Good Vs Evil In Frankenstein

1434 Words6 Pages

In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, Victor and the Creature are the main references when it comes to the issues of morality. Several themes such as good versus evil, prejudice, and ambition & fallibility, the importance of friendship along with references to other famous texts like the Christian bible are manifested through the use of Victor and the Creature as they interact with each other allowing readers to construe examples of morality. Many debaters may argue the Creature is “evil” since a majority of his actions harm others while Victor is good because he was the victim and seeks to destroy his creation. However, one may counter this argument if they accentuate Victor is evil since he was the Creature’s creator, …show more content…

Victor creates the Creature with the ideals of making it a paragon as he states, “[...] I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” (60), however, he was in a state of semblance believing his creation was preeminent. Victor selfishly creates the Creature to gain prestige, pretentiously claiming himself as a human god when he succeeds and saying it was for the sake of humanity. In reality, he creates a grotesque being and abandons it the moment his illusions shatter, making the creature a victim because he denies the responsibility of raising it causing hardships for it. Victor also believes the creature is a reprobative individual since it kills his brother and foists Justine’s execution, thus he acts inimical towards it throughout the whole novel as he invectively exclaims, “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes” (93). He is fully aware he the root of all problems, yet he believes the Creature to be censurable and denying to give it a chance of salvation when he breaks his promise and destroys the female creature he was working on; his actions result in his father and Elizabeth’s deaths. This also makes the …show more content…

Examples such as prejudice and guilt are very conspicuous between Victor and Creature; their actions cause them to view each other as a target of hostility and anathema as Victor says, “ For this purpose I will preserve my life: to execute this dear revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever” (173). Both despise each other for their actions, Victor desires the Creature’s death since it brutally murders his friends and families leaving him tormented, while the Creature wants Victor to experience its pain from loneliness and retaliation destroying the female creature who would be his salvation. In the end, guilt from their actions plagues both of them resulting to their ends. Christian bible references consisting mainly of God, Satan, and Adam and Eve apparent throughout the Creature as it compares itself , “[...] no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator [...] He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him” (119). The Creature is immensely influenced by “Paradise Lost” using many references to relate itself to its scenario.It finds itself more similar to Satan since both have diffilcuties coping with rejection from their Creators. However, the Creature shares more similarities to Adam since

Open Document