Midterm Exam (Essay Portion) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein are both horror novels with different plots, but they both share the theme of overambition leading to one’s downfall. In both stories, the scientific discoveries of Jekyll and Victor are what ultimately causes their defeat in the end of their respective stories. In Jekyll & Hyde, Jekyll’s overambitious discovery of being able to create an alter ego of himself is the cause of his defeat in the story. Hyde, Jekyll’s alter ego, impacted aspects of his normal life by causing him to be more reclusive out of guilt and began to deteriorate his health as a result. Hyde also gradually gained more control over Jekyll’s body over the course of the story. Hyde, Jekyll’s …show more content…
Once Victor made this discovery, he became ambitious and tried to actually follow through with reviving the dead and succeeded in doing so. Out of this discovery, Victor ends up creating a creature with sentience and intelligence. Unfortunately, the creature grows a hatred toward his creator after various events throughout the course of the story. As a result, the creature becomes antagonistic and ruins Victor’s life by ruining his marriage and killing his loved ones. When Victor loses everything, he tries to avenge his loved ones and goes on a long journey to track down the creature but it costs him his health and he eventually dies in the process. Once again, the catalyst of the story’s main events and the downfall of the characters is the discovery that he made along with his ambition. None of the tragedies that occurred to Victor wouldn’t have happened had he not gone too far with his scientific pursuits. In the last chapter when Victor is on his death bed talking to Walton, Victor advises Walton to “Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition,” (Shelley 162). Victor recognizes and is directly stating that his ambition was what ultimately led to his