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Responsibility In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

455 Words2 Pages

At this point in the novel, what assertion(s) can be made about Victor? Think specifically about his behavior during Justine’s trial, with his various treatments of his creature thus far. What are Victor’s responsibilities regarding what has happened so far? Is he responsible? Partially? To what extent/degree? At this point in the novel, Victor can be seen as a responsible individual; however, when the circumstances seem to affect him most, he starts to change his morals. When it comes to responsibility, he often finds it coincidental when it’s upon other people, but when it comes to his own creation, doesn't seem as amused toward wanting to claim responsibility; cowardly. Consider the thoughts and behaviors of the monster. What appears to be some of Shelly's comments regarding human nature thus far? What State of Nature commentary is being made thus far? Shelley conveys such implications upon human nature through the relationship of external appearance vs internal feelings. As for the monster, he is introduced to be created through innocence. His nature is to be kind, but society only seems to judge his external appearance; as of human nature does. To what extent is the novel driven by Romantic tenets thus far? …show more content…

One of the most important tenets pertaining to romantics is being distanced from the rest of society. With this, Victor Frankenstein is the perfect example; Choosing to go off to college, but in all failing to keep in touch with his family. More because, he finds himself so busy experiencing the beauty of what is around him, he forgets what is most important. Up to this point, it is frequent Victor runs from his problems rather than confronting them. Such as preferably not dealing with the creation of his own monster through ignoring it, and letting it hurt those he

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Neglecting the responsibility of one’s own possession leads to a blamable consequence. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, proves that Victor’s actions and choices make him blamable for causing all the tragic accidents. However, his failure to take responsibility as the owner starts all the disaster in the novel. His poor treatment, negative dictions, and rude behavior towards his own creation leads to his blame for affecting people around him.

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485 Words | 2 Pages

Another time in the novel where it shows Victor being a moral monster is in chapter 8, page 67, paragraph 1, it goes on to say “ A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me.” This quote shows how even though Victor saw the creature in the woods the night before the murder, he sat there and let Justine take all the blame for the crime instead of speaking up and confessing. His reasoning behind not confessing and helping Justine is because he didn’t want to be seen as mad, Victor cared more about his ego and how people looked at him over helping others and doing the right

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793 Words | 4 Pages

Despite Victor being punished for creating a hideous creature, justice is served without being fair, nor just. In the story, relatives of Victor die despite being innocent or having done any wrongdoing, such as William, Elizabeth, Henry, or even, his own father. Victor no doubt did wrong, he played god with nature and created life, but rather than cherishing it, he abandoned it. In retrospect, Victor could’ve done better and is seen as evil, however, acting on his human nature, he isn’t in fact evil, but rather clumsy or human.

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960 Words | 4 Pages

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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566 Words | 3 Pages

In the movie and the book, Victor does most of this to further his own knowledge. Now he may have wanted to do this to better humankind and “avenge” his brother, but his main problem was that he wanted to further his intelligence, which shows his inhumane actions. In the text, it states “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine” (Mary Shelley, Chapter 2). This shows that he would dig into the world’s secrets and do’s and don'ts just to further his own knowledge. Overall, Victor is the true monster because he committed blasphemous actions to further his knowledge and

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974 Words | 4 Pages

The Dangers Of Responsibility Responsibility is the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. Responsibility is something that every human needs. A lack of responsibility can be harmful to the person and the people around them and a plethora of responsibility can change a person 's life. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley’s portrayal of Victor as selfish suggests that not taking responsibility can lead to pain, death, and the suffering of others as the reader sees in the novel which relates to today 's society of powerful countries not taking responsibility for the weapons that they create, and the damage that is revealed as a result.

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559 Words | 3 Pages

In previous chapters, Victor would always avoid his responsibilities but this slowly changes. Whether it was due to fear or selfishness, Victor continued on a path of avoidance. The creature changes this when he kills all of Victor’s loved ones. “I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure; it moulded my feelings and allowed me to be calculating and calm at periods when otherwise delirium or death would have been my portion” (Chapter 24). Without anyone to lean on, Victor faces his previous fears and no longer plays along with the creature’s actions.

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542 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever been held responsible for the tragedies caused to others? For most the answer is no, however, for some, their actions have led to the misfortune of guiltless lives. In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, because of the absence of attention and teaching, the reanimated creation Frankenstein is unstable; Victor Frankenstein is who to blame. Two events that he should be accountable for are not training his creation to know right from wrong and abounding the monster which led to the murder of innocent people. Firstly, Shelley uses conflict of “human” versus nature to demonstrate the major idea that Victor Frankenstein is responsible for the loss of innocent lives.

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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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947 Words | 4 Pages

When devastation occurs, someone must take the burden of responsibility, with or without their own consent. The catastrophes that take place throughout Frankenstein develop in response to a single character’s decisions and actions on those decisions. Two characters in particular have warranted the blame by their actions alone. However, the blame absolutely lies with Victor Frankenstein and his decision to create life in order to bring meaning to his mother’s death.

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957 Words | 4 Pages

Victors lack of a guilty conscious can be seen in his own words. Victor reflects many times on his past mistakes and blames other people and the monster in order to calm his mind. One instance is when

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552 Words | 3 Pages

Victor Frankenstein practically spent years on his creation and studied the science of anatomy to provide ideas for his creation to withstand human life by itself. For example, he would dedicate himself to finishing his goal that was resurrecting the dead by the theory of galvanism, “...forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses.” (Shelley 18). Frankenstein realized that that was the only way he was going to get anywhere in the process of a decaying body. He found out how worms would inhabit the eyes and brain of a human.

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475 Words | 2 Pages

In the story, Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley describes the process in which Victor Frankenstein used to construct his creation of a creature, but also the emotions of how a creator feels and his responsibility to his creation. To begin with, Frankenstein started his creation with the idea of using electricity and galvanism to bring life back from the dead. He first started off by collecting parts of the body from churchyards to use for his creature. For example, Frankenstein states, “I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.” (Shelley 20).

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675 Words | 3 Pages

This unquestionably exhibits his egocentric conventions as he places himself above everyone else even in matters of life and death. Furthermore, if Victor himself is willing to take responsibility for her death then it becomes unambiguous as to whether he should be held accountable for the actions of his creation. Throughout the story, the monster struggles with the repercussions brought about by his creator which leave him in turmoil. He does eventually overcome these obstacles, although it is undoubtedly too late.

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1260 Words | 6 Pages

After realizing what Victor had done, he ran away not taking responsibility for what he had made. “The porter opened the gates of the court, which had that night been my asylum, and I issued into the streets, pacing them with quick steps, as if I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the street would present to my view. I did not dare return to the apartment which I inhabited, but felt impelled to hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky” (161) Victor saw what huge mistake he made and ignored his problem(s) rather than taking accountability that he has created a monster hideous to the human eye. He didn't even return to the apartment. He just fled hoping that abandoning his creation would solve the problem.

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