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Frankenstein Research Paper

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The classic novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a masterpiece from the 1800’s that explores themes such as life, death, and man vs nature. Mary Shelley has the reader contemplating whether it is victor or the creature who is the real monster over the course of the novel. At first glance, the creature appears to be the monster with his unhuman-like physique and unusual facial structures but over time, the readers start to realize that Victor abandons his creation without giving him a second glance, Victor fails to take responsibility for his actions, and he tries to play god and becomes consumed by his own ambitions all while sacrificing his physical and mental health. These three points suggest that Victor is the true monster of the …show more content…

The creature would have never gotten to the point he did if he had had a good role model to guide him through the way the world works. “He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.”(p.66) The creature’s quote shows that the creature acted the way he did due to hatred caused by Victor’s abandonment. As the creator, Victor should have been present during the creature's early days. He should have taught him basic world functions such as love, language, and what makes the creature different from the humans. Instead, Victor abandons his creation the moment he lays eyes on him. “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I created, I rushed out of the room.”(p.59) This left the creature all alone, leaving him figure out everything for himself all while leaving his creature exposed to all sorts of hate, discrimination, and loneliness. …show more content…

After the creature kills Victor’s best friend, Henry, Victor refuses to take responsibility in creating the creature. “I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of crime.”(p.192) By blaming the creature's action as a curse rather than the consequence of his own creation, he distances himself from the tragedy. The same thing happens when Victor’s family gets murdered by the creature. He writes, “He was the murderer! I could not doubt it. The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact.”(p.217) Although he is overwhelmed with grief and the desire to seek revenge, he places all the blame on the creature. He once again avoids accountability of his own creation that killed his entire family. Another example of Victor failing to take responsibility is when the creature confronts Victor, demanding a mate as it is his right to have a partner in a world that hates him so much. Victor originally agrees but then changes his mind, justifying his decision by claiming the creation of a second creature would start a “Race of devils” and that he would not be able to live with such a responsibility. He is once again refusing to take accountability and is leaving his creation fend for himself with nothing that can help or support him through his

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It was hard to tell in close detail how Mary Shelley was trying to define the term, “monster”, the creature may be generalized as a monster based off of his actions, not what he looks like. When Victor learned that he could create life, that wouldn’t exactly make him more monstrous because it may have been his curiosity that drove him to create the creature. One thing that Victor did do which was “monstrous” was allowing Justine to be committed of a crime and killed in chapter 8. Victor only does seem to care for his revenge against his own creation stating, “allow me the rest I so much desire; or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me, Walton, that he shall not escape” (Chapter

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Victor also had to deal with the consequences of his actions. He was ostracized by society and was viewed as a monster and a criminal. He was forced to flee from his home and had to live in hiding. He was unable to find peace or solace in any place he went. The creature, on the other hand, had

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Because of the fact that Victor was the reason that his creature was isolated from society, his creation kills off his family in a sense making his karma. Eventually his creation kills enough of his family and friends for Victor to be alone. Victor's consequences of his actions come back to him in the end, feeling the same way his creature did when the first and only person to see and value in him rejects him, and makes society reject him

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He learns from his previous rash actions. But still, Victor doesn’t take on complete responsibility. Victor isn’t at Mary Shelly’s ideal yet. Taking on full responsibility would mean either taking the creature into his own arms as a father would a son, or killing the creature. Instead, Victor sets out to make a female companion for the creature, so that Victor doesn’t have to see the creature ever again.

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1281 Words | 6 Pages

Victor would stop at nothing to finish his project and became so obsessed that he was isolated from his family and friends. His way of collecting lifeless matter for his creation is unethical and morally wrong. Eventually, he is punished for his actions: “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.” (pg.56) Additionally, extreme devotion to the building of his creation caused Victor mental distress due to the fact that he neglected his own needs in order to work exclusively on the creature: “I had deprived myself of rest and health.”

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After the Creature escapes and is forced to grow up on its own, it learns basic needs and emotions, and how society treats people like him. The Creature being shunned away by everyone, including his creator, takes a toll on his mental health and self-esteem, and he expresses his depression when he tells Victor, “You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me” (Shelley 147). The Creature feels no remorse for his actions, as he deals with the immense emotions he feels about being abandoned. Victor's tragic flaw is that he never accepts he made a mistake until it was too late. He turns his back on the creature which ultimately causes his

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Furthermore, Victor's decision to neglect the Creature furthers nature's retribution. Initially, the nature of the Creature is kind, thoughtful, and curious. However, as he interacts with humanity, he devolves into a malicious nature. Rather than this being the Creature's true nature, it is the result of his environment. Nobody was there to nurture the Creature because it was grotesque; thus, society rejected it, resulting in its malicious nature.

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Though Victor is the Creator, the Creature is to blame for his wrongdoings. The creator did not do his job as a creator. The creature acts out or learns who he is in three main ways. Through revenge, society and how they act toward the Creature, and Victor's own negligence/rejectance toward his creation.

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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

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Victor took no responsibility for the unnatural being he pushed forth upon the world. The creation was alone and depressed describing himself as a, ““poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 106). The Creature was born without anything, forced to learn on his own it would be impossible for him to separate right from wrong. All he knew was that even his creator, the one who love him unconditionally, did

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From the moment he is created, the creature knows he is not wanted by Victor. Shelly writes, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being

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888 Words | 4 Pages

From the moment Victor decided to create the Creature, he begins his assertion of dominance over the Creature. By creating a “monster” solely for his own

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1434 Words | 6 Pages

Victor selfishly creates the Creature to gain prestige, pretentiously claiming himself as a human god when he succeeds and saying it was for the sake of humanity. In reality, he creates a grotesque being and abandons it the moment his illusions shatter, making the creature a victim because he denies the responsibility of raising it causing hardships for it. Victor also believes the creature is a reprobative individual since it kills his brother and foists Justine’s execution, thus he acts inimical towards it throughout the whole novel as he invectively exclaims, “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes” (93).

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1724 Words | 7 Pages

Being abandoned by his creator, the monster has no one to guide him, no one to teach him right from wrong and good from evil. When the creature is first abandoned by Victor, he’s confused and doesn’t understand that he has been abandoned. The creature explains how he felt when he woke up, “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses” (Shelley 99). The creature won’t fully realize the impact of being abandoned until later in the story. Victor also suffers from isolation from his

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1135 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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