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Self determination theory constructs
Constructs of self determination theory
Constructs of self determination theory
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In the beginning of the novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, it is clear that Victor Frankenstein has power. He had the power to create life, but once the monster starts feeling lonely and educates himself; there is a shift in who holds the most authority. Both Victor and the monster’s power changes throughout the novel. Both characters seek power and struggle to free themselves from the other by seeking revenge and making each other miserable. As the story goes on, Victor loses the power and control he once had. In the beginning, he had the power to create life but once he actually creates the monster that starts to go downhill. By letting the monster go, he is giving his control away. As the monster learns things on his own, he starts turning against Victor. He struggles as the creature alters his life. The creature does whatever he wants; like killing his brother, William. Victor didn’t think of the consequences of his actions and thought that he would be unaffected if he just disowned the creature. In my opinion, all the terrible events that occurred could have been avoided if only Victor accepted him and therefore, having control, authority and power over the monster. …show more content…
The monster seeks to gain authority over his creator.
He accomplishes this because he got Victor to agree to make him a companion after he says: “Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that even the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!” This is very powerful because he goes from being abandoned and learning things on his own to making his creator do exactly as he says. He has complete control over Victor, making him his
“slave”. Victor and his creature are in an endless fight which makes each other miserable. Nature used to be Victor’s greatest consolation and it even tranquilized him in William’s death, but thinking about creating another monster bothered him so much that it couldn’t do that for him anymore. “I enjoyed this scene; and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future.” In my opinion, Frankenstein and his creature are very much alike; they both despise one another and are unhappy with themselves, they are both lonely and seek power. Both of their power status shift throughout the novel, making them have vengeance for one another. The root of their in happiness is the hatred they have for themselves. Their desire for power consumes them, making them unable to escape their misery.
After the day that Victor’s monster comes to life his creator runs away in disgust at the creation he has made, leaving behind a lost creature looking for its place in the world. As the monster
When Victor flees the creature, he becomes lonely and unhappy. He rejects his own works. If he stayed and taught him the creature would at least have a chance of happiness. When the monster flees to the cottagers he learns about human nature. He quotes “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protector had departed and broken the only link that held me to th...
Victor knows that his monster will never leave him to live peacefully, so he thinks that the only way to stop him is to kill him when the monster could easily be calmed if Victor showed him so kindness instead of
Victor experiences very little joy at all after the creation of the monster. He suffers from numerous bouts of depression, he most tolerate the deaths of his brother, best friend, and wife, all of which were murdered at the hands of the monster. His friend Justine is executed because of the death of William, for which she is falsely accused and convicted. His father also dies after the murder of Elizabeth, Victor's ill-fated bride. With so much death surrounding his life, how is it possible that Victor could still be cognizant of his actions when he decides to pursue the monster and end its violent fury? He can't. Victor's mind is so clouded by the sorrow and pain of his past that he is blinded to the fact that he is attempting to destroy a creature with far greater physical strength and speed than any mortal. Much of his conflict appears to be created by the monster, when in fact the torment comes from Victor's own hands because he himself created and gave life to the monster.
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
His ambitions are what isolate him and bring to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated from everyone, including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge.
Locked in a perpetual struggle for dominance, both struggle to gain internal peace. Victor Frankenstein feels obligated to destroy his creation for the good of society, and the Monster wishes to come to terms with his abandonment – both are unable to find happiness. Here there is a contrast of power: Frankenstein’s intellectual power contrary to the Monster’s physical power (this is however, not to say the Monster lacked intellectual power, only that Frankenstein possesses greater fear of the physical aspects of the Monster). The first instance of this battle for power can be seen when the Monster demands of Frankenstein to “create a female…with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.” (p174) – here Frankenstein is in control. He is the only one that has the knowledge to create another being like the Monster, and thus, when the Monster asks this favour of Frankenstein he places his happiness in the hands of another. The Monster is dependent on the actions of another. However, there is a power reversal when Frankenstein denies the monster his ‘female’ (p174). Frankenstein dashes the Monster’s last hope at happiness, so the Monster threatens the life of his loved ones. Here, Frankenstein is at the mercy of his creation. For though “[Frankenstein is the] creator… [the Monster is his master” (p205) – here the Monster establishes his dominance over Frankenstein by outwardly stating his power over his creator. This power struggle is most effectively culminated in the chase around the globe. Yet it must be seen that neither Frankenstein and his Monster are in control. The Monster leaves clues for Frankenstein, demonstrating his need for Frankenstein to follow him, for without Frankenstein the Monster has no purpose in life. On the other hand, Frankenstein is following his creation all over the world, through desert, sea, and cold. Thus, it is clear that as a
...eatures. Victor Frankenstein is given this power when he discovers the secret to reanimating dead remains, by which he creates the Being we have all come to call Frankenstein. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley depicts this amazing power and the change it causes in not only Victor’s life but in the world. Along the way the young Victor Frankenstein creates more than what he initially believed but his greed and vanity shield him from recognizing the responsibilities and implications that arise, all of which are analyzed the by David Collings in his essay “The Monster and the Maternal Thing: Mary Shelley’s Critique of Ideology.” As Uncle Ben once told Peter Parker “remember, with great power. Comes great responsibility.” Victor acquired great power but disregarded all responsibilities that resulted out of his creations, therefore creating himself as a monster.
In the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, Knowledge is power for Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelly explains that Dr. Frankenstein’s hunger for the knowledge to create life out of death only leads to Victor’s unfortunate monster. The consequences that Victor Frankenstein experiences from creating a creature from his own madness leads to his death as well as the creature. Mary Shelly explains in her novel Frankenstein that Victor’s need to study life and how it is created is dangerous; furthermore, the abomination that the doctor creates should have never been created; however, the monster that Victor creates is his own monstrosity.
At first, Victor believes himself superior to nature, and he builds a creature to prove his dominance. After gathering the information and materials needed to create life, Victor begins to fantasize about what he is about to do. He sees “life and death [as] ideal bounds, which [he] should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into [their] dark world. A new species would bless [him] as its creator and source, many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to [him]” (Shelley 55). Life and death are natural things, but Victor thinks that he can “break through” them and create life. He alone would be the person to “pour a torrent of light into their dark world,” as if he was God, ruling over all of the world. This shows Victor’s lack of respect towards life and how he intends to overcome the boundaries set by nature. Unlike the Romantic who revered and honored nature, Victor wants to use it for his own gain. He expects “happy” and “excellent natures” to obey him, and he doesn’t dwell upon the consequences of his actions. His outlook changes after the Creature comes to life. As Victor stares into the watery, lifeless eyes of his creature, he finally realizes his mistake in trying to disrupt the natural order of the world. Scared by the outcome of his actions, Victor attempts to run away and find comfort in nature. He travels to the Arve Ravine, where “the
Victor is happy that he created the monster but once he sees what he created he becomes afraid. He leaves his apartment because his is afraid of what he created. When he returns, the monster is gone. Victor is relieved that the monster is gone but his is still stressed out by what he did. While at his apartment, he thinks about Elizabeth and going home. The problem with creating the monster is that because he was playing God, he is going to pay a price. Victor thinks the monster is beautiful but at the same time a curse. At his point, Victor realizes he made a bad
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.
Victor comes to the realization that his creation was a mistake, “Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race” (180) In this quote Mary Shelley signifies the allegory that scientific invention greater than yourself will cause tragedy. In result he does not create the monster a companion predicting the dangerous outcomes for human civilization. Victor devotes his life to chasing the monster through the north. Eventually, he comes to realization there is a greater force guiding his journey, “I was cursed by some devil carried about with me my eternal hell; yet still a spirit of good followed and directed my steps” (221) After losing everyone close to him, near death, Victor meets Robert Walton. A man who has the same passion and pursuit for scientific discovery that Victor once had. Victor influences Walton that scientific discovery is not worth sacrificing human life, Walton becomes convinced to discontinue this ideology. Victor saves a full ship crew from dying from the harsh environment of the North. In the end, Victor accepts his
What led to the creation of the monster in the first place was Victor’s desire to be