Dangers Of False Hope In Frankenstein

The Dangers of False Hopes

Throughout history, hope has sustained mankind in times of misfortune by gifting them a prospect of a better future. Hope has been carried into literature as a universal truth as well, giving miserable characters optimism despite tough ordeals. Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost and Shelley’s monster in Frankenstein exemplify hope; however, they demonstrate the risks and dangers of hope. Satan has hopes of superseding God, and the monster has hopes of becoming loved and accepted by mankind. However, they are unable to recognize that their desires are impossible and their hopes are nothing but pure fancy, landing themselves in misery and severe consequences. Satan and the monster reveal that blindness to the falsity

of hopes will only lead to despair and wickedness.
Ambition and desperation respectively blind Satan and the monster to the delusion of their hopes.

Satan aspires to rise above God in power, yet his ambition makes him unable to recognize the impossibility of such desires. Satan’s lofty position as God’s second-in-command raises his ambition: “lifted up so high/ I sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher/ Would set me highest” (Milton 4.49-51). The angel’s ambition drives his hope for absolute power and convinces him that he could fulfill such grandiose desires. However, God is unequalled in supremacy and can never be defeated; his absolute dominance renders Satan’s hopes futile. The angel will never be able to challenge God’s power, let alone defeat the omnipotent. Still, Satan is overly ambitious and thus blind to the impossibility of defeating God. Satan’s ambition parallels to the monster’s desperation for love in Shelley’s Frankenstein. As the monster observes the daily lives of the cottagers, he develops an ardent longing to enjoy the love and sympathy of mankind. He knows his desires are impossible to fulfill, but his desperation drives him to feign ignorance: “I persuaded myself that when they should become acquainted with my admiration of their virtues they would compassionate me and overlook my personal deformity” (Shelley

111). The monster’s ardent desire bars him from facing the truth. He is aware that his physical appearance horrifies all humans and prevents him from ever obtaining man’s love. Despite the monster’s knowledge of how hopeless his desires are, his desperation is too strong to suppress and he thus gives himself false hope to console his longing. He foolishly convinces himself that the cottagers’ pure benevolence would enable them to recognize and love his kindhearted nature, despite their inherent fear of his hideous appearance. Driven by his thirst for sympathy, he blinds himself to the harsh reality and refuses the recognize the futility of his hopes. Both Satan and Frankenstein’s monster have hopes to fulfill their impossible desires, but their passion blinds them to the falsity of such hopes.
Satan’s and the monster’s inabilities to recognize the falsity of their hopes only result in despair, which drives them to consciously choose to become evil. When Satan is cast out of Heaven, he is admired as the leader of the fallen angels, yet he is “only Supream/ In miserie; such joy Ambition findes” (Milton 4.91-92). Although he has obtained great power, which was his original goal, Satan is far from satisfied. His misery is so extreme that he is, ironically, unsurpassable in that aspect. Satan’s ambition and blindness to the falsity of his hopes resulted only in absolute anguish. He repents for his foolish rebellion, yet recognizes that he will never truly earn God’s forgiveness. Thus, Satan relinquishes hope all together: “all Good to me is lost;/ Evil be thou my Good” (Milton 4.109-110). He abandons all hope of ever regaining his former status as God’s high-ranking angel, and his despair forces him to deliberately choose wickedness to replace his former virtue. Much like Satan, the monster’s despair overwhelms him, and he chooses to become evil as well. The monster explains his tragedy to Walton: “I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my despair. Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen” (Shelley 195). The monster receives nothing but devastating anguish and despair when his false hopes are crushed. His utter despair provokes his “riot”; he consciously adopts evilness into his originally excellent nature in order to take revenge on his creator. Satan and the monster both fall into despair when they finally realize the falsity of their hopes; they willingly choose to become evil out of misery and bitterness.
Satan and the monster demonstrate that blindness to the falsity of hopes will result in a downfall to despair and a conscious choice of evil over good. Satan’s ambition and the monster’s desperation bar them from recognizing that their hopes are useless against their unattainable desires. Their despair from the realization motivate them to replace their virtue with malignity. Their tragic tales warn readers against similar downfalls, cautioning mankind from allowing passion to override reason and blind them to impossible dreams and false hopes.