In Frankenstein, victor’s irrational decision to depart Geneva sees his “spirits and hopes rise” even as he leaves a distraught family, establishing his egocentric ideals and moral fallacy. Meanwhile, shelley depicts the creature as similar to humans through its manner and desire to learn, however, due to his grotesque appearance emphasised through colour imagery ‘yellow skin… and straight black lips’, he is excluded by society and labelled a ‘demoniacal corpse’. This provokes questioning of human morality, and whether the creature is classified as a human. Alluding to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the creature states, ‘I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel’. As an eloquent rhetorician, he employs literary devices such as oxymoron and parallelisms.
One morally ambiguous character in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein would be the monster Victor Frankenstein created. He is morally ambiguous because of his desire to know more, his constant battles against society and himself as well as his feelings, and his tragic hero personality or his desire to get revenge. These are all the things that reveal the pivotal role the monster plays in this story. It is very hard to decide whether or not the monster is benevolent. One of the key turning point ideas that are exposed to the reader was his desire to know more.
Throughout the story Frankenstein’s monster is on a search for love and acceptance from his creator and society. When the monster is brought to life he is abandoned by his creator because he is deformed and hideous. So he pursues his creator for love and acceptance, yet he also searches for those things in the society he observes around him.
In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creature, both display a sense of moral ambiguity. Each character has committed both good and evil alike, and neither knew the consequences of what they had done. However, Victor Frankenstein is generally the morally ambiguous character by his treatment of his creation and his own imperious personality. He wanted to be able to help science by recreating life or bringing it back, but at the same time, he did not want to consider the consequences of doing so. Victor tries to prove himself as a good moral character in the relationship between his creation and himself.
In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley showcases the theme that people are inherently good. This theme is conveyed through the monster’s character because he can not be classified as either good or evil. This is crucial in the plotline because morally ambiguous characters are considered to be more like real humans. They have their own problems and are not perfect, so the audience sympathizes with those characters. The monster was raised in an environment that modified his moral integrity, which causes the audience to see his character in a different light.
The creature, referring to the monster created by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, have a crave for establishing an actual relationship with human being within his character, as the scene that contains his interaction with the cottagers would suggest. He became very interested in human culture. He was amazed by how words can express pleasure, pain and sadness, and he considered it a godlike science. He also found the naming of objects interesting, and he described a feeling of delight when he had learned the meaning or when he pronounced the word.
Firstly, The Creature embodies all of Frankenstein’s rash thinking because in all of his months toiling over its every detail, he never considered what society’s perception of The Creature would be and how this would affect The Creature in return. Irving Malin, author of New American Gothic, describes the quintessential gothic character as one who loves others in an attempt to strengthen his own self-concept, and who consequentially demands those he loves to mirror his passions and musings. In all-consuming narcissism, this character uses love as a crutch for success and an opportunity to “create order out of chaos [and] strength out of weakness,” unwilling or unable to see the actual consequences of his actions (Malin, 5). So Frankenstein does with the creation of The Creature, as he describes the physical experience of awakening his being with all of the candor of a young God. In an emotional frenzy, he curses the weakness of decomposing men and attempts to create a stronger version that can withstand the undeniable compulsion of nature’s hourglass.
In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, The creature may be known for his monstrous and unforgiveable acts, but it is his creator, Victor, who is the true monster. Mary Shelley was an English novelist, best known for her gothic novel “Frankenstein”. In “Frankenstein” the question of who is the true monster, Victor or the creature, is a prominent theme throughout the story. While the creature's actions are certainly gruesome and horrific, it is the Monster who ultimately holds the title of the true monster. Through his neglect and mistreatment of the creature, Victor demonstrates a complete disregard for the life he has created.
In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelly , the creature undergoes specific events that shape his personality. The creature shows aspects of being a human being and has goals he wants to achieve such as finding a companion and hopefully stopping the horrible deeds he has been doing. Throughout events , the way society looks at him shaped his opinion on himself affecting his future actions such as murdering William and causing the death of Justine. In the book , the creature explains itself of having sensations of pain mixed with pleasure when someone showed him an act of kindness towards another person . In the book it says , “ He raised her and smiled with such kindness and pleasure , such as I had never before experienced , either from hunger
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.
The creature wishes to live in peace, but because he does not look like a normal human, he can not live in peace. Additionally, Frankenstein does not help the creature or nurture him with love, thus, he causes the creature to develop a deep resentment towards Frankenstein. The creature, whom is optimistic until now, says, “ Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?” (161).
How do I Make Moral choices, in a World of Moral Ambiguity? A desire for meaning would also include obtaining some kind of “identity,” or individualism. Yet, society or someone will try to force their “ideal” moral system onto everyone else. “Thinking may be “good for nothing” in the world, but in the mind it is good for guidance—not legislation, but guidance” (Bruehl 193).
For instance, one could say that Frankenstein's monster is not dissimilar to its human counterpart. Although the monster was created by collecting the most perfect parts of different human bodies, this practice did not turn the creature into a perfect human (Shelley, 1818). Nevertheless, the monster is used as a means to describe "our historical and hysterical responses to body fragmentation" (Clarke, 2002:28), which have demonstrated that the human body is an organic fusion of different parts (Baldick, 1987). The reproduction of the human species itself relies upon a process of natural selection, which cherry-picks the features that are best suited to ensure human longevity to manifest themselves in a human being. Thus, both Frankenstein's
Morality. It has been questioned, emphasized, and respected since the beginning of time. Yet even today, not one human being can say what is morally right. Rather, morality is a matter of opinion. It was the opinion of Victor Frankenstein which stated that it was alright to create a “monster”.
The monster continues by reassuring the creator of his independent intelligence and power over the creature by telling Frankenstein, “This you alone can do”. Here, the creature assumes a role of submissiveness and reliance on Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s monster gains the sympathy of the reader who, despite condemning the murder of innocent people, commiserate with the lonely creature who is in search of an acquaintance, which he will likely never find. The monster also displays power and aggressiveness over Frankenstein; “You are my creator; but I am your master; obey!” The monster wants to desolate Victor’s heart, not by killing him directly,
