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Selfishness In Frankenstein

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What is the point? Everyone has an erred of self-centeredness. It’s natural to take the world in from an internal perspective, but what happens when one’s perception of the outside world is deranged? Mary Shelley answers this question in depth in; Frankenstein. Shelley uses a flawed external perception to motivate a creature to commit horrible acts that in return inspire Victor Frankenstein to continue living and to tell his cautionary tale. However, what is the point? What is the point of the creature’s motivations being driven by selfishness or that Frankenstein’s own purpose in life is spurred on by the creature’s actions? Mary Shelley uses egocentrism to motivate the creature in order to control Frankenstein’s life so she can, in the end, establish …show more content…

This is also Victors only drive to live because of the loss of his loved ones, which is once again the undoing of the creatures selfishness. The creature’s tragic struggles with humanity, ironically becomes the worst part of humanity. This drives Victor to; “seek one who fled from him” (Shelley.10). The selfishness that motivates the Creature to continue living and commit such immoral acts against humanity is the very thing that fuels Frankenstein’s vendetta. However, when Frankenstein sees that Walton’s own ambition is mirroring Frankenstein’s own guilt-wrenching past, he makes the decision to share his misfortunes. “I had determined, at one time, that the memory of these evils should die with me but you have won me to alter my determination” (Shelley.13). In all, the creature’s own selfishness for ruining Frankenstein’s life influences the way that Frankenstein continues to live on. This is portrayed within Victor’s cautionary tale to Walton. This tale is attempting to ensure that no one else will make the same mistakes he has made or be consumed with the same ruinous ambition that Frankenstein

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But, in the detail which he gave you of them, he could sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passions.” (Shelly 273) The monster feels as though Frankenstein has wronged him in every way, first by making him ugly, second by abandoning him, and lastly he destroyed the only thing he had hope in; a mate. In the previous quote he explains that there is more that just one side to every story, he explains to Walton the pains he went to on account of Frankenstein. Victor

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430 Words | 2 Pages

Many people say that in order to get justice they have to respond to what's been done to them. In frankenstein the creature that victor creates tends to search for justice. In this novel the way that the “monster” tends to be rejected by many and brought him to the point that he understands and gets justice by killing different persons throughout the whole book. Victor was a scientist who created and brought a life into the world which had been thought to be impossible. For example, when the creature had recently been created at first he didn’t have any feelings.

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979 Words | 4 Pages

What is a monster? Its definition is argued upon. Some may define it as a creature like vampires or demons, but in a more figurative sense, it could be a person. In Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein, this phenomenon is heavily explored between two characters, Victor Frankenstein and a human-like creature. One day, Victor has a sudden interest in bringing dead things to life.

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675 Words | 3 Pages

Victor Frankenstein is selfish. Frankenstein succeeds in creating life, but at what cost? As evidenced when he said, “Scoffing devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee, miserable fiend, to torture and death. Never will I omit my search for those who even now prepare for me the reward or my tedious toil and pilgrimage.

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1439 Words | 6 Pages

After successfully creating the monster, Frankenstein is perplexed by what he has created. Due to the monster’s annoyance with Frankenstein, he acts back against Frankenstein mostly due to his lack of parenting and responsibility. Shelley’s novel strongly connects with the act of parenting. It is clear that Victor Frankenstein did not complete his role as a parent. Due to this, it further led the monster to misbehave and feel as if he does not have a purpose in life.

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

“At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification”(Shelley 80). The Creation of Frankenstein woke up in a world of hate. Since he looked different, the Monster never fit in with normal people. He would become isolated and feared because of his looks. Because the Monster was a hideous creation from Frankenstein, he was isolated and hated by his looks and behaved in an ethical manner when he began his path of vengeance.

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1100 Words | 5 Pages

A timeless human goal has always been to set visionary goals to advance the coming generations. Although many results can be successful, a great number of them can turn out deadly. In the novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley illustrates the result of a man’s visionary motive of creating life, which consequents into the birth of the deadly creature. The creatures understanding of justice is based on eliminating anyone or anything preventing him from reaching his goal; accordingly, his actions to attempt revenge upon Victor only led to his downfall throughout the novel. The creature’s understanding of justice and it’s revenge against Victor is the driving force of the story because it builds up the anticipation the reader has for the final confrontation.

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1278 Words | 6 Pages

Frankenstein wants the glorification and pride in being the first person to create life. Frankenstein sees himself in Walton, and Walton says, “ ...do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?...,but I prefer glory to every excitement that wealth place on my path”(10). Walton is a younger extension of Frankenstein and gives perspective to the ideas of the younger version of Frankenstein as he creates the creature. However, Frankenstein’s ambitions cost him dearly. The deaths of those around him make him suffer, but also the creation of the creature makes the creature suffer.

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987 Words | 4 Pages

An unsatisfied need for a sense of belonging transforms Frankenstein’s creature into the monster it ultimately becomes. Therefore, I argue that the predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the need for social belonging

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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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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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1921 Words | 8 Pages

Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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134 Words | 1 Pages

Finally, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is believed to be the real monster. He must be blamed for the events leading to death and eventually the monster. No blame should be put on the monster because he is an experiment that went wrong. Victor is the master-scientist behind the whole operation and is supposed to have its creation under control at all times. In fact, excess isVictor ambition to be famous that reaches the head, leaving him blind to all the possible consequences of their action.

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1135 Words | 5 Pages

Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned about his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation because of the creature’s appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor 's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster experiences a sense of self-actualization after coming to terms with his “monster” identity. In chapter 13, after Frankenstein’s Monster learns about human history and social norms, he conducted a self-analysis of his current self. He stated, “I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome”. Moreover, when he “looked around, he saw and heard of none like [himself].

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