Ethical Issues In Frankenstein

Frankenstein Frankenstein is a thought-provoking novel that is both creepy with its theme of reanimating the dead, and sad, because of the loneliness of both Frankenstein and his monster. Frankenstein challenges ethics through the question of how Victor Frankenstein should treat the living, feeling creature that he created. Most of all, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley delves into the topic of actions and their consequences through Victor Frankenstein’s regret over his previous actions because of their consequences, the chain of actions of Frankenstein and his monster that links the story together, and the components that neither Frankenstein nor his monster had control over, but still affected them.

Frankenstein begins in the far North on a

Much of the time, the now older Frankenstein expresses regret for his actions, because of their disastrous consequences. Much of it is foreshadowing the horrible events that took place as well, and it adds a sense of suspense to the book. In Chapter 22, speaking of his own fear of the monster killing those he loved, Frankenstein states that that “(fear)… would clasp (him) and cling to (him) forever” (Shelley, 201). This shows that because Frankenstein angered the monster, Frankenstein was always in fear of his creation, regretting his own choice to make the monster in the first place. Victor Frankenstein also felt guilt at having made a creature that was killing people right and left, just to get back at Frankenstein. Victor felt responsible for those deaths, because they were done by the monster he created, and done for Frankenstein’s sake. Frankenstein said,” Each and all would abhor me and hunt me from the world (if they knew) my unhallowed acts and the crimes which had their source in me” (Shelley 191). The guilt that Frankenstein felt even just within the presence of his fellow humans as a cause of the monster he created killing so many people. Victor’s decision to go to college led him to meeting the professors, M. Krempe and M. Waldman, who told Victor to give up on the teachings of Agrippa and Paracelsus and devote his learning to other areas of science, which led Victor to creating his monster. In Frankenstein’s words, that day “decided (his) future destiny” (Shelley 39). Actions, even just occurrences, can have outcomes that affect a