be like God, which is the original sin, and as a result, he is put in eternal despair.
Lack Of Empathy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1511 Words | 7 PagesVictor is stirred by his work, but not in a positive manner. He goes on to explain his feelings towards the creature by saying, “… my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred” (136). Victor is so bewildered and repulsed by the creature that he misses key signs of violence, from the creature, that may have saved Victor’s family had he not been so
The Dangers Of Ambition In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
524 Words | 3 PagesAmbition as propelling it is, however can lead to the demise of the person influenced by it. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, informs the reader of the consequences of ambition, by telling a story of man named Victor Frankenstein who is overwhelmed by his ambition to see the atrocities he commits. In his ignorance created a monster who served to be Victor’s mistake as he slaughtered his family members. The novel illustrates the dangers of ambition because it is the main reason of Victor’s downfall. Pursuing a desire too strongly as to cause obsession is what destroyed Victor.
The Potential For Rebellion In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
909 Words | 4 PagesIn Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein,” Victor Frankenstein tests his limits and explores his curiosity too deeply, leading to long-lasting chaos, responsibilities, problems, and regrets. In connection to the Romantic Period in the 18th century, Shelley’s novel contains two ways of understanding how the creature Frankenstein created connects to the morals and values of the Romantic era. One, is the creature and his creator, and their obligations to each other. And two, the potential for rebellion due to the lack of obligations in place. Through Shelley’s work, we will analyze how specific aspects of Frankenstein’s work intertwined with the Romantic period writers’ reasonings.
Frankenstein: Selfish And Selfishness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1135 Words | 5 PagesIn 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.
The Quest For Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
839 Words | 4 PagesIt is often said that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Even Aristotle said, “The more you know, the more you know you don 't know.”. This can often lead to a yearning for more knowledge and sometimes, can be somebody’s downfall. In this case, it was Victor Frankenstein’s downfall. His love for science and his ever-growing quest to learn about the human body ultimately destroyed him, his family, his wife to be, and his best friend.
Pursuit Of Knowledge In Ayn Rand's Anthem
1198 Words | 5 PagesSince he does feel happiness from the chase for knowledge, he has the right to be inspired by this action. He also mentions that the Golden One, a woman he meets and falls in love with, brings him joy, which he wouldn’t be able to say if it wasn’t for his curiosity and desire to know her that soars to levels unreachable. Therefore, his innovation and meeting of the Golden One refer back to his beginning of reaching for knowledge. The nature of a human also justifies the way they’re motivated.
The Struggle For Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
672 Words | 3 PagesHe dedicates his life to learning and eventually obtains the knowledge
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Pursuit Of Knowledge
1420 Words | 6 PagesENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various
Moral And Ethical Dilemmas In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
556 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the novel, the main character Frankenstein, made many poor decisions that I would consider to be morally wrong and unethical. Frankenstein’s research and discoveries are ethically wrong because he was taking dead bodies from cemeteries, cutting off their limbs, and body parts to create a human like creature. He did not have anyone's consent to do this study causing it to be unethical, and he also should not be able to do this because he is playing the role of god. In the beginning of the book, Victor Frankenstein described to Walton that he had created a monster using body parts from a graveyard.
The Narrative Voice In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1003 Words | 5 PagesWhen writing any piece of fiction, an author 's choice of narrative voice has a huge impact on how readers experience the story. From the slightly less personal yet versatile third-person to the narrow, limited view of first-person, the narrative voice literally provides the voice of literature. It affects which characters the reader really connects with, the opinions that influence them, the knowledge they have, and numerous other aspects. While most authors stick with only one tense, Mary Shelley challenged that standard in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein, Shelley changes her narrative voice numerous times in order to fully develop all aspects of the story through Walton 's letters, Frankenstein 's story, the Monster 's story, and also the
Self-Guided Education In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
488 Words | 2 PagesVictor became eager to learn and master the secret to life, he was fascinated by the human frame, and how to manipulate and control it. However this obsession became more self-fulfillment than social utility, which ended up being his downfall. The creature had intellectual curiosity when it came to his self guided education. He was forced to learn to survive, how to fend for himself, he also learned the dangers of the world. The creature had learned the majority of his knowledge through mimicking the De Lacey family.
Character Development In Frankenstein
1921 Words | 8 PagesThe fictional horror novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is driven by the accentuation of humanity’s flaws. Even at the very mention of her work an archetypal monster fills one’s imagination, coupled with visions of a crazed scientist to boot. Opening her novel with Robert Walton, the conduit of the story, he also serves as a character to parallel the protagonist’s in many ways. As the ‘protagonist’ of the story, Victor Frankenstein, takes on the mantle of the deluded scientist, his nameless creation becomes the embodiment of a truly abandoned child – one left to fend for itself against the harsh reality posed by society. On the other hand, Walton also serves as a foil to Victor – he is not compulsive enough to risk what would be almost
Science And Morality In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
825 Words | 4 PagesEverywhere he went, including his hometown or the beautiful valley of Charmounix, he was always shaken by the fact that his tedious monster was loose, hunting both his mind and body. Moreover, every time Victor try to distract his gruesomeness by appreciating and enjoying the present, he would be always dragged toward darkest memories from his past and his future full of anxiety. Such that whenever Victor encountered his inhumane creation, he does not reconsider his creation’s feelings, but rather easily become swayed by his own morality; that his creation was the only cause of his suffering and it should be exterminated. Even after countless opportunities to reconsider his ideas, Victor performed futile effort toward his issues, which he continuously applied his idea that his logic was the only thing that was
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