Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Philosophy of frankenstein
Philosophy of frankenstein
Literary analysis of Frankenstein
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Frankenstein versus his Creature in Mary Shelley's Novel In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creature's only need is for a female companion, which he asks Victor Frankenstein his maker to create. Shelley shows the argument between the creature and Frankenstein. The creature says: "I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself " (Shelley 139). Shelley shows what the creature wants from Frankenstein and what his needs are. Shelley gives us an idea of the sympathy that Frankenstein might feel for the creature even though he neglects him. The creature confronts Victor demanding his attention and expressing his needs. I feel a lot of sympathy for the creature based on him being able to forgive Victor for abandoning him and being able to communicate with him. A perfect reason why Frankenstein refuses to grant the creature what he wishes is when he tells the creature: "your evil passions will be renewed, and you will then have a companion to aid you in the task of destruction" (Shelley 140). I think that this is a good reason why Frankenstein doesn't want to grant the creature's wish. Frankenstein is afraid that creating another creature can cause the end of human kind. I disagree with Victor's thoughts and assumptions about the creature's nature because he judges the creature by his appearance: "when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred"(Shelley 140). Victor is very shallow because he judges the creature by his appearance and not by his feelings. I believe that Victor and the creature are both right about what they want and yet monstrous in their reactions. Victor is right about what he wants; one reason is because he is very committed to his work and in creating life for his creature. On the other hand he is evil because he abandoned the creature and left him on his own: "I escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited" (Shelley 57). Shelley shows Victor's monstrous reaction to the creature in the way that he abandoned the creature to his own luck and he shows no responsibility for him.
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
There may even be a small possibility that Frankenstein detested the Creature when he realized that the Creature may be able to possess the ability to read and write. Frankenstein did not want to create anything close to a human companion when creating the Creature, he only wanted to create a slave that would procreate and form a “family” of slaves who would not only give Frankenstein the satisfaction of company but would assist him in scientific experiments. “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley 54).
He toils endlessly in alchemy, spending years alone, tinkering. However, once the Creature is brought to life, Frankenstein is no longer proud of his creation. In fact, he’s appalled by what he’s made and as a result, Frankenstein lives in a perpetual state of unease as the Creature kills those that he loves and terrorizes him. Victor has realized the consequences of playing god. There is irony in Frankenstein’s development, as realized in Victor’s desire to destroy his creation. Frankenstein had spent so much effort to be above human, but his efforts caused him immediate regret and a lifetime of suffering. Victor, if he had known the consequences of what he’s done, would have likely not been driven by his desire to become better than
People are defined by their environment and how they react to their environment. Environments that appear to be perfect on the outside may very well be the cause of misery in man's life because one must be able to cope with their environment. Victor could not cope with his environment and lashed out at the world by trying to attain power. However, things do not always go as planned, and sometime this may be beneficial. One should not judge by external appearance alone. It is what is on the inside that counts. Had Victor Frankenstein been taught ethics such as this, his life, as well as the lives of those he loved, could have been saved. Also, the life of the creature could have been free of pain and hatred. The monster is a symbol for the outcasts and rejected of society. He is also a reflection of Victor, meaning that Victor was also considered an outcast. The reality of an animated object reflecting something that one does not want to see, combined with being alone in the world, is enough to drive man mad. The monster, in some ways, creates a harsh reality for Victor. Either love what you create or be destroyed by it.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and the monster that he creates are very similar. For example, Victor creates the monster to be like himself. Another similarity is that the anger of both Victor and the monster is brought about by society. One more parallel between Victor and the monster is that they both became recluses. These traits that Victor and the monster possess show that they are very similar.
Victor had several moral choices to select on, which is to play with God and create a human like figure, or forbid natural philosophy and walk along a new journey. However, Victor chooses to create a new creature not thinking it would need to be cherished or loved by his own father. Victor made the creature with love and passion, but just like every single newborn baby, it needs its parents there to support and show emotional relations. The creature responds with, "This obligation is in part to be just to me, and do what you can as father to improve my lot." (Shelley 164). Creating a companion or not for the creature, Victor needs to prove his passion and emotions he has for his creation. Although, he forbids Frankenstein's obligation which changes the moral of the story to conquer revenge
We are all born into this world with innocence, but due to our human nature and the ways of society we don’t stay this way. Some people let the world corrupt them and others manage to find peace. However, none of us are been as liars and killers. Victor Frankenstein’s monster is an example of such corruption and how someone so innocent can be manipulated based on how they’re viewed by others. In the monster’s early days he is shown to be innocent without knowledge of his appearance and the effect that it will have on people.When he first encounters humans he has faith in them and is confident that he will befriend them. Then, with each human encounter his faith is destroyed. The monster is young and doesn’t understand
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley there are many morally ambiguous characters, these characters tend to play a pivotal role in the novel and in Frankenstein the perfect character to fit the description in my eyes is the creature created by Victor Frankenstein. The view the reader has towards the character changes throughout the novel as the creature who was initially innocent as we can see when he meets the cottagers then becomes vengeful due to Victor’s ambition of ‘playing god’ where the creature would be created and the creature would come to the realization that no one would accept him he would eventually go on to kill some of Victor’s family members in an act of revenge which reveals an obsession and ambition can blind one’s morals leading
While the meaning of the novel can vary from person to person, it is undeniable that Mary Shelley wrote this piece of literature to examine and explore the questions that philosophers of the 17th century have been asking for years. The one question that is examined throughout the entirety of the novel is the idea of what it means to be human and the harsh reality of living as a human. Considering the year the novel was first published, which was in the year 1818, the age of the romantic movement was still thriving. The romantic movement focused heavily on nature and human feelings rather than the ideas of the enlightenment, which focused more on human progress and reason. However, compared to the romantic literature of the time, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, a gothic literature piece, was more focused on the destruction that nature was capable of and the destructive passion humans carry. With that in mind, it is no wonder that Victor Frankenstein's ambition had led to such a tragic ending. In Victor Frankenstein's eyes, his ambition lead him to experiment with unknown science beyond his knowledge during his university days, which lead to the creation of the monster. Despite, him abandoning The Creature and putting his whole family in danger, it didn't make him any less human than before. Frankenstein still felt emotions of anger and sadness, he even had thoughts of his own, but while Victor Frankenstein is still considered a human being, The Creature is not. The Creature, although not birthed naturally into the world, still had thoughts of his own and felt emotions just like Victor and the rest of humanity. So, in that context, the creature fits the description of a human, which is not shocking because they are each other's foil character. The only thing that was ceasing the creature from being accepted in the
The monster in a way is warm hearted and kind but as we observed he is still dangerous. That is because he's always killing people who has a very close relationship with Frankenstein. Now what makes a monster created by man act in such a harsh manner ? What makes Frankenstein even want to make a monster from different dead body parts ? Well in everyday human life if a person feels as if they are being abandoned it brings a different kind of hate in their heart. They don't feel or get the love that they seek, and in some cases that turns them into a heartless monster. Back in chapter twenty-three Victor wouldn't create the monster a mate so the monster murdered his love. Now the twist is that Frankenstein created the monster and now wants him dead. Everyone that Frankenstein loves or someone that is close to him gets killed, and the key fact about the book is that Victor quotes the monster first- person narrative ; in addition the lesser characters Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor. Also, the murder of Elizabeth on the night of her wedding to Victor which takes place in chapter twenty-three. The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor to
Technically speaking, the monster does want to see him suffer, and tear away and possibility he has left for happiness, but Victor’s ego is too large to see the truth. Granted, killing him would cause him to suffer, if the monster wanted that to happen he would’ve murdered Victor a while ago. “On that night he had determined to consummate his crimes by my death (Shelley 192, 193).” This quotation is an interesting one, because it has two important parts to it. One part that has been covered before is Victor thinking the monster is just out to murder himself, when in actuality a clear-minded individual could tell he has other plans. The other part that’s interesting to note out of that portion is when he says “his crimes”, eluding to what the monster has done. Now this is more a controversial topic, but it creates the question; is Victor responsible for what his creation has done? The consensus is that he is responsible. So this is another point in which Victor is not yet taking responsibility for what his creation has done and for the murders of his family and friends. That is another minor piece that can fit into the umbrella of describing Victor as a bad person, and how one could
Throughout chapters 17-19 in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the main protagonist Victor Frankenstein experiences an internal conflict as he contemplates whether or not he should fulfill the creature’s request of him to create a female companion; whatever decision Frankenstein should choose will deeply impact the other characters. One reason why Frankenstein is opposed to bestow life upon another creature is because he does not want his health to undergo the same destruction and as it went through the time he made his first creation.
Victor is aghast from the moment his experiment ended After the birth of the creature, Victor runs away and says, “With anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” (Page 58) Victor is scared of his creature’s capabilities. This fear is an early sign why Victor “collected the instruments of life” because he did not want to create another creature and cause “danger” to society. This idea is revealed in the middle/end of the book when the creature asks Frankenstein to create a lady of it's species. After a long period of thinking, Dr. Frankenstein decides the best thing is to keep those tools hidden away for good.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a novel that reflected an assortment of ideas during the Romantic era. In the story, both Victor Frankenstein and the creature within it bring up a variety of internal and external conflicts that affected the outcome of the entire story. In the long interchange between Victor and the creature on the alpine glacier near Charmonix, I believe that the creature defeats Victor by appealing to his inner sense of responsibility for the creature’s unjust acts, thus leading to the eventual demise of Victor.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, builds and animates a creature. The creature is isolated by Victor Frankenstein and goes about exploring the world and attempting to find a place to fit in. Frankenstein regrets his creation and fears it may have malicious intent towards the human race. When he finds his monster again, it recounts the two years of exploring and learning it did and demands that Victor make him a companion so he would finally have someone who would understand him. Victor refuses, so the monster threatens to murder him and his family and friends if he did not comply. So Victor again isolates himself and begins building another monster for his first. He later destroys the monster before its