There are many famous phrases out in the world, but the one that people tend to use the most is “An eye for an eye”. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, analyzes the role of punishment and forgiveness in society. This novel makes the people apply the lessons of writing to our own particular moral convictions with respect to the part of punishment and forgiveness in the justice system. Through the actions of Victor Frankenstein's creature, and their society, the novel explores the complexity of ethically and legally attaining justice and its circumstances. The monster does not say that he is justified in killing Victor’s loved ones, but his categorizing his murders as some type of getting Victor back in some way.
These actions show more responsibility than before, but still not full responsibility. As a result, even more catastrophe is brought upon Victor: Elizabeth dies, and Victor’s father dies. These deaths show how Victor isn’t yet living up to Mary Shelley’s standards for a responsible
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, we see how revenge can lead to obsession. In Chapters 23 to the end, Victor is so obsessed with getting revenge on the monster for killing Elizabeth and everyone else. His obsession with revenge starts on his wedding night when the monster killed Elizabeth. He then states while talking to the magistrate: “That cannot be; but all that I can say will be little avail. My revenge is of no moment to you: yet, while I allow it to be a vice, I confess that is it the devouring and only passion of my soul.
Victor regrets what he has created but feels remorseful for leaving Elizabeth defenseless. Victor and Elizabeth's relationship arouse many emotions for readers. Mary Shelley exhibits through Victor's contemplations and dialogue his feelings for Elizabeth whom he loves. Overall, pathos opens the readers minds to understand and get a feel for all of the mishaps. Is utilized during the beginning of the story, as Walton’s letters to his sister communicate and empathize his fondness.
There are many who believe in the idea of fate deciding their future and therefore, they do not feel the need to take value in thinking before making decisions. However, the future is decided based on the actions of a person alone. Those actions, if done without thinking, will ultimately lead to a life of guilt. A future weighed down by relentless mental obsession with guilt and in turn social isolation is a fate sealed the moment one makes an ignorant decision. Two characters in literature that are meant to show these lasting negative repercussions of ignorant actions are Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s mariner.
When Frankenstein's creature kills William, Frankenstein's youngest sibling, a new feeling filled within within Victor Frankenstein and that feeling was revenge as mentioned in the next quote. Realizing his feelings Frankenstein says, "When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation" (V.2,1,95). The feeling of revenge which helped destroy his life more was not put on him by a higher force. It was his own free will that caused the feelings of hatred and made him seek revenge. When Frankenstein decides to rip apart his creature's partner in the middle of making her because he wanted to hurt the monster caused the creature to later on kill Elizabeth, Frankenstein's bride, which impacted his life greatly.
In order to protect the view he holds of himself, which stems from his god complex, Victor Frankenstein uses rationalization to shelter himself from the guilt derived from his indirect involvement with the murders of William and Justine. In allowing young Justine to confess to the murder of William, though she is innocent, Frankenstein experiences conflicted emotions. Victor writes that “such a declaration [of who the true criminal was] would have been considered as the ravings of a madman,” (Shelly 86). This rationalization of not telling the truth is because of his inability to take responsibility for his actions. In the same passage, Frankenstein describes the guilt and sadness he feels as “fangs of remorse” (86).
Additionally, the word “appeared” is very subjective, and therefore demonstrates that Elizabeth seems innocent specifically to Victor. This idea of Elizabeth’s innocence continues throughout the passage, as Victor says that he “loved to tend on her.” By saying this, Victor demotes Elizabeth to a level beneath him, and conjures the imagery of a child who needs to be taken care of. This further indicates that Elizabeth represents innocence to
Thus the reason he states that the trial is a “wretched mockery of justice.” The death of both William and Justine then lie on Victor Frankenstein’s shoulders. It is tragedies like William’s murder, Justine’s execution, and Elizabeth’s murder that force Victor Frankenstein to ponder the consequences of creating his monster. When Frankenstein has to face these consequences, we can see that he becomes a remorseful and miserable
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.
When Victor rejected The Creatures want for a girl companion he replied, “I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night.” When this was said, Victor knew of the possible danger that Elizabeth was now in but refused to warn her of this danger and this lead to her death. The penalties that Victor faced due to keeping the existence of this creature a secret it what lead to the deaths of the people that he cared for, and the fact that he had the ability to save these lives but chose to not even try says a lot about
This much is true for Victor’s failure to take responsibility for not only teaching his creation about life but also failure to take responsibility for the actions of his creation. “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy… you shall be my first victim” (153). Victor’s knows that he is responsible for the death of William because he abandoned his creation and made the monster learn the hard way that he would not be accepted into society. But he has no choice but to let Justine take the fall for the death of his brother because he fears being seen as a madman.
Victor has a nightmare, which includes two important women in his life. He takes this as a message that his manufactured creature will have an adverse effect on his family, going so far as killing them. Justine takes a guilt for Williams’s death, because she was supposed to be the careful eye that was supervising him, her sorrow engulfs her and therefore, she finds herself as guilty in a situation where she certainly wasn’t. A common trope with scientists is the mad scientist who will do anything for their craft, Mary Shelley could have wanted to further emphasize Frankenstein’s desire for his creation.
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.
As the monster falls victim to hatred resulting from abuse, his “grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from [Elizabeth’s] lips (Shelley 145). Since the monster is forced to suffer while Victor enjoys happiness, jealousy overpowers the monster's guilt, and he kills Elizabeth, signifying how his soul has been corrupted to a point where he can never enjoy happiness. The lack of loyalty, trust, and sympathy for the monster inadvertently causes him to turn evil and inflict harm upon others. The monster’s failure to establish a bond of love or friendship causes his benevolent actions to turn wicked and
