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The Character Of Victor Frankenstein In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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In Mary Shelley’s classic novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s creature battles a perpetual misery as a result of a quality he has no control over – his appearance and its relation to evil. His malicious actions reflect “vices [that] are the child of a forced solitude that [he abhors]” (Shelley 121). There are multiple instances where Victor Frankenstein’s monster portrays an evil demon, not by his actions but because of his physical attributes. Shelley exploits this characterization as a representation of society’s natural instinct to link beauty with goodness Additionally, Shelley argues the nature of goodness is not bound to a superficial condition but rather on a basis of compassion and virtuous actions. In many occurrences, Victor Frankenstein’s creature never intends harm and solely seeks companionship and compassion in return. However, he is met with instantaneous disdain due to his physical features. As he appeals to Victor for the creation of a companion to end his misery of solitude, “[Victor] compassionated him, and sometimes felt the wish to console [the creature]; but when [he] looked upon him…[Victor’s] feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred” (121). Victor is unable to completely sympathize with the creature due to his ugly nature. While the creature attempts to plea for compassion and kindness, Victor reverts to his instinct and shuts down the creature’s request. It is through his appearances that …show more content…

The assumption that beauty and goodness correlate defines the characteristic of goodness superficially. While it is an innate reaction to correlate beauty and goodness, the quality of goodness more accurately lies in an individual’s compassion and virtuous actions. Shelley argues through these other conditions; others are able to more accurately determine whether one is good or

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Frankenstein MLA bibliographic citation: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Place of publication: Switzerland(1816) London (1816-1817) . Publisher: Lackington. Year Published: 1818.

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In the book, Victor becomes too involved in reading rather than making friends at his university in England so he decides to create a monster out limbs from dead people. He soon realizes that he is terrified of the creature and flees his apartment; later the monster escapes. After the death of Victor’s mother, he soon falls into a deep depression while his younger brother William is mysteriously murdered and his sister Justine pleads guilty and is killed because of her “actions”. This makes Victor go down a deeper hole of depression and goes to the forest to rehabilitate himself. In the forest he runs into the monster and the monster, now educated and able to speak, tells him his story of what happened when he left.

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Firstly, Victor Frankenstein had treated his creation abusively, which created his sense of being unwanted and lonely. There are many examples of this showcased throughout the story, such as,"Devil," I exclaimed, "do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!

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In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, Victor and the Creature are the main references when it comes to the issues of morality. The novel describes a story of two entities, Victor and the Creature, developing psychologically throughout their interactions with each other. Many debaters may argue the Creature is “evil” since a majority of his actions harmed others while Victor is good because he was the victim and sought to destroy what he made. However, this argument can be countered when it is accentuated Victor is evil since he was the Creature’s creator, but abandoned it causing all the catastrophic aftereffects. Based on the tragic events and the effects they have on Victor and the Creature, both are never truly evil or good since Shelley allows the readers to

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The desire to discover what has not yet been discovered or to know what remains unknown often causes destruction and misery. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley during the Romantic Era, the protagonist Victor Frankenstein experiences anguish after creating life. Victor shares with the reader the anxiety he suffers and the grievous events that permanently alter his perspective after creating a monster. Throughout the novel the reader develops sympathy for Victor due to his dedication to do the right thing, admirable purpose for his creation and the consequences he endures. One is compelled to show affection toward Victor because of his determination to perform noble acts despite the hardships he faces.

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The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.

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The story Frankenstein, tells us about a man named Victor and this Creature that he has made. The Creature and Victor both go thru some very difficult things but, when looking at it the creature deserves more sympathy than Victor does. Although there are many things that Victor has to endure, he is the one that makes the Creature although he knows that he will be going into the world and being around people he still does not put any consideration into how he looks.

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The Importance of Compassion Compassion. It is a word that can be described as pity or concern. For some, compassion is often associated with the word kindness which means is the characteristic of being friendly and understanding. Through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she reveals that a lack of compassion leads a person to make negative actions towards others. Before the creature, created by Victor Frankenstein, realized that Victor doesn’t care about him, he reacted with kindness and amiability towards others.

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Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image” (Shelley

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But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature

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In both The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, Shelley and Wilde offer an insight to British people in the nineteenth century; they focus too much on outward appearance versus the character of a person. Dorian asserted that “[e]ven those who had heard the most evil things against him . . . could not believe anything to his dishonour when they saw him” (Wilde 111). Dorian’s acceptance from society comes from his looks, not his actions. Oppositely, Victor Frankenstein’s creation receives rejection from society for his looks, not his actions.

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Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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That all the deeds done by the monster in the novel is totally the fight towards beauty and ugliness. This throws light upon the idea it is not always simple to know about goodness and evilness with regard to outer beauty but it’s the beauty of the soul as the victor was projected as a good and loving human being and the monster evil but we can realize throughout the novel that this might be up turned for both victor and the monster Mary Shelley depicted the phenomena of beauty vs. ugliness of the soul very prominently in the novel Frankenstein .

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Beauty and ugliness is often used to justify the reaction of others in the novel, Frankenstein; in which the relation between external appearance and internal desires are shown to be related. The theme of how appearance affects judgement is often demonstrated through the characters response to the monster’s physical being. Shelley depicts this situation through Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the Delacey family, and through the monster himself. The use of appearance to determine judgement is shown to be a negative habit. By automatically associating ugliness with evil, and beauty with innocence, society unintentionally develops a negative being in those considered ugly, while at the same creating an illusion of innocence over beautiful individuals.

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1220 Words | 5 Pages

In 1818 Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a novel that follows Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious man on his journey to defy the natural sciences. In Volume I of the novel, Victor discusses his childhood, mentioning how wonderful and amazing it was because of how his family sheltered him from the bad in the world. “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” (35). When Victor brings up his childhood, he suggests that parents play a strong in how their kids turn out, either "to happiness or misery" (35). In particular the main character was sheltered as a child to achieve this “happiness” leading to Victor never developing a coping mechanism to the evil in the world.

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