Victor's Exile In Frankenstein

In the form of physical isolation, Victor Frankenstein and his creation both experience this form of isolation. Physical isolation is the lack of physical contact with the rest of society which has different effects of Frankenstein and his creation. This is due to the fact that Victor Frankenstein’s physical isolation was his own personal choice while his creation was forced beyond its will. To focus more on Frankenstein’s physical isolation, his motivation to physically isolate himself from the rest of society is due to his own self interests. His interest in science contributes to his isolation due to the fact that he has no interest to be doing other things other than studying science. He finds independence and self-peace with his interest

Death was nothing but a recurring theme for Victor Frankenstein until his own. However, it is not the death of him that tells his story, but rather the journey he takes in life. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor created a monster, who brought him pain and torment by taking the lives of his loved ones. These trials pushed Frankenstein to the edge of insanity, but in the long run he emerges successful after a long journey of hardships. Like many heroes, Frankenstein’s expedition follows a uniform sequence of events, known as Joseph Campbell 's hero’s journey, to prove his worthiness. In the book, Victor undergoes the many steps of a hero’s journey illustrating his undaunted attitude and ultimate success in life by passing many trials and tribulations.

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. Repetitive The monster embodies this worry as well, as even the monster’s family “ you, [Frankenstein,] my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” While Frankenstein still has his family to fall upon for affection, the monster does not. This adds another layer to Frankenstein's fear: the worry that he will lose the affection guaranteed to him by his family and be left with nothing confusing.

Though he starts with the best intentions, those intentions slowly slip from his grasp. As he slips further and further into isolation, that isolation is going to destroy himself and everything he ever cared about. Victor brings the isolation he experiences onto himself. Victor has two of the most loving and caring parents. Because of the loving and care he received from his parents, Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, Victor found himself unable to function around a new group of people when he got to the university. "I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavoring to bestow mutual pleasure. I was now alone. In the university whither I was going I must form my own friends and be my own protector" (26). The isolated Victor is different in several ways including his manner, and the way he goes about his education, which is more focused and ultimately more obsessive. He has no one to comfort him and this leads to the madness of creating the monster. Victor has had supportive people around him since birth; however now that he is at the university he has nobody to help keep him level headed. "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" (35). The isolation being portrayed by Victor is now shifting from not only

Despite the fact that Victor is isolated in the end and isn’t happy about the outcome, “Winter, spring and summer passed...so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation"(Monster of Mary Shelley), conveys the tragedy of Victor’s creation. By spending most of his time deprived in his experiment, never going out in reality, but focusing on what is making him successful, made him crazier than he’s ever been. In spite of the fact that Victor was the creator of his monster, he had responsibilities which he ignored. “After the fact that he made ambitious mistakes, he could've acknowledged his authorities and save himself from desolation. Out of pride and ambition, his mistakes brought him to the point of unhappiness and devastation to himself and to his loved ones, most importantly his creation.

Consumed with the idea of creating life, Victor did not think of the effects his actions would create. The creation of Victor’s monster completely changed Victor both mentally and physically. It also changed society because the monster was the reason why specific people were killed. The chain reaction that was started created a whole new world of chaos. The only thing that saved the rest of the world was the fact that Victor kept the secret of life to himself. The monster took over his mind before it was created, affected his life while it was alive, and was the reason Victor died.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with the need for revenge on his monster. The demon that Victor creates kills Elizabeth, one of his many victims that are close to Victor’s heart, and this sets Victor over the psychological edge. Victor gets consumed with a burning sensation and hatred for the monster: “I was possessed by a maddened rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head” (Shelley 147). This heated quote shows the intense hatred Victor has for his creation. He actually prays for the opportunity to get his hands on the monster so he can kill him himself. Victor’s desire for the monsters life to come to an end becomes an internal need and obsession. Victor vows that he will do everything in his natural power to destroy his monster: “My rage is unspeakable… I have but one resource; and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (148). Victor has gone mad with the idea that he must destroy this monster, which he devotes his life to doing. His own creation, the monster, has caused him countless melancholy feelings, and it has pushed him to the brink of insanity.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley tells the story of passionate scientist Victor Frankenstein, whose devotion to science leads him to become obsessed with creating life, but his good intentions lead to a lifelong conflict with his problematic creation. This creature causes pain and suffering for Victor by killing his friends and family, which causes him to feel responsible for their deaths. Ambition’s dark and addictive side got the best of Victor, who became blinded by dreams of glory. Similarly, Don Quixote fails to identify the risks of ambition while exploring Spain. He wants to be a famous knight so badly that he begins to hallucinate obstacles that he must conquer. The outcome of ambition is the defining factor between these novels. Victor’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.

The term victim describes anyone who suffers as a result of one or multiple unfortunate incidents. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays a number of different characters as potential victims, in particular: the creature, and Dr. Frankenstein. The similarities among the two in initial experiences create difficulty in labelling one as the true victim. However, as the story progresses, it is evident that the creature is able to overcome his fate of victimization by actively responding to his unsuccessful experiences. Whereas, Dr. Frankenstein suffers as a victim due to his cowardly reaction to his misfortunes. In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein is believed to be the true victim of the

How does Mary Shelley’s construction of the secondary characters reflect upon the protagonist? Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, character parallels and analogies between Victor Frankenstein and the creature are strongly emphasized. More evidently, the character doubles between the creator, Victor, and his creature are presented through their demeanor, their desires, and their demands. Shelley emphasizes parallelisms of nature, alienation and vengeance to underscore their similarities, leading some readers to interpret Victor and his creature being so similar that indeed, they are the same person. Both lonely and outcasts in the world, Victor and his creation live forlorn and dreary lives, hungry for the love of another, desperate for

Victor first discovers his interest with the past by reading the works of Cornelius Agrippa: “A volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind” (20). Victor comes across the works of a famous natural philosopher, Cornelius Agrippa, which inspires him to pursue the fields and studies of science, and use it to uncover the mask of nature. The pursuit of knowledge is a very dangerous theme during the story, as it sways Victor off the path of good, and into an unnatural field of work. Victor begins to use his knowledge of anatomy and natural decay to find a way to restore life upon the Creature: “To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the science of anatomy[...] I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body” (30). Victor uses his knowledge to research and develop a way to reanimate the Creature, using his knowledge for the wrong reasons, which is to gain the God-like power of life and death. This unnatural use of knowledge creates many consequences, the main one being isolation from society and righteousness, which throws him into a dark depression and sways him off the path of good. Victor Frankenstein is a Romantic and Gothic protagonist, because he has an interest with the past. He revels in the works of famous natural philosophers, who drive him to pursue the sciences, and his use of knowledge results in the birth of the Creature, which has large and unfortunate

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is one of the most important and popular novels in the Romantic genre to this day. The novel was originally controversial because it touched on many fragile subjects such as the human anatomy and the development of science. The structure of Frankenstein begins as an epistolary, narrative story told by Robert Walton to his sister in England. Walton’s letters tell us that he is exploring, searching for what lies beyond the North Pole, and he eventually connects with Frankenstein. Shelley creates the protagonist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who has a fascination with life and death. Gensis states; “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” Humans, therefore, were created as a likeness

Frankenstein’s mother, a character who’s non-existent for most of the novel, plays a big part of Victor’s ultimate demise. Soon after her death, Victor felt as though he could 've done more as if he could 've saved her. The absence of his mother drove Victor to invest into his interests and go to Ingolstadt. While at Ingolstadt, Victor became interested in the studies of science. “But this state of mind had place only in the first steps towards knowledge: the more fully I entered into the science, the more exclusively I pursued it for its own sake.” (30). Victor becomes enamored with science and ideas that come with the subject. Victor wants to unlock all of the knowledge that science brings for the sake of his own enrichment. This leads Victor to become obsessed with the idea of creating life and soon finds a way to do so. “ It was with these feelings that I began the creation of a human being.”(33). His drive to create a human being circulates around the idea that he wants to preserve life and keep loved ones alive. On the night of the creatures creation, Victor was at a loss for words. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?” (35). Catastrophe? This is everything that Victor Frankenstein wanted and more. He created life, he beat death, but was that worth the monstrosity that he created? Victor did nothing but question his belief and sacrifices he made. “I had

Isolation and abandonment can cause many different reactions from people. In the words of William A. Sadler Jr., a sociology professor, “We often do not know how to cope. It can make us confused, distraught, depressed, frightened, and even outraged” (Sadler 105). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, several of these effects are presented in Victor Frankenstein and his creation. They both suffer from being isolated from their creator, society, and family units. They ways in which they are affected by this abandonment proves that isolation has grave effects on human interaction and social development.