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Frankenstein character essay
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The brutal behavior that causes people to suffer or feel pain mentally or physically is known as cruelty. It is actions that people, real or fictional, experience, and these actions usually come from the one’s they love. Cruelty can either be unintentional or on purpose, and both forms negatively affect the person or object receiving the action. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, acts of cruelty, such as when Victor leaves the monster, are driving forces that causes characters to realize their mistakes, ultimately causing their own destruction. Victor’s cruel abandonment of the monster once he awakens causes the monster to feel lonely and isolated which affects his feelings towards humans and life in general in the novel. …show more content…
Before the creation of the monster, Victor tells himself that he will be dedicated to the product, and knows that it will be a great success.
Victor uses his knowledge and attachment to science and becomes “thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit” (Shelley 68) and that pursuit is to succeed. He puts his whole heart and dedicates his every hour to the creation, which makes him “neglect the scenes around [him] causing [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time” (Shelley 68). After putting so much time and effort into the creation, Victor expects the product to be perfect, yet it is the complete opposite, unattractive and frightful. Victor barely gives the monster a chance to speak before he runs off, leaving the monster to fend for …show more content…
itself. The idea of being alone did not settle with the monster, for he was just created and did not know how the world worked. When Victor selflessly “rushed out of the room” after being “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created” (Shelley 92), the monster had to figure out his purpose. It took him a while to realize that he was different from everyone else and would not be accepted in the crowd. As days went by, the monster realizes that Victor left him because he was a disappointment and not what he had expected. This crushes the monsters spirits and hopes, and shows that one cruel action can lead to others. The Monster follows Victor around, killing Victor's loved ones because he feels that if he is lonely, then his creator should be too. The monster eventually confronts Victor and tells him that he “will cause fear, and chiefly towards [Victor, his] archenemy, because [his] creator does swear inextinguishable hatred” (Shelley 176). The Monster stands by his decision to get revenge on Victor because Victor is the one who created him. The cruel act of being left alone with no guidance at all turns the creation into the evil monster he is seen to be.
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
oneself. Victor and the monster’s relationship had potential, yet was ruined by one simple act. When Victor decided to leave the monster, he also uncontrollably decided the monsters future. If instead Victor had given the monster a chance, then the outcome would have been different and the monster might have been accepted into society. The neglection of the monster causes him to not be able to grow to his full potential. This cruel action then goes on to cause the monster to be ruthless, killing Victor’s loved ones and causing other complications. Victor’s harsh actions to desert the monster after realizing it is not what he expected, causes the monster to become evil, which therefore affects the other characters that cross the monster’s path.
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, cruelty is a frequent theme and different acts of cruelty are committed almost every chapter. Victor Frankenstein abandoned his creation because of its grotesque face and destroyed any chance if the monster getting a mate, and the monster kills everyone Frankenstein loves out of spite. In Frankenstein, the different acts of cruelty that are imposed onto Frankenstein and his creation help reveal their true character
His mother's love was shown throughout the beginning of the book so much more than his fathers was. Together the two parents loved him so much it helped him grow and this is why his childhood was so phenomenal. When Victor was sent off to Ingolstadt, he had no real idea of what it was like to be an adult. He was taken care of so well by his mother that once she was away from her parents, her father being at home and his mother being dead, he was not sure what was right and wrong. Victor's curiosity for knowledge is what led him to be a man of science and this is why he came up with the idea to experiment and create a human being from death. Without thinking of the results that were to come, Victor's ambition to become godlike pushed him to finish his project. The end result terrified Victor so badly that even he left him alone. To start, he left him alone in his apartment and when he returned, the monster was gone. “I could hardly believe that that so great a good fortune could have befallen me, but when I became assured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy and ran down to Clerval.” (Shelley 61) This is the first time that Victor does not care for his monster properly. After all of the care that Victor received from his mother, readers would think that Victor would grow up to be just like his parents and be so kind and gentle. Victor is unable to take responsibility of the monster that he created. Victor is prejudiced by the appearance of the monster which leads him to run away from his
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that follow the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being. This is obviously something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and finding out what he is doing. At the end of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor says:
...ot use his newly found motivation responsibly and by the middle of our novel the death of his mother is seemingly microscopic compared to the problem that he has to deal with in regards to his creation. Following his mother's death, Victor began to change and with those changes he also felt the need to be worshipped and as a result he creates a monster that he runs from and sees as a burden, however, the monster recognizes Victor as his creator, but Victor remains disgusted and somewhat afraid of what he created. This causes the monster to seek out his revenge. In the end Victor is in fact a coward, he is also selfish and irresponsible due to the fact that every emotion and transformation he experiences can be trace back to the moment where he went to the extreme and sought our Godly powers andd not only created his monster, but transformed into a monster himself.
It is through these actions that the monster acts out his evil doings and murders those that Victor loves. The monster does this because he wants to seek revenge on Victor and wants to make him pay for neglecting him all throughout his life. The monster is seen as awful and evil in every aspect by every person, but if he was nurtured and cared for by Victor, and the human societies didn’t initially judge him based on his appearance, he could have kept the goodness that he originally had when he was
Emotion is a sharp double-sided blade. It has the ability to do either good or harm. Humans have been known to start wars because of spite or anger. They can also be very delicate and fragile emotionally. Therefore, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the lack of companionship and love can lead to malicious behavior.
A true relationship between the monster and Victor never existed. Victor is similar to a man who fathers a child only for the pleasure of "doing it," ignoring the circumstances it may bring. Victor was so thrilled to see the components of his creation coming together - indeed it was truly a thing of beauty to him. But like the biological father, he is only excited over the thrill of "doing it." After the sensation and pleasure of creation ends responsibility begins and Victor, like our modern day deadbeat dads, refuses to face the consequences of his actions. Any relationship that existed between these two was simply that of usury - except the currency was not gold or silver, but fame and pride. Victor hoped to use his creation in a selfish manner, only to gain recognition for himself.
...bsessions, loses sight of his own humanity and desires, while his social relationships deteriorate. Victor’s attempts to overstep the bounds of human knowledge and control, violate the very code of nature, and his creation, as well as his whole family, paid dearly for his mistake of not having seen the gravity and danger of what he wrought. Victor’s harsh influence upon his progeny leads to his creation’s thirst for vindication for the life he is forced to live and the unjust burden of isolation he is forced to bear. The creature’s loneliness causes his need for vengeance and retribution, which uncontrollably leads him to murderous acts, for if he is treated a murderous wretch by all of society, the only way he can survive is to embrace the darkness and become a murderous wretch, till his retribution has been felt, and the family of Frankenstein is all but gone.
Victor’s desire to understand the human body and how it worked, led him to a creation of his own. “I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success. Nor could I consider the magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability” (43), said Victor. With these feelings that he had obtained he started the process of creating his own human being. All of the work he put into it, day and night he did not get any sleep and it made him go insane. Once he realized he was successful at creating a being, he discovered he created a monster or at least what he thought was a monster. Victor’s constant need to work on the creature caused his body to start to wear down. When this happened it caused Victor to becom...
In the beginning of the novel, Victor creates the monster, while isolating himself for five years. While creating this monster, he not only isolates himself, but Victor abandons his “ideal” life. Family and friends whom Victor uses as his support system throughout the novel, especially his good friend Henry Clerval and his cousin Elizabeth, constantly surround Victor and create his “ideal” life. From the moment Victor abandons this life, as the novel portrays, Victor is considered an outcast of society. Victor abandons such a life by isolating himself from the world in order to achieve what he feels is “natural philosophy” and to reveal the true characteristics of life. Victor creates the monster with the intention of creating a superhuman
In the novel Frankenstein, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, functions as an instrument of suffering to many of the other characters in the story. Frankenstein spends two years painstakingly constructing a creature he fully expects to be beautiful and superior to humankind. When he is faced with the reality that what he has created is grotesque and as far from humanlike as possible, he refuses to accept responsibility for his creation. Unable to be nurtured and cared for by his master, the creature is left to fend for himself in a cruel world that judges a person by appearances first. Because of his inability to interact with society and have a female of his own kind to love, Frankenstein’s creature eventually turns to murder as
When Victor creates the monster, he obviously has qualities that he had immediately upon his creation. For instance, Victor was terrified of the monster as soon as he saw him solely do to the way he looked and acted. (Shelley 48). The impending catastrophes of the monsters can likely be due to the fact that the person he viewed as his guardian, Victor, abandoned him. The monster felt a connection with Victor, so his violent actions are a result of his resentfulness towards him being left alone. This connection can be made to Rousseau’s theory on development because the monster has qualities similar to that of a human being. He feels the effects of being abandoned and realizes that to be happy he should acquire a companion. After observing a family for a while, he was able to request that Victor create him a female monster. (Shelley 126). This shows his desire to have experiences with other people, these experiences would be what shapes him into who he is. Although he never quite got his mate from Victor, he still felt a deep connection with Victor. So, when he finds out he has died, he feels he no longer has a purpose to survive. He pays his respect and then vows to kill himself. (Shelley 169). Victor is responsible for the upbringing of the monster, similar to the way parents raise their children and impact their life paths. So, it is understandable that the monster would
He soon became infatuated with creating life on his own. He had various things inspire him, such as the lightening bolt hitting the tree. Once he researched, collected his materials, and starting working on his creature he couldn 't stop. Victor isolated himself in his apartment from all of his family and friends while creating this creature. After two long years the frightening creature was created. Victor was in shock, he didn 't know what to do and that was partly because before he created this monster he didn 't think of the consequences. He abandoned his apartment, leaving the creature, at this point in the novel “we come to understand that Victor doesn’t value the life he is to create so much as what the creation will give him—a place in history as the (in)famous father of reanimating dead flesh.” (Lunsford). There were multiple factors Victor did not take into consideration before and during the process of creating the creature. This is because Victor doesn 't care about others. He was very emotional during the two years of the creation mainly because of the death of his mother. This shaped him into a different person that he was at the beginning of the novel, he was now careless, selfish, and isolated from the world. He devalued life by not teaching the creature how to behave, how to speak, and the other aspects of life. This shows that
Every living thing needs some measure of acceptance and love. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, parent-child relationships and the need for companionship play a crucial role in the lives of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creature. The creature is repeatedly rejected and repulsed by society and, in turn, by his own father figure Dr. Frankenstein. This causes the creature to become consumed by his own fear, resentment, animosity toward humanity and, ultimately, malice. The characters all have a need for a parental figure, companionship, approval, and acceptance. The dreadful consequences of the absence of such relations is revealed through the Creature's suffering. The creature's reactions to rejection by others, isolation and inability