ipl-logo

The Role Of Guilt In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

494 Words2 Pages

“I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe.” (Frankenstein 101) Frankenstein is a novel written by Mary Shelley. This quote was said by Victor Frankenstein explaining how he felt about Justine’s trial after the death of William. Once Justine’s trial ended in her death, Victor became very guilty because he knew that this all started because of his passion and ignorance that led to the creation of his dream. His guilt made him flee from his family and separate himself from society. While on his expedition he ran into his creation which made him seem more monster than human. Frankenstein’s creation is represented as Victor’s more human side towards society and Victor himself. …show more content…

As he grew up, his dreams became more achievable which later led to the creation of his invention. During the process of creating the creature, Mary Shelley began to show Victor as less human because of his love for his dream and his passion towards it. In the poem “Mutability” quoted in Frankenstein, Percy says, “We rest—a dream has power to poison sleep.” By this, Mary Shelley expresses how society is oblivious of Victor and his ideas and what they could lead to in the future. The dream represents Victor’s idea to create the monster and his passion for his project and because of that, he isn’t able to get sleep because of the abnormal amount of time he spends alone working on the invention while being excluded from society at the same

Show More
Related

  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Dangers Of Responsibility

    974 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 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.

    Read More

  • Moral Ambiguity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    550 Words  | 3 Pages

    The actions of an individual defines the boundary between sympathy and wickedness. Their behaviors and thoughts change the plot of the story and character identity. Mary Shelley uses moral ambiguity to overlook the unrealistic nature of her story. In Frankenstein, this concept incorporates itself into Mary Shelley’s characters. Ambiguity invokes an attachment between the figures and readers.

    Read More

  • Why Does Mary Shelley Use Of Personification In Frankenstein

    656 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley describes the morning after Frankenstein creates the monster and runs away- "Morning, dismal and wet, at length dawned, and discovered to my sleepless and aching eyes the church of Ingolstadt…”. This dreary scene adequately depicts Victor’s miserable, downcast feeling toward the ugly monster he has just created. Shelley also uses the imagery element to bring into view Frankenstein’s painful emotions over the result of his creation. Immediately following the verdict of Justine’s death, a deep feeling of remorse washes over Frankenstein. "The blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart, which nothing could remove.

    Read More

  • Lack Of Empathy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1511 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Scrutinize The Punishment In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1049 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: From Benevolent To Feind

    1246 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frankenstein: From Benevolent to Feind “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” (Shelley 69) Said by Frankenstein’s monster, this quote truly defines him: initially an affectionate, love-seeking creature, he transformed into an enraged killer, angry at humanity for the undeservedly poor way he was treated. Victor Frankenstein is an unique, complex individual who encounters a similar change of nature for similar reasons. The quote—though spoken by the monster—encapsulates the evolution of Victor Frankenstein’s personality; misery—a product of isolation and loneliness—aroused a deterioration of temperament from an initially benevolent Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: Selfish And Selfishness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1135 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frankenstein created the creature so he could manipulate the power of life, not to learn from the experience. He is so immersed in his studies, fascinated by the creation of life. He studies what the human body is made up of and how it falls apart. Victor completely disengages from the world when away at school after his mother dies of scarlet fever.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's Monster Culture

    1088 Words  | 5 Pages

    The monster is spurned by society because of his horrific appearance, his body, alone and hated, unfit for the company of strangers, just as Frankenstein fears he is. He is miserable which makes the hatred grow, as he says, “all men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!” In fact, this wretchedness and enforced isolation is the monster’s main character trait, parallel to the isolation being Frankenstein’s biggest fear. Now that Victor is in college, he does not have his family to fall back upon for affection.

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein: A Deadbeat Father Figure

    1845 Words  | 8 Pages

    Victor’s creation is described as a “monster” in the story of Frankenstein. He is immediately considered to be evil because he has committed murder, even though he meant no harm. He wrongfully forges his identity according to how others see him; as an evil monster. He forges his identity on how others view him, which is an evil monster (Lall 36). At this point, he is growing out of the mental stage of an infant and is beginning to learn how to take care of himself.

    Read More

  • The Consequences Of Actions In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1265 Words  | 6 Pages

    The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley says a person is responsible for their actions if they do not weigh the possible consequences of their actions before making their final decision. Throughout the novel, Mary Shelley shows the consequences of actions that are done without proper thought beforehand. Victor Frankenstein wants to create life, he wants to be god, and his lust for this goal overtakes his common sense. Victor rushes into making his creature and then makes rash decisions which also contributes to his demise and the death of several of his close friends and family. The monster should be held responsible for his actions to a certain extent, however, his actions are influenced by Victor’s initial impetuous decisions.

    Read More

  • Guilt In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1766 Words  | 8 Pages

    There are many who believe in the idea of fate deciding their future and therefore, they do not feel the need to take value in thinking before making decisions. However, the future is decided based on the actions of a person alone. Those actions, if done without thinking, will ultimately lead to a life of guilt. A future weighed down by relentless mental obsession with guilt and in turn social isolation is a fate sealed the moment one makes an ignorant decision. Two characters in literature that are meant to show these lasting negative repercussions of ignorant actions are Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s mariner.

    Read More

  • Obsession With Revenge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ambition evolves into a form of obsession with revenge. But the result of vengeance is a curse to human life and its longevity. Both main characters in the novel, Victor and the monster become obsessed and let vengeance be their downfall. 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.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Human Relationships In Frankenstein

    1720 Words  | 7 Pages

    But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature

    Read More

  • Who To Blame In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    542 Words  | 3 Pages

    Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

    Read More

  • Moral And Ethical Dilemmas In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout 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.

    Read More

More about The Role Of Guilt In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Open Document