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The Real Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

779 Words4 Pages

The second narrator in the story is the mad genius himself, Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is a very complicated character and he has many layers to his personality. Victor is extremely charismatic and intelligent but has huge faults. In Victor’s early years, he led a charmed and happy life. What series of events served as a catalyst for the downward spiral in Victor’s life and how did he become a mad man? According to Andrew McCulloch, “The first of these is perhaps connected with a recurring pattern in his domestic life, the slightly unusual way in which females tend to enter the Frankenstein household” (McCulloch pg). Victor’s mother was rescued from poverty when her father died and was married to her father’s much older friend. …show more content…

Kristin Wright observed that “Victor loathes the work that he is doing, yet he is driven on by some terrible eagerness to continue. He believes that he can outdo nature and God, even while he is revolted by his grisly endeavor” (2). When the monster is finally completed, and it opens his eyes, Victor is horrified by it. According to Kristen Wright “All of Victor’s careful selection of pieces and desire to create something beautiful turns to ugliness at the moment that he brings the monster to life. This nearness is where the true horror lies for Victor; he creates a thinking, feeling, almost human creature, but the monster’s ugly form reminds Victor of his own sins in playing God” (Wright 2-3). Victor spends two years making the monster, but when it opens its eyes, he cannot stand to look at what he has created. Victor tells Robert that he was “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelly 35). Victor cannot stand to look at what he had created and runs to hide in his bed. That scene is similar to Mary Shelly’s nightmare that resulted in writing of Frankenstein. When the monster comes to Victor’s bed to seek answers, Victor runs and flees house. When Victor goes back home the next day, the monster is gone. If only Victor had communicated with the monster, maybe all the tragedy that soon followed would not have taken

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He first imagines kissing Elizabeth, but soon realizes her lips turn to a “hue of death,” with Elizabeth now appearing like his “dead mother.” This choice by Shelley to draw on Victor’s traumatic past informs the reader that this event is still affecting him in the present. Victor’s mental state is shown to further deteriorate once he creates the monster, experiencing a hallucination that causes him to fall ill for many months. Victor even recognizes what he sees as a hallucination, saying, “I imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously, and fell down in a fit.” (Shelley 41)

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Victor builds the monster, disregarding any potential consequences, and begins the process of bringing it to life. As soon as it awakens, Victor, “ … escaped, and rushed down stairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited…”(Shelley 60). Victor runs away from his newly born monster, not considering the repercussions of his actions. At this point the monster had not been any sort of a threat to Victor, but his irrationality led him to distance the monster from himself.

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When Victor creates the creature he also abandons it. Once Frankenstein’s creature begins to murder off his family thus he begins’ to realize the importance of family. Caroline’s death contributes to Victor’s isolated nature.

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