Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein
In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley two characters come together to make the overall meaning and structure. These characters are Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. We see how they impact the book by seeing their similarities, how they contrast each other, and overall how they come together to create the meaning.
First, we see how they impact the book with their similarities. In the novel we see that both of the men want to conquer the unknown, or do things that haven’t ever been done. This is evident when we see Victor start to create the monster on page hhh, and when Robert is exploring the Artic in his letters to his sister, which is at the beginning of the novel. Another way they are the same is through change. Throughout the book we see Victor make rash decisions and his health fluctuates. When the monster wants a
…show more content…
We see a difference in the men, because Robert at the end decides to go home to save his men that he is responsible for, while Victor created the monster and his ultimate goal is to kill or destroy it. Victor isn’t responsible for anything in his opinion, where Robert is a leader for his men, which explains why he would make more conservative decisions. Victor doesn’t have anyone to look out for, and the monster isn’t a human so he has nothing to lose. This is a huge difference between the two because it is a matter of life or death. Another difference between the two is how Victor can have companions but they aren’t a huge part of his life, because ultimately his work is a higher priority; otherwise, Robert wants a friend but he lacks faith that it will happen and is sad to be lonely. He is happy when he meets Victor and they become friends, which we know is true when he says “…I should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart” (22). This shows that they have different wants in their lives, and is an extreme
Robert Walton, an explorer who nourishes Frankenstein back to health and tells the narrative through a series of letters to his sister back in England, also possesses similar traits as Frankenstein, because he is persistent to seek ultimate knowledge at all costs. The monster, who is driven with rage from the betrayal of his creator, is considered the antagonist of the novel, because he kills innocent civilians and takes the lives of Frankenstein’s loved ones as revenge for Frankenstein abandoning him. Apart from these central characters are: Henry Clerval, Elizabeth Lavenza, William Frankenstein, Alphonse Frankenstein, and Justine Moritz. These characters also play a crucial role that alludes to the element of betrayal in the novel, because they either influence Frankenstein and the monster or are killed which drives this element. Shelley’s perspective and opinion about the effects of betrayal are transpired throughout the novel, beginning from Frankenstein’s childhood and transitioning into the monster’s remorse over his
Frankenstein is a horror movie that tells the story of Dr. Henry Frankenstein’s experiment. In search for the fame and glory of playing to be god, he reaches a point where he is able to revive dead people. In this version of Frankenstein’s monster we see a selfish and careless scientist that created a creature with his intelligence. The way the character is shown reflects how ambitious someone can be to reach to be known in the world. This movie makes the people who are watching to feel empathy on the poor creature. This poor creature that did not want to live in a life where everyone is going to hate him for having a horrible aspect and not following rules that he has no idea about.
In the book Frankenstein, we stumble upon several characters that play an important role in the book. Few of which that portray in different journeys such as, A scientist, relatives, and The creature/ The Monster who is the work of Frankenstein’s hands. As we continue further into the story you will learn about the many characters and their role in the book of Frankenstein.
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
Both characters from the novels Prometheus and Victor Frankenstein were similar because they were both intelligent. Victor loved science, he sued to go on journeys to seek more information about life and death, because at home he had nobody to teach him.” My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge. (Victor Frankenstein quotes on education). And he even studied abroad to see more knowledge on his favorite subject. This created major conflicts with his professor at the university but also admiration among professors and peers.
While making the monster, Victor is totally distant and isolated from his friends, family and the outside world. Not only was Victor physcologically isolated, but physically also because “the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime”(41). Victor is extremely paranoid and fearful of telling anyone about what he is doing, and how he is spending his nights. He’s not able to let himself recover from all his thoughts racing through his mind, which is a result of his absolute quest for discovery and new knowledge. After waking up and seeing his creation, he is frightened and repulsed at what he sees. The image of perfect nature and science he once had, was now broken. Victor begins to recollect on what he has done, and how “light” has two sides to it. He begins to realize that the monster “became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived”(43). All of Victor’s descriptions of the monster are negative, solely based off of appearance. He doesn’t even get to know, or talk to the monster before running off, which shows how frightened and horrified Victor is. Even the monster “found, with pleasure, that the fire gave light as well as heat”(89), and when he sticks his arm in the fire, he gets burned and is not amused as to what the fire did. This shows that with knowledge, things can turn out very pleasant and joyful, like when the
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
Mary Shelley shows how both Victor and the monster create sympathy for one another. They are both victims, but they are also wrongdoers. They bring a great burden of suffering to each other lives, causes hatred to be created for the characters.
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
Mary Shelley, the renowned author of Frankenstein, explores the consequences of man and monster chasing ambition blindly. Victor Frankenstein discovered the secret that allowed him to create life. His understanding of how bodies operated and the science of human anatomy enabled him to make this discovery and apply it to the creation of his monster. Walton wished to sail to the arctic because no sailor has ever reached it. The monster was created against his will, his ambition was to avenge his creation as a hideous outcast. These three characters were all driven by the same blind ambition.
The theme in a piece of literature is the main idea or insight on characters. Most pieces of literature do not limit itself to one but many other themes all collected into one. This is just like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This horrifying story was produced in 1818 and has several themes that she portrays throughout. The theme of dangerous knowledge is unmistakably seen theme in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see this theme through three of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. We can see how their desire for knowledge can take them places and show them eventually what they are looking for. Sooner or later it will take them to dangerous and unwanted places. The desire for knowledge can eventually lead one to its grave. Victor Frankenstein’s scientific endeavor, Robert Walton’s search for the North Pole, and the creature’s kind heart but scary features creates this theme of dangerous knowledge.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley combines three separate stories involving three different characters--Walton, Victor, and Frankenstein's monster. Though the reader is hearing the stories through Walton's perspective, Walton strives for accuracy in relating the details, as he says, "I have resolved every night,...to record, as nearly as possible in his [Victor's] own words, what he has related during the day" (Shelley 37). Shelley's shift in point of view allows for direct comparison and contrast between the characters, as the reader hears their stories through the use of first person. As the reader compares the monster's circumstances to those of Victor and Walton, the reader's sympathy for the monster greatly increases.
“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Shelley 64). Knowledge is power and when a person has too much power they can become a force of destruction as seen in Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus written by Mary Shelley. The pursuit of knowledge is prominent through many of the significant characters in the novel. The desire to explore is primarily in Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein, this trait allows readers to see the similarities and differences that both men hold, making Walton a foil for Dr. Frankenstein. Even though
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).