Ambition In Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, author Mary Shelly uses imagery, character foil, symbolism, foreshadowing, and allusion to develop the theme that ambition can be dangerous and actions driven by ambition have consequences.
Shelly creates two characters, Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton, to demonstrate how ambition is different between individuals. Robert Walton, through his choices, shows that ambition can be controlled, especially when the needs of others must be considered. Victor Frankenstein allows ambition to overcome and control him even when it can harm other people, including himself. Walton, like Frankenstein, was filled with ambition and his goal was to sail to Antarctica. During his journey, his ship got trapped in a sheet of ice for days

Throughout the book, Victor foreshadows the future after the monster has been created. When he foreshadows the future, it is with a feeling of regret and sadness which contributes to the theme that actions driven by ambition have consequences. The night after Victor created the monster, his sleep was filled with nightmares, and one that foreshadowed the future. Victor recalls in the dream, “I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death” and after looking out the window, “I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created” (Shelly 35). This dream that Victor has becomes reality at the end of the book when the monster kills Elizabeth which shows that actions driven by ambition have consequences; Elizabeth’s death was one of them. Shortly after the monster came to life, Victor’s brother, William, was murdered and one of the Frankenstein family’s close friends, Justine, was accused and put on trial. The morning of Justine’s trial Victor thought to himself “It was to be decided whether the result of my curiosity and lawless devices would cause the death of two of my fellow beings: one a smiling babe full of innocence and joy, the other far more dreadfully murdered, with every aggravation of infamy that could make the murder

Prometheus was a Greek God who gave the knowledge of fire to the world. He was then punished for his action by being chained to a rock where an eagle would eat a piece of his liver every day and each night his liver would regrow meaning he has to suffer his punishment for the rest of eternity. Victor is similar to Prometheus as he also tries, and succeeds, to give humanity a gift, immortality. He is then punished like Prometheus because he has to carry his secret every day with him for the rest of his life while he slowly loses his family. This allusion to Prometheus supports the theme that actions have consequences because both Prometheus and Victor made choices without considering the repercussions which they were then punished for. Prometheus’ gift to humanity, fire, also has its own significance in the book. During one of the monster’s first few days in the wilderness, he discovers the dual nature of fire, “One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects” (Shelly 72). The monster discovers that fire brings both warmth and pain. Fire symbolizes there are many things that bring good but