Ambition is a valuable quality to possess but when used for the wrong reason it can be detrimental. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, an inspired scientist, uses his ambition to fuel his creative work. Macbeth, the brave soldier in the play Macbeth, displays a great need for power. With his ambition thriving, he will do anything to be in charge. Victor Frankenstein and Macbeth, both aggressive men, display an extreme sense of ambition leading them to ultimately go insane. The urgency for recognition both becomes and obsession over time and negatively influences the decisions they make.
The desperation for pride and recognition inclines to a fascination in both Macbeth and Victor. Macbeth is thoroughly determined to become King of Scotland and he will do whatever it takes to make this happen. Subsequent to the witches knowing Macbeth’s fate, he threatens them saying, “I conjure you, by that which
…show more content…
you profess, answer me” (Shakespeare, 402). Macbeth’s attitude has completely changed and he is now very strict with the witches. He is intensely strong-willed and has become obsessed with perceiving his fate. With an extreme thirst for knowledge, Victor Frankenstein begins studying all aspects of nature. This gained knowledge fuels Victor’s idea of the creature. With recognition in mind, Victor spends months fabricating his creature. The long and arduous project leads Victor to completely isolate himself from his family. This preoccupation generated in Victor has dominated his mind and ultimately leads him to disengage his family in his life. The obsession to gain recognition, resolves in Victor and Macbeth’s decline. The unfavorable decisions made as a result of unwavering ambition negatively influences both Victor and Macbeth.
Macbeth, who was thought to be a noble war hero, becomes insane as a result of his explicit lust for authority. Consequent to realizing that Macduff has fled to England Macbeth states, “from this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand” (Shakespeare 405). Macbeth is beginning to believe he can kill the innocent Macduff family because of his desire for power. His compulsion has taken over him and has influenced his decisions to murder the uninvolved. Victor, a loving member of the Frankenstein family, allows his ambition to alter his choices a well. With the creature threatening the lives of Victor’s family, Victor ultimately decides to construct the companion. After resolving this predicament, Victor states, “…to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my most abhorred task” (Shelly 151). The loving bond between Victor and his family sustains his unfavorable choice to accommodate the
creature. The extreme sense of ambition shared in Macbeth and Victor fundamentally compels them to go insane. The obsession for power leads to the killing of the innocent and the isolation of many loved ones. As a result of the ambition extremely irrational decisions are made throughout Macbeth and Victors struggle for pride. Ambition, when motivated for the wrong reason, produces extremely negative consequences.
Mary shelley depicts the ambition of man as the source of fallibility in the novel Frankenstein. She uses the characters Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton as two of the major examples of this . Both of these men desired to be glorified by men through scientific achievements, but their unchecked ambition eventually leads to their non-fulfillment. Blinded by dreams of glory, they fail to consider the consequences of their actions.
hears the news of his family, he is determined to bring down the tyrant, Macbeth.
In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the main theme revolves around the internal and external consequences of being isolated from others. Being isolated from the world could result in a character losing his/her mental state and eventually causing harm to themselves or others. Because both Victor Frankenstein and the creature are isolated from family and society, they experienced depression, prejudice, and revenge.
At first, Victor views his monster as a beautiful creation but later when he first lays eyes on the monster he starts to fear and rejects the monster and no longer took interest in the monster. Frankenstein pays no attention to the Monster what so ever, and the Monster becomes jealous and angry at his creator. The Monster starts to take action and starts to go crazy/ berserk and later on in the novel begins to kill Victor’s family. The Monster kills Victor’s little brother William out of jealousy and confusion. The quote on page 58 states,” William is dead!
In the 1980’s classic The Breakfast Club, John Hughes wrote it best, “We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.” Societal normalcy is more of a false notion and facade rather than an fact. Who dictates what normal is? With every person on Earth being different, how is there a norm? The idea of what is “normal” in society is what plagues the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Wanting to be a functioning member of society, the creation of Doctor Frankenstein is judged based on his physical differences rather than given a chance to show his true nature. However, society is not always to blame for a person or creatures’ adversity with society.
2 On 30 August 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Shelley) was born. As a baby she never got the chance to meet her mother she later on had died after the birth of Mary. On January 3rd 1812 Percy Bysshe Shelley was a very regular visitor in the family after the absence of Mary. Percy and Mary had begun a relationship in the year 1814. Mary and Percy had settled at Bishops Gate, Windsor and later on that year Mary gave birth to her first son William. As the son was born family had left to England to begin their lives together in Geneva.
...rn day society, illusive ambitions can be incredibly detrimental, just as they are demonstrated to be in Macbeth. Ambitions, if they are untamed, can be an impediment to free will; they can overpower your good conscience, possibly leading you into causing death and destruction. They can also corrupt one’s mental health, while practically morphing that person’s perception of reality into something demonstrably wrong and twisted. Finally, they can boost ones ego to a point where that person is engulfed and imprisoned in the vehemence of their own denial, which can ultimately bear fatal consequences. If one’s hopes and desires are innately destructive, then it logically follows that that one’s ambition is also innately destructive; be wary of one with an immense ambition.
The vigorous desire to achieve and willingly attain something holds the capability to greatly affect one's life. William Shakespeare's play Macbeth establishes the immense effect and influence of ambition. After gaining power over his country Scotland, the protagonist, Macbeth, experiences an internal downfall as he battles between his wants and moral judgement. He struggles to maintain stable relationships with others as his selfish desires and goals hurt those around him when achieved. In addition to clashing with himself and others, he is seen as a tyrant leader and is slowly turned against by Scotland's nation as well as England. Shakespeare's play Macbeth provides the reader with a clear understanding of ambition's corrupting power in Shakespeare's tragic character Macbeth, through his inner conflicts, struggle to maintain stable relationships with those surrounding him, and clash with society.
Ambitions Gone Bonkers! How far can your ambitions go before it comes to the fine line between hurting you or helping you? Aron Rolston, an ambitious mountain climber in the movie 127 Hours, decides to go canyoneering in Blue John Canyon. Climbing through confined spaces where boulders are suspended, crammed between mountainous walls of rock, he slips and falls into a canyon where his arm is trapped between the boulder and canyon wall. What a misadventure.
I am here to present my vision of the play known as Frankenstein’s monster, a play once directed by Tom Hallyer. Frankenstein’s monster is set in a gloomy era around the time of the First World War. A mad scientist by the name of Doctor Frankenstein plans to gather the bodies of the fallen soldiers from the war, combining them in his secret laboratory. Frankenstein is soon forced to choose between his fiancée Elizabeth and his own creations life. He is quick to make the judgement but after the decision was made the monster had escaped and ran off seeking refuge in the forest, he spots a bright light in the distance and follows it leading to the home of an old blind man known as De Lacey along with his son Felix and daughter Agatha. The monster
Many people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement, her father, William Godwin, was a famous social philosopher, and her husband, Percy Shelley, was one of the leading Romantic poets of the time ("Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Biography."). What most people do not know, however, is that Mary Shelley dealt with issues of abandonment her whole life and fear of giving birth (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). When she wrote Frankenstein, she revealed her hidden fears and desires through the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, putting him symbolically in her place (Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Frankenstein.”). Her purpose, though possibly unconsciously, in writing the novel was to resolve both her feelings of abandonment by her parents, and fears of her own childbirth.
The heroic loyal character of Macbeth is forced into a internal battle to decide between ambition and loyalty to his king. Macbeth overcomes the evil within him, though Lady Macbeth crushes his thoughts of loyalty to the king by calling him a coward or threatening his manliness. Macbeth allows the evilness to grow within him, which allows ambition to take control of his life. Due to the evilness that has started to control his life he prepares to kill the man who has given him everything to his credit, to fulfil his ambition, and to become King.
Ambition, the desire to succeed and achieve in different areas of life, can be found in almost each individual person, driving them to pursue their dreams and reap the rewards, though not without various consequences. This idea of ambition, in addition to its risk and benefits, is discussed within Mary Shelley’s Romantic era science-fiction novel Frankenstein, in which scientist and protagonist Victor Frankenstein exhibits severe ambitious tendencies involving pushing the bounds of science, with lethal consequences, in addition to being expressed within an excerpt from William Shakespeare’s Renaissance era play King Henry VIII, in which clergyman Cardinal Wolsey is dismissed from his position in court and recalls the circumstances which brought
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).
Heraclitus said “Big results require big ambitions.” However big results are not always necessarily good. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare shows how Macbeth’s ambition leads to his downfall. Shakespeare illustrates the theme of ambition in the play. The witches and their prophecies fool Macbeth and it makes his ambition go crazy.