Absence of Heroes and Villains in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Absence of Heroes and Villains in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein is a gothic novel which was published in the 19th

century, and was written by Mary Shelley. In the 19th century the most

popular types of novels were horror. This novel was an early example

of a thriller. One of the main reasons why Mary Shelley wrote a book

about science, horror and suffering was because she knew that people

in the 19th century were interested in all of these aspects. The novel

also deals with issues of good vs evil, and through this the author

creates a sense of horror in the readers mind.

Heroes are those people who do something unexpected, so the creature

could be a hero as he lived and grew up by himself. A villain is

someone who does something for the wrong reasons and enjoys causing

havoc, so the creature can be seen as a villain as he kills many

people. A victim is someone who is someone being targeted by a villain

and goes through a lot of suffering because of it, in this novel all

of the characters can be seen as victims in different ways.

Frankenstein can be seen as a scientific hero by the fact that he

created life by no more than the means of electricity; he gives a

lifeless creature his first breath. He could also be seen as a hero as

he has accomplished something that some people could only dream of but

not accomplish. Another person that could be seen as a hero is Walton.

Walton shows us how much of a risk he is willing to take for his

ambition and courage; he puts his own life and his crew's life in

danger for his ambition and courage to accomplish his goal. He tho...

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..., making us the reader judge him as a victim not a villain.

In conclusion I would say that the creature is all those mentioned in

the title, that is why the creature is so interesting. Frankenstein

could be seen as a scientific hero for creating life and could be seen

as a villain for abandoning his creation. All in all I would say that

this gothic novel Frankenstein is about ambition, people's interest in

science, isolation, insecurity, putting characters in extreme

situations and also how much of a risk people are willing to take for

the ambition and courage, which were shown in different ways through

out the novel.

In my opinion overall I think that the creature can be seen as all

those mentioned in the title, Frankenstein can be seen as only a hero

or a villain and Walton can be seen as only a hero or a victim.