Comparing Victor And The Creature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Throughout the history of literature, instances will always occur where themes repeat themselves constantly. One of these instances appears in the classic novel Frankenstein, where two characters, whom one would originally classify as opposites, truly possess many similarities to one another. Victor and the Creature share and oddly large amount of similarities between them. One of which being their drive to obtain knowledge, no matter the topic. With Victor, he typically is driven to discover things no one else has. The Creature however, constantly tries to find out how the world works and to find his place in society. Another similarity found in the novel would be the two characters isolation throughout the novel, self-inflicted or forced. For Victor, he always kept to himself,

focusing on his studies and not worrying about others. For the Creature, he finds trouble fitting in due to his appearance and eventually gets pushed away from society completely and finds himself alone. Both of these similarities play an enormous role throughout the novel in developing the characters themselves.
From the beginning of the novel, readers can already see that Victor shows obsessive attitudes towards learning.

He finds himself fascinated with how the world works and the works of outdated alchemists. This obsession continues until his late teenage years where he pursues higher education in natural philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt. During his studies he puts all he has into his studies. After a few years at University, Victor masters everything his teachers have for him and decides he will take his studies to the next level and discover the secret of life. After years of tireless studying how one would put a body togetherand also how the body dies he finally discovers how to create life, in which he creates the Creature. The drive for obtaining knowledge that Victor possesses led to the creation of the Creature. Victor’s fascination and obsession with the secrets of life and nature truly caused a chain of events he could never have predicted nor prevented. Realizing the mistake he had made, Victor abandons the Creature due to its hideous appearance, forcing the Creature to learn how the world works himself. Abandoned and alone, the Creature ventures into the wilderness attempting to survive and acquires a

taste for life for the first time. He finds a fire and learns he enjoys the warmth it provides but soon realizes it can also hurt him as well if he gets too close. He learns to cook his food over the fire and how to keep the fire going. After experiencing a few good parts of life, the Creature searches for food and comes across a hut. When he walks in he causes an old man to run out in fear. Continuing on his journey he comes across a village which ends with the same outcome as the hut in the woods did. He does not understand why humans run from him but he decides that he will make an effort to stay away from humans. After finding another hut in the woods, the Creature realizes that he can see the family that lives inside through a crack in the wall. He learns the ins and outs of the family and comes to feel connected to them. The Creature makes an enormous effort to learn French so he can finally confront them and speak with them. After learning to read and write by observing the family he attempts to confront them. He waits until everyone but DeLacey leaves and goes inside to talk to him. DeLacey being blind, finds the Creature friendly and kind, although, the rest of the family arrives home early and drives the Creature out of the house. Eventually the Creature learns the reason humans run from him comes directly from his grotesque appearance. Filled with fury, the Creature realizes that Victor caused all his woes and vows to seek vengeance on Victor. This chain of events derives directly from the Creature being forced to learn how the world works on his own. Without proper guidance, the Creature inevitably would not function properly in society.
Another incredible similarity between the two is the fact that they are completely isolated from society, whether it be voluntary or forced. With Victor, he chooses to isolate himself early in the beginning to focus directly on his work. With Victor so obsessed with discovering the secret to life, he does not feel he has the time to interact with anyone else. Although, later in the novel, Victor isolates himself to keep his loved ones safe from the Creature, knowing that the Creature’s rage is nothing to take lightly. The Creature however, ends up forced into isolation due to his realizing that his appearance will not be accepted in normal society. With the Creature he had no choice but to isolate himself, especially after committing murder on different occasions. The Creature never wanted to isolate himself. He showed a very promising personality in the beginning of the novel with a kind and compassionate heart. After realizing how disgusting his appearance really was to the rest of society he became engulfed in rage and isolated himself in the wilderness vowing vengeance.
Overall throughout the novel, these similarities are nothing to pass over as coincidence. These similarities between Victor and the Creature show to be completely intentional and play enormous roles in the plot throughout. Without Victor yearning to seek knowledge, the Creature would have never been created. Also, without the Creature being forced to learn how society works, he would not have found himself to be an outcast and would not have gone on a rampage, murdering everyone close to Victor. If Victor had not isolated himself and kept close to family the Creature would not have been created either. If the Creature had not been forced into isolation he would not have murdered Victors loved ones and there would not be much of a plot.