Responsibility In Frankenstein

INTRO: In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, there are evident themes of responsibility and personal moral standards that are prevalent throughout the book. The reader is introduced to the moral dilemma which both Victor and the creature face, and the consequences that follow. With unchecked scientific curiosity comes a mountain of consequences, but whether to face them or simply ignore them is another story and one that Victor is all too familiar with. Victor's lack of personal responsibility from the beginning ultimately causes his situation and the death of his family, friends, and finally himself. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein demonstrates an example of scientific responsibility which can be related to the scientists and medical researchers

When we first meet him, the reader is meant to believe that Victor is capable of being morally and scientifically responsible. As the story goes on, Victor slips deeper and deeper into his work and seems to be blinded by drive and ambition. There is also no doubt that he is prepared for the responsibility he would soon hold after the creature was born during the creature’s design, but the realization of what he’s created soon dawns on him, and that sense of self-responsibility is gone. “During these last days, I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable. In a fit of enthusiastic madness, I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being. This was my duty, but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had a greater claim to my attention because they include a greater proportion of happiness or misery” (Shelley 263). Victor’s feelings of responsibility shift from taking care of the creature to taking care of his own kind. His hopes of saving mankind from the creature’s wrath are shortlived as most of his family and friends die at the hands of Victor’s creation. He seems to be reluctant to take much blame for what he has bestowed upon society and instead blames the

“Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, of the existence of the whole human race” (Shelley 202). This is a moment of realization and dreads that if he were to create a second monster, he would be neglecting his responsibilities to the whole human race. This is really the first time in the story that Victor examines his options and takes responsibility for his previous actions by not creating another creature. He finally sees the error of his ways by inflicting the earth as such a being as what he’s created and realizes he cannot in good conscious do that again. Although he chose to take responsibility now, he never stops blaming the creature for his actions and never takes full responsibility for everything that he