Jack Consiglio
Mr. Rogai
British Literature
17 May 2023
Regret in Frankenstein
What is regret? How does it help hinder or grow the mental side of people's lives? These questions and many more have been carefully thought out and examined in the podcast, “The Meaning of Life and the Power of Regret.” This podcast explores the many effects of regret, different types of regret, how people face regrets, and what is the right way to deal with regret and how regret can actually help. The novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley tells the story of a man who creates an unforgiving creature and how it affects all the people around him in his life. In the novel, the protagonist Victor, faces regret many times. The big argument in the podcast is,
…show more content…
In the podcast, Thompson and Pink argue the fact that to overcome regrets and use them in a positive way, sharing them with others could be a viable solution. In turn, the people that you tell are most likely to help you come up with ways to overcome these regrets and use the regrets in a positive way. In the novel, most of the book is about Victor sharing his life story with Walton. Victor shows the readers that he has many regrets through telling his life story. Contradicting the argument in the podcast, when Victor tells Walton his story, it never really has a positive affect on him. This could be because Walton isn't someone Victor actually knows. Victor didn't have the courage to tell the ones he actually has relationships with. Why did Victor choose to tell Walton his problems rather than the other characters? The ones that Victor loves most are hurt by his action of creating this monster and hiding what was really going on. Characters such as Alphonse, Henry, Elizabeth, William and Justine fall in some way to the violence of the creature. Throughout the novel, Victor's relationships with these characters weaken over time. At the beginning of the book when Victor is settling in on Waltons boat, Victor admits that, “I have lost everything and cannot begin life anew”(Shelley 17). Through Victor's story telling, he realizes at the end, there is nothing in his power he can do to stop the monster. This could be a very different conversation if Victor was able to open up to the people he loved