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Duality In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The creations affectionate trait developed when he became more desperate. The creation asks Victor for a friend because he is lonely and wants a friend to love and care for. “I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but as one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create” (133). He wants someone who is like him to relate to and to be friends with. The creation is feeling alone and he wants love. Later in the novel, the creation meets Robert Walton and explains to him about his regrets about murdering these people. “But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. …show more content…

The creation describes how he wanted love and friendship as his ultimate goal and not murdering many. The trait that is more pronounced is the creations murderous habits. This characteristic is stronger because the creation’s violence overshadows his lovingness. At the core of the creation, he is murderous and evil. Mary Shelley makes this character complex by using duality from opposing qualities that play off of eachother. The creation kills to make other people feel the same pain and loneliness that he is feeling. Before he kills the boy he sees a young girl playing by the water. The girl falls into the water and the creation rushes to help her. “I rushed from my hiding place and with extreme labour, fro the force of the current, saved her and dragged her to shore. She was senseless, and I endeavoured by every means in my power to restore animation, when I was suddenly interrupted by the approach of a rustic, who was probably the person whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my

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Victor’s creation desires the feeling of mutual love, and not just unrequited love. Eventually, it is time to stop being passive and actually becoming involved in an active, mutually beneficial relationship. How terrible would it be for somebody to grow up, and still only have crushes on people, but never actually have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Victor’s creation is so desperate for companionship that he says, “If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature’s sake, I would make peace with the whole kind” (102). Here, we see that Victor’s creation is portraying himself as more than generous, more than reasonable, and even if what the creation says is not true, it is still worth at least

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The next selfish action portrayed in the creation scene was when he left his creature all alone. Rather than help the creature develop his senses or understanding of the world, Victor runs off in fear of his own creation. This will lead to many consequences later in the novel. In conclusion, the creation scene signifies Victor’s isolation and selfishness.

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It is shown in both this quote and the actions of the creature that he acts out in defiant rage due to the lack of love and affection he ever received. Victor is asked by the creature to create another life, just like that of the creature himself. Victor’s creation begs for this in hopes of being able to live out the rest of his days loved and cared for. Victor does still care about his creation because Victor himself states: "No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs" (Shelly 40).

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Through his horrid expressions and denial of accompaniment, he succumbs to a pitiful and wretched mindset. The creature's deformity stems from his unnatural and inhumane birth. Through gaining knowledge, he laments that he will be subject to a life of loneliness as he is the only one of his kind. Comparing his own life to Paradise Lost, he associates himself with both Adam, in jealousy of his companion, and as Satan through his creator's abandonment. The creature grieves over how Adam "...had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous," but lives in misery as he considers Satan more agreeable, as "...like him, when I [he] viewed the bliss of my [his] protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within..."

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Firstly, Victor lacks empathy for his creation because he does not see it as human, despite sharing the same qualities, and ignores its demands. The creation leaves Victor and observes human life, only for human’s to reject it because of its physical deformities, then returns. In one case, the creation spies on people and learns what ‘family’ is, and momentarily talks with a blind man who sympathizes for him. The blind man insists that “the hearts of men … are full of brotherly love and charity” (Shelley 96) despite the creations hostile encounters with humans. Convinced, the creation asks Victor to create a companion, only for him to break his promise because of fear despite also understanding the creation’s struggle.

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Ironically, the creation doesn't get along with his creator, which spikes the main plot of the story. Contrary to Victor’s belief, his creature is indeed human as he has sensations and necessities as a normal human would. Victor’s creation is human in view of the fact that he has emotions. As the creature sleeps, he has a dream of possessing a family, on which he has been spying for a lengthy time (Grimly 99). This illustration shows that the creature has a craving for a family, and has a dream like a human would dream of something they want.

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By trying to ‘play god’ the reality of life was too taunting and bizarre to handle which paved a way for fear, judgment and hate to creep in. Disregarding the physical and mental distortion the monster had, he was still capable of feeling emotion, curiosity, and behavior which grew immensely every time he was rejected through fear and judgment as he yearned for human connection. In the early stages of pure life, the monster was born to no love or support and was created on the foundation of abandonment and neglect which was unjust. In a nature versus nurture standpoint, the lack of nature and the failure of responsibility from society, and especially a parentlike figure of providing nurture illustrated how quickly vengeance and retaliation can arise. Victor quotes, prior to the creation of life, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.

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He initiates the hostile relationship, threatening the creation, “We are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight in which one must fall” (103). Just as Victor abandons the creation from the day he creates him, Victor demands for the creation to leave him. Victor’s first instinct is to escape, avoiding his creature, and the responsibility he has to him as the creator. He rejects love in the relationship, while the creation seeks it from his estranged author.

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The only way it becomes a murderer is when its main goal is to seek revenge. The creature is pissed off because he has been abandoned his whole life by his creator and with no one to take care of him he is left alone in this belligerent world. He can not simply be existing in this world where he has nobody to love. That is all he is looking for. He wants to love someone and feel secured by another’s love.

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He only ever wanted love and to be loved by others for who he is. But not even his own creator could stand to look at him without "disgust filling (his) heart. " The creature becomes hostile when others point out his abnormalities, fueling his rage. It is when he realizes that it isn't his fault, that the monster realizes the only way to ease his pain in through the love another

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Mary Shelley crafts Frankenstein with striking comparisons of the inside and outside. Shelley is able to describe characters with great detail to paint vivid pictures. These images lead the reader to thoughts about the character. At the same time, the characters are able to reveal their inner selves. Mary Shelley is able show characters' inward self and outward appearance in developing the theme of the inside and outside.

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1581 Words | 7 Pages

Victor’s descent into a path of immorality is documented when he cruelly abandons his creation. Victor narrates his immediate reaction to seeing his creation become imbued with life: “his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes that seemed almost of the same colour as the dark white sockets in which they were set; his shrivelled complexion and straight black eyes. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room,” (46) Victor finally succeeds in the objective of his enterprise, however his first reaction to his creation’s birth is one of utter disgust.

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

The creation was abandoned by Victor and set out to the world on its own. The creation becomes vengeful towards Victor and does everything in its power to get back at him. The creation kills and harms many people in Victor's life. Throughout the novel Shelly displays the ideas that the creature is drawn to evil because of society’s prejudices

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819 Words | 4 Pages

Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

By creating the creature with no previous knowledge of how he came to be, Shelley is setting the table for the creature to have a hard time adapting to the world the creature was born in to. By creating the creature with “confused and indistinct.” (105) memories of the “original era”, Shelley is planting the seed of the tree that will eventually grow into the creature curiosity about himself and the world around him. She is also setting the creature up, like Walton and Victor to be unprepared for the crusade he is attempting. This is shown when the creature started to experience complex thoughts such “as why Felix appeared so miserable and Agatha so sad” (117)

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