Theme Of Ambition In Victor Frankenstein

An amoral ambition. A soul-crushing isolation. A tireless quest for vengeance. In any case, the Faustian titular character from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, experiences what can only be called a continual downward spiral into his own demise. Victor Frankenstein embodies various types of themes and characteristics throughout the austere story, delivering such themes and ideas via his speech, decisions, and character growth. And, the more intense and self-destructive themes that Victor is at the mercy of throughout the novel in are: ambition, isolation, and revenge. Victor Frankenstein, throughout his actions, words, and growth in the novel, develops the dangerous and threatening themes of ambition, isolation, and revenge,

All throughout the novel, Victor chases the idea of bringing the dead back to life through the use of electricity, or in this case by galvanizing a sewed together body. But to do so, he needed to gather more and more knowledge to further his plans along; “Front this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation." Essentially, as he progresses further into his experiments, he becomes purely occupied with his ambitions and desires, Victor desires nothing but to study and acquire more and more knowledge to better allow him to realize his plans. But, as a result of his own dogged determination: “My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement.” Victor clearly experiences malnourishment, and even seems pale and sickly due to his extended stays in confinement, all because of his own twisted ambitions, even falling quite ill after his successful experiment. However, he claims that “... Treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysterious of creations.” Or in other words, clouded by his own idyllic mindset, Victor garners his dangerous ideas with ideals of finding something not yet found, further driving him forward in his experiments and actions. In summation, in combination with the other themes he develops, Victor’s dangerous dogged determination drives him into a state of not just a state of horrible illness, but a state of mental degradation, leaving him both ill in both mind and