Selfishness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Rebecca McNutt once stated in her text Bittersweet a timeless quote: “Again we have the problem that whether you’re moral or not is a matter of whether it's cost-effective.” Humans mostly seem motivated by asking themselves a simple question, “If I do this will I get something from it?” If the answer is a yes, then many people will do what is being questioned. If it's no, we tend to leave it and carry on with our lives. The whole idea of selfishness within a novel can be used as a way to bring us to feel sympathy towards a character, or even to see them as evil. A complex character who creates an image in both spectrums, would be Victor Frankenstein within the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Followed by him would be Dr. Hoenikker from Cat’s

In our daily lives we spend a majority of our time surrounded by people yet, we can go an entire day without speaking to one another. Many people have pets as a way to feel less lonely in our day to day lives. Ask yourself this question, if you could create the perfect person for you, to fill that growing need for human communication and contact, would you? Within the book Frankenstein this is reality that comes to life with Victor Frankenstein's creation of the monster. “ A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me…..Pursuing these reflections, I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption”(Shelley 54) Within this citation Shelley expresses Victor Frankenstein’s feelings towards the creation of life along with how he used his knowledge for his creation. His pure intention was to fight his growing loneliness after the passing of his mother. His downfall was not giving his creation the love and care he once received as a child and only allowing the monster to view the bitter parts of being a alive. As a scientist character who refuses to think about the aftermath of his actions, allows the world to be put in harm's way allowing the death of a few. This is a case where someone's feelings blinds the consequences that society will