Vengeance Quotes In Frankenstein

The idea of vengeance is a central theme in Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the question of where to draw the line is commonly raised throughout the novel. The inability of individuals to take responsibility for their actions, and humanity’s grotesque attempts to pervert nature may suggest that the events that transpired in the text were warranted. On the other hand, it can be called into question whether the destruction of innocent lives for retribution was justifiable or simply reprehensible. So while the Creature’s vengeance against its creator was certainly ruinous, in which innocent people were destroyed in the name of a perceived justice, its actions against Victor are ultimately justifiable as the Creature’s behaviour can easily be traced

Victor was an arrogant, self-serving person who deserved to be sanctioned for his actions, but the issue of how far to go is a complex one. The Creature’s first victim, William, is the epitome of innocence. A young boy who is in only associated with Victor by name being killed to strike back at Victor is very harsh and arguably unnecessary. It is also made apparent that the Creature was thinking only “of rage and revenge”, and therefore was not in a state of mind reasonable enough to think about what it was doing. William’s death, while triggered by the knowledge that he was related to Victor, was in actual fact an act of revenge against humanity as a whole. Because of this, we can see that it is not a fair act of revenge at all, as humanity are not responsible for the Creature’s upbringing and rejection; that job is Victor’s and Victor’s alone. Victor’s wife, Elizabeth, was another innocent person who was hurt in order to harm Victor. Although she was married to him, Elizabeth was not a party to Victor’s actions and did not cause the Creature’s pain, yet she was the one to pay for it. The Creature again showed his hot-headed nature when he announced that he will “see [Victor] on [his] wedding night”, demonstrating that he was once again angry at all of humankind rather than solely at Victor, which can call into question the authenticity of the Creature’s ‘revenge’. The Creature sought a more than warranted vengeance against Victor and certainly achieved it, but at a heavy