In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses Victor’s selfishness and ambition for knowledge to questioned how far society has to go to satisfy our yearn to be God. Vicor’s God complexion shows the dangers of wanting to challenge the limits of human knowledge without thinking of the consequences. When Victor attends university and the material he has learned is belittled by a professor as a waste of time, Victor is determined to prove him wrong. As Victor becomes more interested in the sciences and in the creation of life he sees that as the only way to make advancements that others have not yet done. He succeeded in bringing the dead back to life but not in the form he had in mind.
Victor Frankenstein’s intelligence and knowledge, which he initially believed was his greatest quality, would ultimately become his downfall. Ge possessed an insatiable thirst for knowledge, seeking to uncover the mysteries of nature and the secrets of life itself. However, his ambition and obsession with his scientific pursuits led him to create a monster which he was unable to control and which ultimately caused chaos and death to him and those who he loved. Victor’s intelligence is evident in his ability to create a living being out of inanimate matter, but his arrogance and overconfidence in his own abilities blinded him to the potential consequences of his actions. Shelley’s portrayal of Victor as a man consumed by his own intellect highlights
The vainglorious and vindictive tones in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein demonstrate Victor’s evolution from a character who took pride in becoming a father to a new species to the annihilation of his own existence. Victor’s ego drove him to finish his creation and become world renowned. It is that same creation that he abandons and must take vengeance upon. Victor’s egotistical aspiration to conquer death is something beyond what others are capable of. “A new species would bless me as its creator…”
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, displays the behavior of evil due to his nature, the reason for his natured evil is because of his will to create life and succeeds. In the evil Victor has done, he irrevocable realizes the full implications of his evil actions. “It was on a dreary night of November that I looked at my accomplishment… I saw the dull, yellow eye of the creature open.” (Shelly 53). This quote displays Victors evil, his creation of life, his thirst for knowledge, his nature, is what caused his creation of the nameless monster.
Due to this, Victor’s power of being a creator sequence to tragic events. The theme of power and the dangers of scientific pursuit is shown in Frankenstein and the effect after his creation is made. Victor mentions, “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (43). Once Victor creates his creation, he is not able to endure looking at his creation. This shows the consequences that can arise from attaining power irresponsibly.
In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, The creature may be known for his monstrous and unforgiveable acts, but it is his creator, Victor, who is the true monster. Mary Shelley was an English novelist, best known for her gothic novel “Frankenstein”. In “Frankenstein” the question of who is the true monster, Victor or the creature, is a prominent theme throughout the story. While the creature's actions are certainly gruesome and horrific, it is the Monster who ultimately holds the title of the true monster. Through his neglect and mistreatment of the creature, Victor demonstrates a complete disregard for the life he has created.
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.
In this week 's reading, the texts that stood out to me would have to be the article “In Defense of Literary Adaptation and Cultural Production” and the X-files Frankenstein adaptation “The Postmodern Prometheus”. The latter being the first X-Files episode I ever watched, suffice to say it was an interesting adaptation. Being a sociology major, after watching the episode and then reading the article I genuinely became intrigued with literary interpretation through generations. As I’ve learned in previous classroom settings storytelling was brought to life for multiple reasons. The most prominent reason which comes to mind would be the spread of cultural knowledge whether it be language, rituals, education, entertainment, or warnings of past
Throughout ‘Frankenstein’, we discover that Shelley presents Victors responsibility as flawed, We see him as childish and unable to accept his failures and mistakes. Rarley does he accept the “demonical corpse” who is “more hideous than belongs to humanity”, as his creation. Rather than dealing with the conequences and raising the monster, as his father and god. He abanondens it into society. We Can look back into Victors childhood to see where he gained his original morals, and where the drive for the creation of the monster was.
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, it scrutinizes the punishments when a man creates life, and plays the role of God. Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply.
The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley can be compared to the legend of the god Prometheus. Dr. Frankenstein is a scientist who created life in the form of a creature using dead tissue. Prometheus, on the other hand, created the civilization of man by defying authority and stealing fire for mankind. Although these these characters and their circumstances are drastically different, they can be thoroughly compared.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a great comparison is shown between Victor Frankenstein, the main character, and Prometheus, one of Greek mythology’s greatest Gods. Shelley borrows from the tale of Prometheus a consequence resulting from searching for a great source of enlightenment and power. In creating a being and giving it life, Frankenstein seems to take on the remarkable role of God which leads him to thinking that a power that is so heavenly cannot be played with by mankind. During his quest to expand his creative knowledge, abilities, drive, and ambition to know the origin of life, he puts himself in conflict. Frankenstein gambled his way into the godly realm without realizing he committed a sin by creating the monster, and
By connecting the character of Viktor to Prometheus, and adding an allusion to create a better understanding of the characters Shelley allows the reader to uncover the fate of both characters along with their creations and the punishments that follow. The connection to the greek myth, allows the readers to take on a second perspective when reading Frankenstein. The very prevalent themes enhance not only the authors writing but also the characters themselves. Overall, Shelley’s use of Prometheus as a silent background helped foreshadow the inevitable fate of Frankenstein's creator,
I hope to leave the reader with a deeper sense of understanding on how literature can inspire the future generations in ways we don 't yet know. It was written in Greek mythology that, the titan Prometheus was a wise craftsman who taught humans many useful skills, including ‘navigation, writing, and architecture’. Prometheus, created humans by shaping clay into figures that looked like the gods. The gods admired these figures and ‘breathed life’ into them. Zeus disliked the ‘creatures’, but ‘he could not destroy them’.
Marry Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, largely resembles the Greek myth, where the subject makes severe mistakes, attempting to play god, as he disregards the ethics of humanity, as well as his own moral. Victor Frankenstein, who is the ‘Modern Prometheus’ in Mary Shelley’s novel, attempt to do the impossible – create life! While the Greek Prometheus (a titan), commits three sins against Zeus, one of them being the giving of fire to humans. Both are in their own way absurd, however in both cases, they succeed. However both are subjected to either pain or suffering, whether it is physical or mental, after realizing what they have done.
