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The Responsibility Of The Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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From time to time, people tend to question what they have to take responsibility for. Most people underestimate the amount of obligation they believe they are accountable for. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein created a human from the body parts of deceased people. Victor abandons the creature after he makes him because of fear, leaving the new being hopeless. The monster gets out of the apartment to survive. He watches theses cottagers out in the woods, and learns the basics of survival. Everyone who comes in contact with this creature is terrified of him and runs away without giving him a chance. The creation eventually becomes self conscious and searches for revenge and commits murder of people close to Victor. Therefore, Victor is ultimately responsible for the creature's actions. To begin, Victor deserts the creature, who has not sense of the world yet. The monster tries to be nice at the beginning; however, Victor still finds it in his heart …show more content…

By not making another monster, Victor infuriates the monster more. The monster questions: "'Shall each man,' cried he,' find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they requited by detestation and scorn' "(Shelley 172). Victor prevents the monster from feeling a place of belonging, causing the monster to go on a rampage, which results in more damage. Also, the monster would have disappeared, if Victor would have made him a soul mate. The creature negotiates: "If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us [ creature and his companion] again; I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite ..."(Shelley 148). Victor forces the monster to stay around causing him to kill. Even after the monster tries to compromise, Victor still did not

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Victor’s abandonment causes him to have to face the consequences of his greed for creating life, for after he abandons the creature bad things start to happen to him. An example of this is the death of William, Victor’s younger brother. The creature “grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead” (134). The creature uses his strength to harm people Victor loved, forcing Victor to have to face the consequences of his corruption and belief that he could defy God and create a new race. The creature continues with his path and murders Victor’s long-time friend Henry Clerval (171).

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1281 Words | 6 Pages

The creature wants to take revenge on Victor for abandoning him and causes Victor grief by killing the people he cares about. When the creature kills, Victor feels responsible and guilty of the murders. He continually breaks down with each death by “his” hands, which makes him go mad. The task of creating a monster turned Victor into a monster

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974 Words | 4 Pages

Initially, characters in Frankenstein not taking responsibility show the reader the potential dangers of pain and death in numerous situations in the novel. The reader of Frankenstein sees various examples of Shelley’s warnings of the dangers in not taking responsibility in the first couple chapters in the novel. Shelley first points out the dangers of not taking responsibility when Victor first creates the monster on a stormy November night when he was shocked with the “horror of that countenance [the monster]”(Shelley 44) before he vacated his home, abandoning his creation which fueled the monster with the hatred that he needed to punish his creator. Shelley’s Sliwowski 2 illumination of Victor and the monster as father and son, shows the importance of a parental

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1281 Words | 6 Pages

Victor had two loving parents that gave him everything he ever needed or wanted to fulfill his physiological and emotional needs. Since Victor did not do this for his monster, the monster would kill all of Victor’s family and friends that he loved which would bring destruction to Victor’s life. For the rest of his days, Victor would go on a search for his monster to destroy it or die trying. Unlike Victor, the monster was never loved because of the way he looked. He was left alone, even by his creator, and lived a miserable life always escaping people that would “attacked [him], until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (Shelley).

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883 Words | 4 Pages

Victor denied the monster it’s power by not allowing it to have what it asked for. This refusal caused the monster declare it’s dominance through threatening Victor to do as it says or he will be punished. After Victor refuses to allow his creation to take control, it goes mayhem and reacts with hatred. The creature tried to gain it’s power by deteriorating Victor’s life killing many of the friends and loved ones close to Victor. This pulls the final straw for Victor, he attempted to hunt the monster down and destroy it before it could hurt anyone else.

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553 Words | 3 Pages

Using a combination of alchemy, chemistry and electricity, he succeeds in giving life to the creature. Instead of jubilation, Victor feels guilty about bringing usurping God’s role. He makes no provision for taking care of the hideous-looking creature and spurns it out of fear and disgust. He runs away from it and finds solace in drinking. The creature wanders in the countryside.

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Have you ever been held responsible for the tragedies caused to others? For most the answer is no, however, for some, their actions have led to the misfortune of guiltless lives. In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, because of the absence of attention and teaching, the reanimated creation Frankenstein is unstable; Victor Frankenstein is who to blame. Two events that he should be accountable for are not training his creation to know right from wrong and abounding the monster which led to the murder of innocent people. Firstly, Shelley uses conflict of “human” versus nature to demonstrate the major idea that Victor Frankenstein is responsible for the loss of innocent lives.

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However, Victors reckless and unthoughtful actions pushes the monster into a state of rage and hatred that overrides his ability to stop from exacting revenge on Victor. Victor initially creates the monster thinking that it will be an amazing creature, built from the best human body parts Victor could procure. After he views the outcome of his work he is repulsed by it and abandons it, hoping that it would cease to exist. Not only did the monster survive, but it learned to speak, write, and read. After reading the book Paradise Lost, the monster thinks of its own situation and states the following:

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547 Words | 3 Pages

Upon seeing the grotesque creature, Victor falls ill. Months later, Victor recovers and receives a letter from his father that his brother was killed, so Victor returns home to see the creature. Victor talks to the creature, who is now able to speak, tells him of all that he has learned in his life so far and that killed William. Victor and the creature make a deal that he will make the creature a mate so that he can spend the rest of his life away from civilization. However, Victor breaks this promise when thinking about what this union could entail and

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769 Words | 4 Pages

“The source of the conflict between Victor and the monster starts when the monster knows that he has been the victim of foul injustice at the hands of humans and he wants Victor to correct these wrongs, and do in this way, justice” (Skuola.net). The unjust way to get back at Victor results in loss and brutal suffering from the hands of the creature. Shortly after Victor created the creature he abandoned the monster he made and ran away, hoping to never see the horrid thing again. The creature acts out and needs revenge against Victor because of the way his creator left him after just bringing him into the world. The way of revenge isn’t directly to Victor but to those who are meaningful to him.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

Every time the creature comes across a human, he is received with violence. This shapes the Creature into the monster that kills Victor’s

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

Victor, being scared of most things, immediately runs away after first giving life to his creation. This initial reaction harmed the monster and later forced him realize that he is not wanted by any human, not even his creator. Sadly, Victor did not get the opportunity to witness the monster as a kind and gentle soul. He was not aware of the kind deeds that he was completing for strangers. He only knew the monster as a murderer that killed his brother, best friend, and wife.

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Victor creates the Creature, but there are many situations throughout the novel where the Monster displays as the victim. He seeks love from different people, but everyone treats him bad. His anger towards his father drives him to kill Victor’s family. The Monster later feels devastated for the murders he commits. All the monster wants is love.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

He starts his own plan to for revenge against the creature, but this makes him just as beastly as the monster. Victor makes it his life goal, to make the monster pay in any way he can. He wants him to feel lonely and isolated forever. The beast takes a lot out on Victor and makes him feel exactly the way he feels

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1434 Words | 6 Pages

Victor selfishly creates the Creature to gain prestige, pretentiously claiming himself as a human god when he succeeds and saying it was for the sake of humanity. In reality, he creates a grotesque being and abandons it the moment his illusions shatter, making the creature a victim because he denies the responsibility of raising it causing hardships for it. Victor also believes the creature is a reprobative individual since it kills his brother and foists Justine’s execution, thus he acts inimical towards it throughout the whole novel as he invectively exclaims, “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes” (93).

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