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Responsibility And Blame In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Throughout the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor acts as a lousy creator and father figure toward his creation. The Monster consistently makes it known that all of his struggles are at the hands of Victor Frankenstein, even though he does not accept this burden. Responsibility and blame are proven characteristics of Victor Frankenstein as he allows Justine to take the blame for William and accuses The Monster of the murder of his loved ones, when Victor is ultimately liable. The Monster kills William in cold blood out of spite toward Victor not taking care of him as his creator. With the idea that nobody will believe him about The Monster committing this murder, Victor refuses to confess and take responsibility, allowing his …show more content…

As Victor sees himself in trouble with The Monster, he lets the love of his life leave his side because Frankenstein is so caught up with his “enemy”. His selfishness makes him blind to the fact that The Monster is not coming for him. Even when Victor could not find The Monster he, “…was beginning to conjecture that some fortunate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces,” without even considering that The Monster was there for Elizabeth (Shelley 189). Once The Monster takes Elizabeth from Victor on top of Clerval and William, Frankenstein finally devotes the rest of his life to serving revenge to his creation rather than accepting the responsibility of these tragic events. He starts his rampage by telling the criminal magistrate, “This is the being whom I accuse, are for whole detection and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power.” (Shelley 193). The rage that fills Victor proves that he blames The Monster for the victims and seeks revenge rather than accepting responsibility for his creation by feeling …show more content…

For The Monster, he had to completely learn everything in this strange world by himself with only a, “…hope for succour, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred” at his creator Victor Frankenstein (Shelley 131). The Monster feels the uttermost rage toward Victor for his abandonment. Not only does he leave The Monster to fend for himself, but he also makes him look like an outright beast that Victor, “…then cast [The Monster] abroad as an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.” (Shelley 131). Seeking vengeance, The Monster turns to violence against Victor’s loved ones for deserting him, which shows the irony of Frankenstein’s reprisal later in the

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The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

Initially, characters in Frankenstein not taking responsibility show the reader the potential dangers of pain and death in numerous situations in the novel. The reader of Frankenstein sees various examples of Shelley’s warnings of the dangers in not taking responsibility in the first couple chapters in the novel. Shelley first points out the dangers of not taking responsibility when Victor first creates the monster on a stormy November night when he was shocked with the “horror of that countenance [the monster]”(Shelley 44) before he vacated his home, abandoning his creation which fueled the monster with the hatred that he needed to punish his creator. Shelley’s Sliwowski 2 illumination of Victor and the monster as father and son, shows the importance of a parental

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986 Words | 4 Pages

The case against Victor Frankenstein did not reach court further noting the lack of severity for his case. The next quote presents the reader with insight into Victor’s thoughts concerning what his creation has done: “When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation” (Shelley 112). This quotation portrays Victor’s guilt and is a turning point in the novel where he realizes the monster is his responsibility and he must put an end to its madness. Victor received little to no repercussions concerning his illegal behavior. He should have received a penalty as the death of William is indirectly his fault.

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply. The creature was known as a monster and was doomed due to his appearance.

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659 Words | 3 Pages

In life, you can blame a lot of people and you can wallow in self-pity, or you can pick yourself up and say, ‘Listen, I have to be responsible for myself.’ Howard Schultz. Being responsible means that you are accountable for your actions/duties. The novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly in 1818. The novel revolves around the main characters Victor Frankenstein, The monster, and Elizabeth.

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768 Words | 4 Pages

Logically, the reader can see that Victor being sick and days away from his hometown means that Victor could not have killed William. However, the monster would have been able to leave Victor’s residents and make it to his hometown to kill William. Moreover, the monster blames Victor for creating him. As described in the book “Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim” (Shelley 144).

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Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

Although the question of “who is to blame” Is up in the air, it’s quite obvious that the monster was directly to blame for the murders. But, when you think about the fact that he was merely created and not born, so he wasn’t able to differentiate right from wrong, or how to control his feelings. His anger was stemmed from his hate of his creator Victor. The wrongs that Victor did unto the creature is what caused the creature’s anger to overtake whatever bit of logical thinking and ability to reason and in a way, throw it out it out the window. So, physically speaking, the creature was to blame.

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616 Words | 3 Pages

The Blame Game Throughout the gothic novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, blame is often thrown in two directions. Victor, who created the monster for his own superficial reasons in order to become famous and have the gratification for “conquering death”, is blamed by many. On the other hand, the monster could also be the one to blame, as it is his own destructive actions that bring grief and sorrow to many. From my point of view, there is a simple question and answer. Why did the monster feel like he needed to wreak havoc in order to get empathy and understanding for his own isolated feelings?

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1134 Words | 5 Pages

This much is true for Victor’s failure to take responsibility for not only teaching his creation about life but also failure to take responsibility for the actions of his creation. “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy… you shall be my first victim” (153). Victor’s knows that he is responsible for the death of William because he abandoned his creation and made the monster learn the hard way that he would not be accepted into society. But he has no choice but to let Justine take the fall for the death of his brother because he fears being seen as a madman.

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939 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is an aspiring scientist who decides that it’s a good idea for him to play “God” and tries to create a human out of random body parts from people who died, but instead ends up creating a monster. After this, he decides to head back home, and on his way there, his father sends him word that his brother has been murdered. When he hears this, he begins to worry, because he has no idea where the monster is. When he finally gets home, he sees the monster, and starts to be convinced that the monster is responsible for the death of his

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444 Words | 2 Pages

Such as in Chapter 23, Victor expresses “My rage is unspeakable when I reflect on the murder, whom I turned lose upon society, still exists. To refuse my just demand; I have but one resource, and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (Shelley 96). Victor is filled in rage when the monster kills his loved ones and the love of his life, Elizabeth. Likewise, Victor's actions, that he blames fate for his doings, led to Victor's final reasoning in life, which is to kill the monster.

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819 Words | 4 Pages

The monster continues by reassuring the creator of his independent intelligence and power over the creature by telling Frankenstein, “This you alone can do”. Here, the creature assumes a role of submissiveness and reliance on Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s monster gains the sympathy of the reader who, despite condemning the murder of innocent people, commiserate with the lonely creature who is in search of an acquaintance, which he will likely never find. The monster also displays power and aggressiveness over Frankenstein; “You are my creator; but I am your master; obey!” The monster wants to desolate Victor’s heart, not by killing him directly,

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2963 Words | 12 Pages

As Victor realized that his creation was not as he hoped, he abandoned his work, which ultimately led to the monster spiraling into a spiteful state: “I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?” (Shelley 147). When humans feel as though the world is against them, they often tend to retaliate against their oppressors with spite as a coping mechanism. Created to resemble an evolved form of humanity, the monster imitates this behavior as he felt shunned and neglected by those he sought to assimilate with.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

The monsters revenge on Frankenstein, drives him too to be full of hatred and need for vengeance because he destroyed everything good in his life. He feels as the death of his loved ones is his fault because he is the one that created the horrid creature in the first place (Brackett). “As time passed away I became more calm; misery had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for me was the consciousness of them” (Shelley 158). The monster wanted Victor to feel the same thing as him, lonely and sadness. The monsters revenge works, Victor becomes rejected by people and has nobody but himself.

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