How Does Victor Influence Frankenstein

Characters influence each other’s emotions and actions, acting as mentors, and the effects can be positive or negative. Though people tend to believe that mentors usually have positive, beneficial impacts on their acquaintances, this does not always reign true. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein serves as a mentor who severely affects his living creation. The mainly harmful influence affects the being’s views on life, and in turn, leads to the downfall of both of the main characters. Victor’s negative influence begins in the moment that the creature is brought to life. When his creation was no longer inanimate, Frankenstein essentially abandoned him. The creature ran away, and after learning to read, discovered the pure

Though the creature had been drowned in revenge for his creator, he still put much of his emotional dependence in him. So when Frankenstein initially agreed on giving the monster a female companion, he was no longer doing harmful acts. His feeling of revenge subsided and though he was anxious, felt eager and joyful. “A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me” (Shelley 121) As the monster watched a being like himself be created, he felt happy. He was beginning to see a positive outlook on the world again, having a big plan to live in peace and seclusion with his new companion. This was all because of Victor, as he was the one making the new female and allowing his other monster have happiness. Victor’s mentor-like influence gave the monster hope. This is very significant because it is the destruction of this very happiness that leads to the horrors that were to be endured by both of the main characters soon afterwards in the

But those feelings of hatred return to his reality after his new happiness and hope was destroyed. “‘Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you’” (Shelley 122) The monster was brought back to his revengeful state because of Frankenstein’s destruction of the female companion he was making. He was no longer hopeful for a peaceful future, he destined himself to ruin the life of the one who gave him life. His creator abandoned him once again, which led him not only to feel hatred, but to kill Victor’s wife. It was Frankenstein’s influence on the monster that led to his life falling apart at the hands of his creation. Furthermore, these themes of hatred and horror are significant to the downfalls of these characters, and hence, the novel as a whole. The deaths were horrifying for Victor and the loneliness and betrayal were fueling the