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Frankenstein Free Will And Fate Analysis

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The basis of the article includes the two opposing attitudes in the characters, Walton and Victor, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The differing beliefs are Free Will and Fate; Walton believing in free will and Victor in fate. John Reed’s article, “Will and Fate in Frankenstein”, argues the true theme of the novel, not just being of human will, but rather about self-enslavement. Reed believes that “while its ostensible subject is the pursuit of knowledge, its real concern is human ignorance and folly”, meaning that Frankenstein is full of oblivious human impulses. Through Walton, Victor, and the Monster Reed explains his thesis not through mere plot summary, but uses of allusions made, evidence, and character analysis producing his argument thoroughly.
Reed’s applies Mary …show more content…

The idea that their human will, the choices made, provided their fates, that in the story eventually lead to self-enslavement within themselves. Reed stated that “the three narrators of Frankenstein are all impatient, self-willed, and eager for knowledge causing them to be somewhat egotistic and blind when making decisions. Towards the end of the novel, the characters were displaying feelings of agony, remorse, and bondage due to now portraying “victim[s] of impulse who rivets his chains through his own blindness” rather than being associated as a gainer or murderer. Therefore proving that Reed was spot on with his assumption of men being able to “forever picture a destiny which he knows he cannot achieve, and as the consequences of his acts move further and further from his ideal, it becomes a horrid, mocking phantom that haunts him, spoiling all happiness, peace, and love.” That statement is basically the whole novel of Frankenstein; men wanting something they can’t have due to irrational impulses that lead to becoming

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