How Does Victor Frankenstein Change Throughout The Novel

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“Perhaps the world progress not by maturing, but by being in a permanent state of adolescence, of thrilled discovery,” says Julian Barnes. Within the story Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley, portrays Victor Frankenstein as adolescence, seeking to find the thrill in creating life with his own hands while in another sense, the creature acts as an adolescence fighting for the attention of its father. The characters’ actions in the book almost correlate to Mary Shelley’s life. Mary Shelley was not an ordinary 19 year old teen. Born into a family of romantic poets, Shelley already had an idea of what her life would consist of. She started off studying her parent’s work, later falling into Gothic

novels. In 1814, she started a scandalous relationship with the then married Percy Bysshe Shelley, her dad’s political follower. The two went on an expedition to France. Upon their return, Mary was with child. Their child was born prematurely, resulting in an early death. They went through a roller coaster of obstacles, such as ostracism and constant debt, but they overcame the negatives and married in 1816 after the suicide of her husband’s first wife. The newlywed couple then spent the summer with some friends near Geneva, granting Mary Shelley with the idea of Frankenstein. In 1818, the couple left Britain for Italy, where she had another two miscarriages, but she did not give up there. She then gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. A few years later, another traumatic death happened. It was her husband. He drowned when sailing his boat in a very chaotic storm. A year later, she then returned to Great Britain with the goal of properly raising her son; however, she sadly failed at so because she died from illness of a brain tumor. Even though it is not explicitly written, the book, Frankenstein, has a lot to do with how Mary Shelley portrays her life. The Creature, Victor Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley all have
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characteristics of one another and many of the events that happened in her life are more vividly stressed in her gothic novel. In the theories of language and acquisitions, is it reasonable to believe that the creature could learn to speak by listening to others and reading without any real human interaction, that Victor was solely responsible for the Creature’s actions, and that this is a story of redemption?
It is reasonable to believe that the creature could learn to speak by listening and reading without human interaction. For starters, human babies are able to interpret what their parents are trying to disseminate with them even though the baby is not able to speak. In an article, Paul C. Holinger M.D., says, (2012) “During infancy, the baby and caretakers communicate through facial expressions and gestures and sounds…” In the early stages of childhood, kids are not really cognizant of what their parents are telling them; however, the tone in which the baby's parents say something can trigger a child’s sense on whether it is good or bad. For example, when a parent rejects their baby's request, the baby is aware that it is not getting what it wants, resulting in the baby pouting or crying. The baby knows that it is not going to get what it want because it can hear the tone in the voice change once the parents say no to the request. In another sense, if the parents approach the baby smiling and making googly eyes, the baby is aware and receptive of the love and affection given by the parents. Furthermore, not only can babies comprehend human language without speaking it animals can as well. In an online article, Simon Plant/Corbis explains, (2015) “It turns out that people who talk to their dogs may be onto

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something. Studies show that the average dog can understand about 165 different words, in some cases more if you make a point of training them… Posture, context, and daily routines, as well as words, play an important role in a canine communication, according to Jessica Beymer…” With training pets, a lot of communication is needed. For example, when a dog owner wants to take their dog for a walk in the park, the owner can speak “leash” and the dog can understand that the owner is referring to a thick string to allow them to venture throughout the neighborhood. When owners put a word and an object together while training their dog makes it easier for dogs to understand what they are trying to say no only because of the tone of the word but also because there is an image that goes with it. In conclusion, within the book, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley vividly describes how the creature was observant of what the family, he was watching was doing. In Frankenstein, the creature says, (1818), “By degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenance of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it.” Here the creature becomes aware of the family corresponding with one another, which intrigued him to learn the “godlike science.” Therefore, he started to observe their actions and sounds, mocking them so he could then pick up their system of messaging. For example, in the story the more he paid attention to the family, he was observing, he soon learned the names of familiar objects, such as fire, milk, and bread. Once he mastered that, he taught himself how to speak and read
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without an actual connection with humans, resulting in him learning the cottagers’ names, sister, father, Agatha, and Felix.

The creature soon began to understand human language, so he started to read the book he took from Victor Frankenstein’s lair, giving him the information on how he became. Fully understanding of things, the creature is now responsible for his sayings and actions.

Throughout the story, Victor Frankenstein became less and less responsible for the creature’s actions. At the beginning of the creature’s life, Victor can be held accountable for the creature’s actions because he is the one that “birth” it. In the beginning of Chapter 5 of the novel, Frankenstein, Victor expresses how ugly the creature is saying, (1818) “How can I describe this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God!” Victor created a hideous monster, not with the intentions on making him ugly. “Collecting bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame” is how Victor brought this monster together; sounds like Victor is a child at play with his new toys, in a rush to put them together, resulting in the creature’s body becoming an ugly and botched together a disgraceful figure of nature as if it was a rag doll. It was just Victor’s fantasy of autonomy that he tried to make become

true. The creature’s looks are a violation of social norms, making people turn their noses up and being afraid of him, resulting in its loneliness. The monster’s ugliness exemplifies his impurities, which soon lead him to be a brutal and cold hearted killer. Further into Chapter 5, Victor
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Frankenstein says, (1818), “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” This is the first action of abandonment by Victor. When the creature experienced this he began to act with a heart of hatred because he had no actual guidance in his life. He had no actual figure to teach it right from wrong. For example, once a son’s father leaves out of his life, which leaves the son with no guidance on how to be a respectful and responsible young man. Parents are needed in children’s lives to spend quality time in teaching them the facts of life and correct behavior. If Victor, the father, stayed to take care of his responsibility, the creature, majority of the deaths that happened in the novel wouldn’t have happened. The only thing the monster wanted throughout the story was accepted and a family that it could gain love from. That’s why he blamed Victor for his actions. Finally, in Chapter 10, the Creature says, (1818), “You accuse me of murder; and yet would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to spare me: listen to me; and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the life work at your hands.” In those lines, the creature makes it clear to Victor Frankenstein that he is the blame for all of his actions. The creature explains to Victor because of lack in raising him caused the creature to learn things on his own. Along the route of him learning who he was, a few people died, but that was because he was also fighting for the attention of his father. Frankenstein is held responsible for all the actions simply because he is the creator. Without the creature, majority of the issues caused by it wouldn’t have happened. He spent his precious time creating the monster; he should have spent just as much time perfecting it. However, the creature soon started to redeem himself and that’s how this is a story of redemption.
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Throughout the novel, Frankenstein, the monster that Victor Frankenstein created badly suffered from being different.

However, it does try to redeem himself within Victor. At the beginning of the story when his loneliness was getting the best of him, but then he found the family, that he soon fell in love with. He admired them from afar because he was still too scared to introduce himself. In Chapter 12, it reads, (1818) “I had admired the prefect forms of my cottagers—their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how as I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was reality the monster I am, I was filed with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity.” In these lines, the creature speaks on how seeing the family creates a door for him to escape his state of depression, helping him to forget his problems. He visualizes them as perfect; however, when he gets a reminder of how he really looks it is like a reminder and a minor setback for him. So at this point, the family is like his therapy helping him to get to a normally happy state in his life. Soon thereafter, the creature builds up the courage to speak to the old man, resulting in the family fighting against him, rounding up their things, and running away from the monster. So

the monster then decided to seek out his creator to get unanswered questions answered. In Chapter 13, the creature distraughtly says, (1818) “Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned?”
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After being abandoned by his intangible family, he sits and tries to think what he is to do next. He comes to a conclusion that the best thing for him to do is to look for his “father”. The creature went to look for Victor Frankenstein, and along the way, he came up with a plan so that he could have eternal happiness. The creature was going to blackmail Victor into making him a woman companionship. The woman companionship is wanted to fill that hole that Victor Frankenstein bolted into the creature’s heart. The fact that Victor knows this is the only reason he originally agree to it; however, after giving it some thought, he soon decides not to create another creature. He thinks well if this one has so many insecurities and problems, why make two? This sets the creature off. The creature that was once on the road to redemption quickly intertwined with the killer monster. In Chapter 2, Victor tells Frankenstein, (1818) “You can blast my other passions; but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die; but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.” The creature, here, promises to place torment and fear on Victor until the day he dies. The creature soon ends up killing everyone that Victor truly cares about. The creature has already killed William, Victor’s younger brother, and Justine, Victor’s adopted cousin. He has now killed Clerval. Not only does he kill Clerval, he sets Victor up as the murder. So Victor doesn’t k now that Clerval is dead until he is taken into police custody and questioned of his whereabouts. Victor then breaks down mentally. Victor starts to fear everything. He starts to hallucinate and think that everything is the creature. He feels as

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though everywhere he goes the monster is creeping behind him. He feels so guilty that he never again has a conscience mind. He dies telling his story as the monster watches from afar.
The novel Frankenstein, tells that without human contact a person can still learn how to communicate, the deaths in the story all lie on Victor’s shoulders, and that the story could have been a story of redemption. Throughout the story, Mary Shelley leaves the readers open to ask many questions. For example, what if Frankenstein had created another creature so that the Creature could have a companion? If he had and the womanly creation turned out to be 10 times worse than the original creature, do you feel as though the original creature would have become jealous? Then, a war among the two broke out? However, Frankenstein was still in the mix because he was the creator. Mary Shelley leaves so many doors open for the readers to imagine and assume conclusions throughout the novel that it becomes insane. In the story, Victor is to blame for the creature’s action; however, if that’s the case, why is Victor the most desired character in the story. Victor has the love, the family, the knowledge, and the girl that the creature dreams of, but he doesn’t put it to use. Victor could have prevented all the misfortunes that soon stood upon him if he had taken care of his responsibilities, but he didn’t.