Shelley's genius is presenting the idea that human beings are capable of accomplishing extraordinary feats. However, there are natural limitations and in ignoring them, bad things tend to happen. Victor exceeded these parameters in creating life. Sure enough, when he realized the folly of his action, it was too late.
At first glance, Mary Shelley displays Victor’s creature as a blood-thirsty, grotesque monster, but as the story develops, it is revealed as pure and innocent, however it was corrupted due to the abuse and suffering that society caused him. Through this character development, Mary Shelley perhaps wanted to tell the readers that everyone is born righteous but they can be changed due to the actions of the people around them. Throughout the plot of the novel, the theme of rejection and isolation is discussed many times; however, in chapter 5, we see the beginning of the monster’s life and how his own creator rejecting him affects him. At first, Victor says “I had selected his features as beautiful.
The creature felt resentment towards Victor because he had destroyed the female creature he was creating for him. According to the novel, the creature says, "My enemy is not impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall destroy him." (Pg. 112). The creature killed William, Victor's brother, to make him and others feel miserably sad. This evidence shows that the creature had killed people just to make Victor and his family suffer and feel as miserable as the creature has one day
Victor’s negligence towards the Creature is shown throughout the book. Victor abandons the Creature and completely forgets about the Creature’s existence or his role in the existence of the Creature for months until his little brother is killed, this shows how self-important he is that he forgets about the 8-foot Creature he gave life to and is responsible for. At the time the Creature was given life to, he was like a baby, he was traitless and required guidance. The Creature is grotesque looking, but his thoughts and feelings are of a compassionate being. Victor only cares about himself and gets the people who love and care for him killed because of his selfishness and is still accepted by society.
Throughout the novel, Victor's actions are motivated by his own desires and ambitions, often at the expense of those around him. In Chapter 7, he reflects on his pursuit of knowledge and states, "It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world" (Shelley 50). With this quote, Shelley shows Victor's preoccupation with his own intellectual pursuits, which take priority over his relationships and the well-being of those around him. Another example of Victor's lack of empathy can be seen when he creates the creature without considering the potential consequences for the creature's well-being. He states, "I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (Shelley 34).
Victor had two loving parents that gave him everything he ever needed or wanted to fulfill his physiological and emotional needs. Since Victor did not do this for his monster, the monster would kill all of Victor’s family and friends that he loved which would bring destruction to Victor’s life. For the rest of his days, Victor would go on a search for his monster to destroy it or die trying. Unlike Victor, the monster was never loved because of the way he looked. He was left alone, even by his creator, and lived a miserable life always escaping people that would “attacked [him], until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (Shelley).
Emily Littles Teacher: Toni Weeden Honors Senior English 17 November 2017 The Story In the novel Frankenstein the creature is a figment of Victor's imagination. Mary Godwin, not Shelley at the time, wrote Frankenstein about a nightmare that she had one night, “The dream was a morbid one about the creation of a new man by a scientist with the hubris to assume the role of god.” (Mary Shelley, Biography).
The fact that Victor sees the creature as such a vile thing shows us that Victor doesn’t have any respect whatsoever for it. The creature states that he was ‘dependent on none and related to none’ which also
When Shelley states that “life and death” appeared to victor as “ideal bounds,” it is evident that Victor seeks to redefine mortality, which was previously defined by god. Victor himself states that he seeked to “pour a torrent of light into our dark world,” this imagery is eerily similar to the story of creation in Genesis. Shelley makes this connection to further emphasize the godly attributes that Victor wants to obtain. Moreover Victor goes to say that a “A new species would bless me as it’s creator.” By using the word “bless” Shelley strengthens her connection and argument against organized religion.
This explains that the first thing Victor notices is the creature's awful appearance. Victor does not want to develop a relationship with him because he looks so ugly. Because of this, he no longer wants the creature to be a part of his life because he is embarrassed by the way he looks. It's important to show that Victor is disappointed in his creature because he is not beautiful or appealing in any way. Victor wants nothing to do with his grotesque-looking creature.
Victor’s high sense of self-worth and his overreaching ambitions are key factors in his quest to create life. Shelley’s characterization of Victor demonstrates how he has an underlying desire to overthrow the natural act of creating life and become one of divinity, one who can create life on his own. He desires to break the barrier of life and death and change the natural cycle of life and
People today are so concerned with how they can better their life by speeding up the natural process of things. Victor also wishes to see modifications in lifestyle, by creating life himself. He becomes obsessed with the idea of being a human creator of life that it leads to corruption. One of shelley’s arguments goes along with how modifying the natural process of some things can lead to monstrous actions. The life that Victor created was not able to fit into society correctly, but was also too powerful to be destroyed.
In reality, he is disgusted by the sight of his creation so he abandons it leaving it all alone in the world without any guidance and runs away to the next room. Victor himself suffered from being a social outcast and now he bestowed the same feeling onto the creature by abandoning him. By treating the creature as an outcast, “he will become wicked … divide him, a social being, from society, and you impose upon him the irresistible obligations—malevolence and selfishness” (Caldwell). Not only is Victor selfish for abandoning his creature but he is shallow as well. Instead of realizing that he achieved his goal of bringing life to an inanimate body he runs way because of how hideous it is.
Victor was a lonely guy and all he wanted was a friend so he took science to the extreme. All throughout Mary Shelley's novel she tells a story about how Victor the creator is clearly the real monster and his creation is the victim. Victor
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines how the presence of a mother, negatively or positively, affects the development of a child. Victor’s mother, Caroline Frankenstein, dies while Victor is still a young man (he is about 17 years old), breaking their relationship between mother and son. Because Victor loses his bond with his mother, he is unable to act as a mother would when he creates his creature. Caroline Frankenstein’s absence in Victor’s life creates a disunion between the mother and child bond, which is evident in Victor’s creation and his fragmented relationship with the creature. Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother, portrayed a traditional mother in the Frankenstein household, until her death.
