Victor's Use Of Foils In Frankenstein

In order to help distinguish and characterize one character from another, foils can be used to similarly compare but more so to contrast two characters from each other. This allows the reader to identify both characters by one another's actions and thought processes. In Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley uses this literary technique, shown between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, showing who embodies the true evil in the story. In their early years, both characters grew up experiencing very different beginnings compared to one another. Victor was a sheltered child with a very pleasant and jubilant upbringing. Even exclaiming that “no human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself” (Shelley

Being ‘born’ in a dark room with his first contact of human existence fleeing from his presence, leaving him alone in abysmal atmosphere of his unfamiliar chambers to experience his newly awoken array of senses on his own. The Creatures early sense of abandonment influenced his life for many years afterwards. He grew gregarious tendencies. Heavily searching for any sense of companionship with any object. Both concrete or abstract. This becomes apparent within his relationship with the moon. Describing it as “a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up, and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees. I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path…” (Shelley

Their means of motivation for obtaining such valuable tool of life differ however. Victor’s exploration of the sciences may start from humble beginnings: to understand the fundamentals of life as we know it on earth. His quest for knowledge becomes more warped as time draws near to the creation the Creature. He inevitably becomes gluttonous of learning how to extend the boundaries of nature. Making even question his “...emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?” (Shelley 70). The Creature’s reasoning for his understanding of higher thinking was in hopes of performing an exodus from his own solitude. Hoping that humans could potentially look past his brutish appearance and accept him for him