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. Previous to the existence of the monster, readers are introduced to an ambitious, benevolent Victor Frankenstein. He exuded an excitement and passion about learning, though only for very specific subjects. “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn.” (Shelley 19) Though his studies on creating life artificially had eventually grown tiresome—“My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had …show more content…
Frankenstein seems to show a prejudice towards his own creation; though he purposefully made the monster large to make it easier to add smaller things—such as nails and eyelashes—he chooses to look at his newly-awakened creation with repugnance. “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (Shelley 35) This disgust motivates him to run away, thus abandoning his monster. Unfortunately, this was not the only event that contributed to the annihilation of Frankenstein’s
“This was my duty; but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attentions, because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery” (Shelley 184). Dr. Victor Frankenstein was a brilliant scientist whose ideas were to bring both not only success but death upon others including his own loved ones. Like most scientists in real life today and from the past, they tend to struggle with whatever knowledge they can learn about. The only problem was that the education they possess shows that they have no idea of the outcome of their experiments until tested and by doing so scientists can easily temper with the laws of nature on animals, humans and even the environment, not to mention defying information from other scientists to prove their own theories correct and to
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.
Victor Frankenstein’s passion for this creature had quickly developed into a downward spiral of obsession, anxiety, and insanity; and this had to do with science. The monster has already ruined Victor’s normal life as he is always on edge because of his fear of his own creation. Shelley proves again that we should fear technology as the Romantics did, and as Victor did after he saw the monster
When he finally creates the creature, he runs, consumed by “breathless horror and disgust” (Shelly 35). He - in his sickly state - failed to see the true nature of what he has made, and immediately regrets it. Furthermore, when the creature confronts Frankenstein, Frankenstein shows cruelty to his creation, screaming, yelling and flat out refusing to listen to it, “ Begone! I will not hear you.”
Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned about his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation because of the creature’s appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor 's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.
The moment Victor Frankenstein successfully infuses life into his creation he is overcome with horror and disgust. Without further examination he is certain to have created a monster, not a human being (Shelley 35-36). However, despite his grotesque appearance, Frankenstein’s creature was not born malicious. During the first stages of his existence, unbeknownst to Frankenstein himself, his acts are motivated by innocence and virtue, which even earns him the title “good spirit” (79). Frankenstein did not create a monster.
Frankenstein even admit to his refusal of support simply because of the appearance the creature has. Not only is it Frankenstein’s fault that the creature has the appearance of a “monster”, he is also guilty of leaving the creature to its own devices without any guidance. Without the guidance of a creator, it is quite possible to end up misguided and
“At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification”(Shelley 80). The Creation of Frankenstein woke up in a world of hate. Since he looked different, the Monster never fit in with normal people. He would become isolated and feared because of his looks. Because the Monster was a hideous creation from Frankenstein, he was isolated and hated by his looks and behaved in an ethical manner when he began his path of vengeance.
Knowledge can be Blessings and Curse A teenage girl Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in the 18th century. A Gothic novel Frankenstein deals with two genres, Gothicism and science fiction. Victor, one of Mary Shelly’s characters represents man’s pursuit of knowledge which ultimately leads towards the path of destruction while another character Robert Walton implemented his knowledge wisely to get benefits for the society. Mary is indicating to the society that mankind has to pay full attention to science and scientific innovations in order to avoid the catastrophic events due to misuse of knowledge.
In the film Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein the theme of mistreatment based off physical appearance is portrayed through Frankenstein 's monster. The society is often fearful of the creature and made judgements of his actions based solely off his disturbing physical appearance, without knowing his true characteristics. Even Victor, the man who created the fearful monster eventually abandons him because he is is appalled by his creation. He believed that by creating a being made of the finest parts, the end result would be of equal quality, but when the monster awakens, Victor can see what he has created and recognises that he has done wrong. The creation of an unnatural being, by unnatural means ultimately disgusts Victor.
ENG-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
Frankenstein’s Monster is not categorized as evil by his malicious behavior and is sympathized with due to his creator abandoning him and the role of nature versus nurture taken place II. Monster’s Nature and alienation A. Monster originally had an inquisitive nature yet gentle nature a. Information on the German family was “each interesting and wonderful to one so utterly inexperienced as [he] was” (105) B. With the rejection and alienation from society, the only interactions the monster experiences, he becomes full of hatred a. Rejected by De Lacey family by his looks and labeled a monster b. Tries to save a child but is shot by child’s father C. Reader may feel sympathy towards the Monster’s actions because the readers know that his true nature was not evil and he was misjudged III.
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.
However, upon realizing had created an abomination as he finished, he flees, “…now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). After a long and grueling process, Frankenstein regarded the creature as horrid, malicious, heartless, inhuman, and uncouth – simply, a monster. He wanted to create life so bad that it became an obsession for him as he would go to any extreme to reach his goal.
In the novel Frankenstein, the monster craved acceptance although striving to obtain it numerous amounts of times this society was based solely on appearance so therefore it was rejected at every funny all of mankind. The author Mary Shelley gained the basics of education through William Godwin's library. Shelley one could say retained basic literary tools from the book of their times. A while after the man by the name of Percy Byron, a young romantic poet married Shelley and eventually the couple had a competition to see who could produce the most frightening tale to which laid the ground basis for this such novel. Originally the story was supposed to be short then one night Shelley had dreamed an addition to it to which was dedicated to Shelley's