In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses Victor’s selfishness and ambition for knowledge to questioned how far society has to go to satisfy our yearn to be God. Vicor’s God complexion shows the dangers of wanting to challenge the limits of human knowledge without thinking of the consequences. When Victor attends university and the material he has learned is belittled by a professor as a waste of time, Victor is determined to prove him wrong. As Victor becomes more interested in the sciences and in the creation of life he sees that as the only way to make advancements that others have not yet done. He succeeded in bringing the dead back to life but not in the form he had in mind.
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the character of Victor Frankenstein epitomizes the adage that intelligence and knowledge can be both a blessing and a curse. Victor’s brilliance and unrelenting thirst for knowledge drives him to create life, and it also leads to his ultimate downfall. His intelligence serves both an advantage and a problem throughout the novel. On the one hand, it enables him to make remarkable discoveries and achieve great feats, but on the other hand, it blinds him to the consequences of his actions and the ethical implications of his scientific pursuits. Thus, Victor Frankenstein's character in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein exemplifies the double-edged nature of intelligence and knowledge, as in Victor, whose brilliance
Luke Peters Sarah Khatry ENGL:1200 27 February 2023 Emotional Development in Frankenstein Throughout the book the monster develops becomes emotionally intelligent while Victor devolves emotionally and loses the intelligence that once made him a genius. Victor undoubtedly had scientific skill, being able to create life out of corpses, but it wasn't his scientific intellect that deteriorated, it was his emotional and logical intelect. In the prelude to the story we see him chasing the monster across ice, but it is clear that even if he catches the monster he is clearly physically outmatched. This is something the Victor at the start and middle of the story would never attempt.
Before his monster came to life, he believed that he would “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (Shelley, 28). Victor is motivated by his craving of knowledge to venture into the unknown and make progress beyond the confines of what had been instituted before him. However, he soon realizes trying to understand the mechanisms of life will end up only destroying himself. Frankenstein reaches the end of his quest when he gains self-knowledge about the dangerous consequences of misused knowledge. He then tries to spend the last of his efforts relaying to Walton what he really should be on a quest
Cathy Chen Mrs. Weber AP Lit 11 February 2023 Revision In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, allusions, a symbol of illness, and his story told to Waltom are used to demonstrate how Victor's gift was both a curse and an advantage to him. Victor is an extremely intelligent man; he was able to create and have studies that others cannot accomplish, but in the end, it caused him pain and regret, which developed his knowledge of danger. The author uses allusions in the story to show how Voctor's knowledge has become both an advantage and a problem.
In Marry Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein selfishly goes on an unethical scientific journey to gain glory and fame. From a young age Victor has an abundant amount of knowledge and extraordinary ambition that he continues to cultivate through his unfaltering study of science and alchemy. After experiencing the tragic of death of his mother, Victor isolates himself in an attempt to reach the level of success he believes his knowledge and ambition entitles him to. Through his constant dedication to his work, the dangerous project that drives Victor insane comes to life on a dark and stormy night in Ingolstadt, Germany, forever changing his innocence and livelihood. The selfish manner in which Victor yearns to gain glory
He expresses his insecurity through his overly ambitious task of creating life as he yearns for the credit of being god-like “ I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers” (Shelley 76) and “ I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret” (Shelley 79) which together show how Victor wants to be the one true pioneer of creating new life and on his own will complete it. Victor's scientific dominance is a reflection of the lack of praise he gets in his life from his family members for his intelligence as he rarely communicates with them. He supplements any true relationship with his ambition. Victor Frankenstein is the embodiment of the Victorian doctor archetype as described by Kohlke “dualism of both Victorian masculinity and the period more generally, vacillating between public probity and secret vice, rigid self-control and gratuitous self-gratification”(123) as he told Walton he wanted to make this discovery to improve the world while it was only for his satisfaction and ego. He disregards the dead bodies of others, using them as mere scraps in his lab to create something monstrous that destroys any living relationships in his life.
As Adam Philips once said, “Tragic heroes are failed pragmatists, their ends are unrealistic and their means are impractical.” In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the obsessed scientist Victor Frankenstein becomes fascinated with natural philosophy and undergoes a journey trying to manipulate the laws of nature. Victor is a great demonstration of a tragic hero and displays all the characteristics necessary throughout the novel. To begin with, Victor had excessive pride at the beginning of the novel, a characteristic of a tragic hero. Victor was obsessed with science and reading textbooks from the young age of 13 and as he ages, he becomes fascinated with alchemy and the decay of life, concerning his father.
At the beginning, Victor is introduced to be a young, driven scientist with a desire to discover new things. He broken heartedly pleaded to Henry and Professor Waldman, “listen. You love someone, they have a sick heart-wouldn’t you give them a healthy one?”(scene 6) He genuinely saw it that way, to help others not feel the pain and sorrow he felt. Frankenstein’s innocent ambition quickly goes downhill as his craving for knowledge and the ability to create a being that will not grow old or sick takes over.
Frankenstein is a doctor of great ambition who is consumed by the mystery of life. This explains why he turns to science in an attempt to manipulate nature and bend the rules it plays by. Interestingly enough, at no point in the novel does Shelley condemn Victor’s curiosity or determination. Instead, she highlights that the doctor’s desire for knowledge turns into greed when he seemingly ignores the immoral or unethical decisions he must make. This clouded judgement and overly confident attitude is what leads to Frankenstein’s demise by the end of the story.
In the novel, Shelley uses Victor and the monster to exemplify the effects that knowledge has on an individual's mental health. This ruthless desire for knowledge portrays how perilous it can be, while “exploring themes of risk, responsibility and accountability,” as Victor’s act of creation ultimately leads to the demise of everyone close to him while the monster’s act of learning results in him despising himself and all of humanity (Hammond). Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein encounters a great amount of psychological suffering in the early years of his adult life due to his ambition to seek forbidden knowledge and create a living being. Even more, his mental health begins to decline as a result of the artificial being he created and his heedless pursuit for knowledge, which ultimately leads to the demise of everyone close to him. Ironically, Victor loses the people he truly cared for in the process of his research into "the hidden laws of nature" (Shelley 18).
In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ambition evolves into a form of obsession with revenge. But the result of vengeance is a curse to human life and its longevity. Both main characters in the novel, Victor and the monster become obsessed and let vengeance be their downfall. Victor was a very ambitious character who longed for knowledge and the presence of new life. He soon became obsessed with his creation and said,“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.
Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek
To visualize being happy often accompanies the need to learn as knowledge often parallels the idea of success. That is the enlightenment mindset of the young, overambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein where the belief in happiness lies within the ability to succeed in understanding the universe through intense study, however upon completion, only brings the opposite realization when an interest of study turns to an obsession that negatively impacted his life. Compared to today, science is still the supposed answer to create a happier, healthier life however many find themselves in a similar position of Victor where happiness has yet to be achieved even with great knowledge; trying to understand why does science/technology continue
Knowledge is power and power is what leads to self destruction of Victor Frankenstein; an easily influenced man who sows he is not the male figure he wants to be. Victor lived a simple life, starting as a child who has everything he possibly could possibly want; a family, a house, an above all happiness. However, it all alter when he loses his mother, the traumatic event causes the family to switch gear and face he heart ache to something else. Escapism through knowledge is what led Victor's secrecy. " The world was to me to secret which I desire to divine, curiosity, earnest research to learn hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.
