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Theme Of Ambition In Victor Frankenstein

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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, …show more content…

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

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These driven characters thrive for the same goals, feed of similar pain, and feel the same loneliness, remorse, and isolation as one another. These similarities are so extreme that it is for no reason that most of the world recognizes the creature by the name of Frankenstein himself. Regardless of their considerably different looks, physical manifestation and lives, Victor and the monster have many similarities in the physiology, emotional and habitual domains. The monster and Victor represent the same and their differences complement each other. With the progress of the story, the creation manifests itself as an identification of the traits and qualities of his creator, Victor

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Frankenstein Lit Analysis Rough Draft Since the beginning of time, Man has always pursued knowledge, but this pursuit is always kept within certain boundaries, especially while searching for the truths behind the creation and origin of life. As this quest for knowledge continues, men can become consumed with the perilous thoughts and ponderings required to attain this wisdom. In her novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explains how the pursuit of forbidden knowledge can become dangerous through symbolism, allusion, and foreshadowing proving each effectively to the reader. Employing symbolism as her first technique, Shelley uses this in the way many other enlightenment authors do. The strongest use of symbolism is prevalent while Victor is contemplating

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Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, shows how a character who is portrayed as a tragic hero, in the beginning, can become the monster in the end. Victor and the Monster in Mary Shelley’s captivating novel showed how rival enemies share striking similarities. The similarities between the two tragic characters are driven by their dreary isolation from the secluded world. A large difference is that they were both raised in two completely different environments but understood the meaning of isolation. Physical differences are more noticeable rather than their personalities.

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Victor would stop at nothing to finish his project and became so obsessed that he was isolated from his family and friends. His way of collecting lifeless matter for his creation is unethical and morally wrong. Eventually, he is punished for his actions: “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.” (pg.56) Additionally, extreme devotion to the building of his creation caused Victor mental distress due to the fact that he neglected his own needs in order to work exclusively on the creature: “I had deprived myself of rest and health.”

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In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, ambition evolves into a form of obsession with revenge. But the result of vengeance is a curse to human life and its longevity. Both main characters in the novel, Victor and the monster become obsessed and let vengeance be their downfall. Victor was a very ambitious character who longed for knowledge and the presence of new life. He soon became obsessed with his creation and said,“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.

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Victor falls ill with anxiety, and as a result of Victor’s neglect the monster begins to destroy his life. Even when the monster confronts Frankenstein, threatening that he “will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of [Frankenstein’s] remaining friends, 102" Victor does not acknowledge the problem he has caused, the literal embodiment of his anxiety. He does not attempt to confront the monster head on or alleviate his loneliness, both a form of acknowledgement and thus a healthy way to respond to his fears. Instead, he once again pretends the monster doesn’t exist which only further enrages and empowers him. Once again, this mirrors the fact that when fears and anxiety go undealt with they will only grow and confirms that the monster is the embodiment of this

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Victor damages his mindset by allowing himself to go mentally insane. Because the sight of medical tools tortures Victor’s mind, he becomes psychotic and depressed. Secondly, this character devastates himself when he views his monster alive for the first time. Victor becomes ill for several months and eventually recovers; however, this ailment disturbs him for the rest of his life.

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Victor even said “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge”. He admits that he suffered from his relentless search of knowledge.

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Victor begins to use his knowledge of anatomy and natural decay to find a way to restore life upon the Creature: “To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the science of anatomy[...] I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body” (30). Victor uses his knowledge to research and develop a way to reanimate the Creature, using his knowledge for the wrong reasons, which is to gain the God-like power of life and death. This unnatural use of knowledge creates many consequences, the main one being isolation from society and righteousness, which throws him into a dark depression and sways him off the path of good.

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Due to this friendship, Victor became obsessed with the idea of life and death. He wanted to create a being using raw materials. Victor started to go mad, he couldn’t stop thinking about it, and it was constantly on his mind night and day. He started to research it and write out formulas and try to make it realistic. Victor would often skip meals and sleep trying to work on his ideas and perfect them.

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The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a bildungsroman, coming of age, novel because it recounts the psychological and moral development of its protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, from youth to maturity, when he recognizes his place in the world. Victor Frankenstein realizes in a single moment that man cannot alter death without consequences. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist from Switzerland who is obsessed with the creation of life. When he is seventeen, Victor 's family decides to send him to the university of Ingolstadt, so that he might become worldlier, but before his departure his mother dies. This loss drives Victor to start over and to become successful.

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The fictional horror novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is driven by the accentuation of humanity’s flaws. Even at the very mention of her work an archetypal monster fills one’s imagination, coupled with visions of a crazed scientist to boot. Opening her novel with Robert Walton, the conduit of the story, he also serves as a character to parallel the protagonist’s in many ways. As the ‘protagonist’ of the story, Victor Frankenstein, takes on the mantle of the deluded scientist, his nameless creation becomes the embodiment of a truly abandoned child – one left to fend for itself against the harsh reality posed by society. On the other hand, Walton also serves as a foil to Victor – he is not compulsive enough to risk what would be almost

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic novel that tells the story of scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his obsession with creating human life. This leads him to creating a gruesome monster made of body-parts stolen from grave yards, whom upon discovering his hideousness, the monster seeks revenge against his creator, causing Victor to regret the creation of his monster for the rest of his life. Shelley uses the literary elements of personification, imagery, and similes to give a vivid sense and visualization of Victor Frankenstein’s thoughts and feelings as well as to allow us to delve deeper into the monster’s actions and emotions. Throughout the novel, Shelley uses personification of various forces and objects to reflect the effect in Victor’s actions.

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In this, Victor brought up things that no mortal should know about, such as: cloning, stem cell research, and IVFs. Examples of these were shown when the author states, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn… my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical… the physical secrets of the world” (43). Victor is knowingly tampering with knowledge that is essentially too great for man. He is also essentially trying to be like God, which is the original sin, and as a result, he is put in eternal despair.

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Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned about his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation because of the creature’s appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor 's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.

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