Reanimating the dead has been a plot point in various horror movies and shows. Zombies and the undead are spectacles in such media, but the original horror story is Frankenstein, whose gothic nature set the standard for other horror novels to come, and called into question many moral ideas. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelly emphasizes the ironic nature of Victor’s love of his science and making the creature in contrast to his disdain for the creature in order to demonstrate that man’s pursuit of knowledge is not innately good. This is apparent through Frankenstein’s detailed description of the creature, his symbolic dream, and an allusion to another work of fiction. The imagery of the creature through Victor’s perspective serves to illustrate …show more content…
While exhausted from his toilings in his lab, Frankenstein sleeps and dreams of himself holding Elizibeth, his love, in his arms, when suddenly her lips become “livid with the hue of death”, and she transforms into his mother’s rotting corpse. In this dream, Victor realizes that what he should have been chasing was the happiness of love, which Elizabeth symbolizes, and she would have provided without a question. Instead, he decided to chase the dream that the rotting corpse symbolized, the dream of the power to bestow life, and overcome death. This realization came too late, as the horrible deeds he has committed are already over with. He hates what he has done, however. It is haunting him in his dreams, and has overtaken all of his other ambitions, including those of interacting with people and pursuing his own happiness. This pursuit of knowledge has led him to ruin and regret, and his hatred for his creature burns within him. Even though he has spent so much time and dedication in building the creature, only regret can follow due to his lack of morals in creating such a thing along with his neglect in other more noble pursuits within his life. It is ironic that the pursuit that overtook his life and well-being managed to end up the thing he hates the most. The pursuit of knowledge leads to the deterioration of his own moral standings and nobler pursuits in