Family and Ethicality To be ethical one must have moral principles, but where do these moral principles stem from? In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the protagonist, Victor’s actions are questionable when it comes to them being ethical. One could say that we learn to be ethical from the actions we witness around us or by family beliefs or thoughts on certain ideas. However, our ethical decisions can be driven by our innermost greed to achieve or create. Which brings to light the question: Does the influence of one’s family affect their ability to make ethical decisions? I chose to do this question because throughout the novel we see Victor make questionable decisions regarding things that aren’t typically hard to decide right from …show more content…
“William, dear angel! This is thy funeral […] As I said these words, I perceived in the gloom a figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me; […] I could not be mistaken. A flash of lightning illuminated the object and discovered its shape plainly to me […] it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had given life” (66). After coming to the realization that it was the monster that killed his brother Victor could have made the ethical decision to come clean and save Justine from death. However even after promising Elizabeth that Justine’s innocence would be proved, Victor didn’t come clean and ultimately Justine was executed. Victor’s choice to remain silence was partially because of what would happen to his reputation that his father and that of his best friend Henry Clerval had of him. If Victor had come clean and claimed the creature as his and responsible for the death of his brother his father would have been disgraced as to have created such a being was unethical in itself. Victor's father hadn’t been very caring towards Victor’s scientific work and Victor didn’t want his father to be right. In the end Victor was unable to be caring towards another because of the pressure he subconsciously felt from his …show more content…
When Victor was confronted by the creature and his request to create him a companion, at first victor had begun to comply only to later to conclude that is wasn’t the best decision. Victor had made the decision because he had realized the potential backlash of two creatures if they were to return to the civilization of man seeking approval once again. “You will return and again seek their kindness, and you will meet with their detestation; you evil passions will be renewed, and you will then have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction. This may not be; cease to argue the point, for I cannot consent” (134). Victor was able to make a decision that was not only ethical but caring and nurturing to his society of a while. Some could argue that Victor only made this decision because he didn’t want his family to find out that he had been responsible for the creation for two monstrosities, however, I believe that Victor made this decision based on learning for his past traumatic experience. Proving that the influence of his family wasn’t needed to make a proper ethical
If there was ever a story advocating the fair treatment of children, it is the tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Victor Frankenstein is to blame for his child’s poor behavior. Frankenstein, like many other soon-to-be-parents, irrationally sought to create life, without any conceptualization of the work it would be to rear the child. From the birth of baby, Victor refuses positive nurture of his toddler in favor of friends and his own selfish needs; his unreasonable expectations for baby, give cause to his distance from baby, he ultimately dooms his own child to a life of crime and misfortune.
After the death of William and Justine, Victor falls into a depression because he is disturbed with the guilt of the death of William and Justine.
He has come to believe that he had done the right thing in refusing the creatures request. The request which could of saved his friend and his wife's lives. Victor shows how selfish he can be, not taking responsibility and also believing that choosing the decision that ended his wife and friend's lives was the correct thing to choose. At this point and time, the readers are choosing who deserves the sympathy, Victor or the creature?
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, has captured people’s attention since it was first written. People often wonder how much of Mary Shelley’s life is documented in her novel. From the theme of parental abandonment, to the theme of life and death in the novel, literary scholars have been able to find similarities between Frankenstein and Shelley’s life. The Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and the Modern Psychoanalysis discuss the different connections between Shelley’s life and Frankenstein. Badalamenti, the author of “ Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein?” in the Journal of Religion and Health, primarily discusses the connection between Victor
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as the name implies, centers on the character of Victor Frankenstein. Over the course of the novel, the point of view switches across a cast of several characters, all of which have interacted with Victor, some more than others. Victor’s pursuit to find the source of life, and the events thereafter, show him making countless questionable decisions, hurting the people close to him, and getting away with it all because of the society he lives in. These points unequivocally prove that Victor Frankenstein is a sociopath. The first reason that Victor is a sociopath is the fact that he makes all of his decisions in the moment with complete disregard for anyone else.
The beginning of Frankenstein’s dream started as a young man, Victor’s interests lie in science, chemistry, and the balance and contrasts of life and death. Acting as a hypocrite, Victor explains how parents should be there to teach you to become great, “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as the fulfilled heir duties towards me” (Shelley 16). Victor says that his parents play a big role in how their child turns out; if the parents treat you bad then the child will come out bad but if he learns from good then he will come out to be a perfect little angel.
Social and Individual Responsibility in Frankenstein Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in a time of wonder. The main wonder was whether you could put life back into the dead. Close to the topic of bringing life back into the dead was whether you could create your own being, like selective breeding, but a bit more powerful. Close to where Mary lived, there was a man named Vultair who was experimenting with putting electricity through frogs to see if they could come back to life. With that going on close to her, as well as the fear of a revolution and the pressure on her to think of a ghost story, it is not surprising she thought of a horror story that would still be popular in the 21st Century.
...or was not thinking of others in his actions, but only of himself. He did not consider the tumult the abnormally large creature could cause in the world, nor what the feelings of the monster would be towards him if he abandoned him. Victor also did not contemplate the safety of his friends, as he had the chance to stop the creature’s misdoings but failed to do so, risking the life of his friends. Therefore, Victor was a selfish being, who only concerned himself with his wishes and never evaluated the situation of his loved ones, ultimately causing their demise. The misfortunate events that occurred through Victor’s life could have been prevented, and also discontinued when Victor had the chance. However, Victor’s irresponsibility overcame these opportunities and he in turn, caused misfortunes for himself as well as his loved ones.
“Revenge alone endowed [him] with strength and composure; it modeled [his] feelings, and allowed [him] to be calculating and calm” (145). Victor gained new purpose and even on his deathbed holds to the principle that he is justified in desiring the death of his enemy. Moment before his death he turns to Captain Robert Walton and says, “I feel myself justified in desiring the death of my adversary. During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable” (156). He even begins to lose the small amount of compassion he had for the creature’s struggle. When visiting his family’s graves he cries that, “they were dead, and I lived; their murder also lived” (145). Previously in the novel he blamed himself for the deaths of Mathew, Justine, and Henry, claiming to be their murderer and lamenting on the evil he had set forth into the world. Victor now places the weight of these deaths solely on the monster’s shoulders and believes it is his god given burden to cleanse the world of this evil. He had been “assured that the shades of [his] murdered friends heard and approved [his] devotion… rage choked [him]”(146). The death of the monster would not even weigh on his conscience since it is god’s
...f science it is a risky business. Victor Frankenstein broke these ethics when his creation came to life and thought he could play God. Consequently, this backfired on him when he did take responsibility for his creation and it lead to deaths of his family and friends. As to what Mary Shelley has shown through her novel, Frankenstein, it is that ethics are not meant to be broken but followed in order to keep a balance between human knowledge and natural occurrences.
Mary Shelley expresses various ethical issues by creating a mythical monster called Frankenstein. There is some controversy on how Mary Shelley defines human nature in the novel, there are many features of the way humans react in situations. Shelley uses a relationship between morality and science, she brings the two subjects together when writing Frankenstein, and she shows the amount of controversy with the advancement of science. There are said to be some limits to the scientific inquiry that could have restrained the quantity of scientific implications that Mary Shelley was able to make, along with the types of scientific restraints. Mary Shelley wrote this classic novel in such a way that it depicted some amounts foreshadowing of the world today. This paper will concentrate on the definition of human nature, the controversy of morality and science, the limits to scientific inquiry and how this novel ties in with today’s world.
Many people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement, her father, William Godwin, was a famous social philosopher, and her husband, Percy Shelley, was one of the leading Romantic poets of the time ("Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Biography."). What most people do not know, however, is that Mary Shelley dealt with issues of abandonment her whole life and fear of giving birth (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). When she wrote Frankenstein, she revealed her hidden fears and desires through the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, putting him symbolically in her place (Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Frankenstein.”). Her purpose, though possibly unconsciously, in writing the novel was to resolve both her feelings of abandonment by her parents, and fears of her own childbirth.
In the book, Frankenstein, there are many justice and injustice problems. Justice is the opposite of injustice, the way that injustice is unfairness or undeserved outcomes. I believe that the greatest injustice in the book is the creation of the monster. I believe the human kind should not have the right to even try to create life, they are not God. in someway, victor is taking away a major role in a woman's life, in how women are the only one the can “give life”, in the giving birth to a human being.
What are ethics? Ethics are the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity, otherwise known as the branch that deals with moral principles. The book Frankenstein is relevant within today's ethics by the advancement of medical science. As cited from the book, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, there are four main principles of medical ethics, which are,”Respect for Autonomy, Beneficence, and Nonmaleficence and Justice”. These three of these principles are tested in Frankenstein in the way Victor obtains his materials for the creation of his monster, along with Victor not having the best interest for the creation of his monster, and lastly, no consideration good or bad that could come from this creation.
The abnormal behavior of Victor Frankenstein simply could not be explained by anyone. He was obsessed with building his monster, no matter what the morality or the outcome of his actions were. Consequences wreaked havoc on the creator when the monster turned on him and took his anger out on Victor’s family. He was so focused on building his perfection that he overlooked some factors. After further research, it is concluded that Victor suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder during the creation of his monster, which resulted in a rigid following of the ethics and morals of science and technology.