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Frankenstein Ambition Quotes

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Jumanah Zoud Mr. Good Humanities 20 1 March 2023 Ambition in Frankenstein In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, ambition can be compared to a burning flame that drives the characters toward their goals. If left unchecked, it can quickly grow out of control, consuming everything in its path and leading to its ultimate downfall. Several different characters in Frankenstein depict ambition, which includes the portrayal of ambition by Victor Frankenstein, Captain Walton, and the monster Frankenstein creates. Frankenstein is scientifically ambitious; his goal was to become accomplished within the scientific field by creating life. Walton is adventurous; he aimed to discover new lands and have unique experiences. The monster's ambition came from a desire …show more content…

The monster's curiosity, Frankenstein's scientific ambition, and Walton's extreme desire to explore ultimately result in the harm and downfall of both themselves and others around them. The monster's thirst for knowledge led him to uncover unsettling truths about his past, which drove him down a path of destructive behavior he would later regret. When the monster was created, he was immediately abandoned by his creator, Frankenstein. The monster could not comprehend his identity and surroundings, and had a sense of natural curiosity. Driven by this curiosity, the monster stumbled upon a note in his creator's pocket that revealed the truth about who he was, in the following quote "'Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?' "(Shelley 155). This …show more content…

Walton was willing to risk his own life and the lives of his crew to accomplish his ambition of discovering new lands. In a quote by Waltons, he stated, "I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race." (Shelley 19). This quote suggests that he would risk anything to accomplish his goals. His obsession with success blinded him to the dangers ahead, and Walton only realized the severity of his situation when his ship became trapped in ice. "There is something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my courage and hopes do not desert me. Yet it is terrible to reflect that the lives of all these men are endangered through me. If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause" (Shelley 263). This line was said after Walton realized the severity and risk of his actions and reconsidered if his ambitions were worth pursuing after hearing Frankenstein's

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This quote demonstrates Frankenstein’s degree of remorse and suggests to the reader how it will only get worse. Feeling responsible for the deaths of his younger brother William, Justine and the “vain sorrow” of his family, his anguish is at the degree that his soul is “torn by remorse, horror, and despair”. Furthermore, knowing that even if he tried to tell others, they would see it as the ravings of a madman. Even if they did believe him, due to the abilities of the monster, there was no hope in catching it. This inability to do anything further feeds his despair.

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Victor’s complete control over how Walton views his life indicates that Shelley supports the claim that people “put on a mask of benevolence” (Rousseau 29). To persuade Walton to continue his ambition of revenge on the monster, Victor tactfully proposes the reality of his circumstances and the role of the monster. As Rousseau claims, Victor acts to serve his own interests and must employ the help of another person to help him achieve his ambition. Further, when requesting Walton fulfill his ambition, he acknowledges that it is selfish to ask, yet as he dies he claims to be motivated by virtue. Though this could be read as an honest request of a dying man to do the virtuous thing for humanity, I see it as a manipulative tactic to achieve one’s goal by using the service others to get security for one’s self.

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Frankenstein Rhetorical Analysis Essay

608 Words | 3 Pages

All humans find themselves obsessively determined to succeed in gaining something, whether it be knowledge, a promotion, or someone’s love, only to find out that what they thought they were going to get is not what they actually wanted at all. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley describes this phenomena occurring within Victor Frankenstein’s internal narrative. He is obsessed and determined to discover the secret of life, and once he does he realizes its effects on not only his life, but others’ as well. Throughout the passage found on pages 30-31, Mary Shelley reveals the attitudes of curiosity, wonder, and determination through descriptive characterization of Victor Frankenstein and his thoughts, effectively bringing her own attitudes to fruition through language, symbols, and sentence structure.

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1376 Words | 6 Pages

After reading Frankenstein, there are many contrasting arguments on the development of the monster. Opposing the view of “tabula rasa”, it’s more accurate to state that the monster was born with righteous intentions. Through the reversal of the monster's intent, his self-devised desires, and how his personality was altered by others actions, Mary Shelley makes the reader realize that people are born inherently good in order to show how a corrupt mankind and society converts them into sustaining evil. The first instance where Mary Shelley proves this to be true is through how the monster’s intent changes. In the beginning of his chapters, he states that he yearns to be a part of the human’s society.

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Frankenstein Redemption Quotes

864 Words | 4 Pages

Now I am twenty-eight and in reality more illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen.” (Shelley 14) Walton was given an education, but chose to read his uncles books. He did not believe in himself to attack actual school. This affected him for the rest of his life. He swore he needed to discover a new path to the arctic.

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The Creature, like many humans, had the desire for revenge against the person who wronged him. When Shelley writes “Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge.

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It sickened him to his core that he made this, this creature that was supposed to be beautiful and perfect but instead reanimated a corpse. “Upon awakening, Frankenstein 'beheld the wretch--the miserable monster whom I had created'. The narcissism of these passages is apparent: the combined reflection and the desire to flee, the simultaneous idealization and debasement of the Other, the longing followed by rejection, the

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676 Words | 3 Pages

He then comes across a stranger and makes friends with him. Walton gets along so well with the stranger because they are similar. The stranger shows the same thirst for wisdom and scientific knowledge as Walton: “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (Shelley 17). Once again, this part of the novel isn’t confusing for me. Is this part of the letter related to your own life?

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“If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us” Adlai E. Stevenson. The politician explains his perception of creativity in this quote along with its connection to ambition by relating determination and faith to the discovery of knowledge. He believes that nothing can restrict our drive to seek information when one entirely devotes himself to the pursuit. Similarly, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature all attempt to acquire arcane knowledge at any and all costs. Their ambition drives them to take risks and even put the lives of themselves and others on the line.

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The Narrative Voice In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

1003 Words | 5 Pages

Instead of starting at the beginning of his life, she begins at the end and allows him to tell his own story. Walton remarks to his sister that he found the man drifting on a sledge on a slab of ice, "nearly frozen…and deadly emaciated by fatigue and suffering" (15). By introducing him in this way, Shelley catches the reader’s interest from the start, causing them to wonder what brought this man to the arctic in such a condition. After Frankenstein catches Walton up on the events that brought him thus far, Walton provides Shelley a way to tell the end of the story as well. Because Shelley wrote these portions as letters, they remain separate from the rest of the narrative, making the switch between Walton and Frankenstein less awkward and opening the door to develop her story and characters in a

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Frankenstein Monster Essay

1179 Words | 5 Pages

From the moment he was brought to life the only thing he knew about himself was that he was seen as a monster, "I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created," (Shelley, 59), which gave him the reasoning to act upon what he was labeled as. Except the monster was not a monster in the slightest. He was kind and was able to understand emotions. After stealing the families necessities he began to interpret the problems the family he was encountering when, "I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of the amiable family: it was poverty… I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that I doing this I inflicted pain on that cottagers, I abstained," (Shelley, 114), however since society had already labeled this creature based on the outward appearance they were unable to look past it.

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1921 Words | 8 Pages

However, upon realizing had created an abomination as he finished, he flees, “…now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). After a long and grueling process, Frankenstein regarded the creature as horrid, malicious, heartless, inhuman, and uncouth – simply, a monster. He wanted to create life so bad that it became an obsession for him as he would go to any extreme to reach his goal.

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758 Words | 4 Pages

(Shelly 42, 43) Here, the effects of his continued pursuit of knowledge and neglect of well-being is shown evidently. Once Frankenstein creates the monster, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge is frightened into silence. He then presently returns to the outside world,

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