In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the main character has a mentor-like acquaintance whose influence dramatically changes how a character views not only himself but the world as well, which is significant to the work as a whole. In Frankenstein, the Creature that Victor Frankenstein creates is strongly influenced by Victor, but in a harmful manner.
The original title of the novel Frankenstein was The Modern Prometheus. Prometheus was a Greek demigod who in some stories brought fire (in others he brought life) to mortals on Earth. By doing this, he went against the orders of Zeus and was chained to a rock where every day an eagle would come and eat out his ever-regenerating liver. Prometheus played God, and because of that, he was
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punished. In Frankenstein, the main character Victor Frankenstein tries to make life from death. He tries to create a superhuman, and by doing that, plays with God. When the Creature finally comes to life, Victor ditches it. Similar to Prometheus, Victor is then tortured by the Creature, watching as all he cares about, his family and friends, die or be murdered. There is a relationship between both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the myth of Prometheus. Both of the main characters may have thought they were doing good, in Prometheus's case by giving fire/life to humans, and in Victor’s case, creating life from death. Both characters played God, and in the end, faced the consequences for doing so. Victor created the Creature out of dead body parts that he dug up from graves, with the goal of making a perfect creation, or a superhuman.
When the Creature came to life, Victor was astounded and terrified and ran from the Creature to promptly fever faint for a few months “His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed down the stairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited...” (58). The Creature was impacted by this because, Victor, the first person he saw after being created, ran from him in fear. Victor, who should have been a father figure for the creature, left him to fend for himself. Thus began the Creature’s loathing of Victor …show more content…
Frankenstein. The Creature learned quickly that people were afraid of him.
Upon seeing the Creature, people would scream and run away, causing the Creature to believe that the world hated him. The Creature became angry at Victor for making him look terrifying and deserting him when he was first created. Because of the Creature’s pent-up anger, when he came upon a boy who happened to be Victor’s younger brother, William, the Creature killed him “‘Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy- to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’ ‘The child still struggled, and loaded me with other epithets which carried despair to my heart; I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.’” (142-143). By killing the first of Victor’s loved ones, the Creature discovered that he had power over Victor. He told Victor he would leave him alone if he made him a wife “‘I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create.’” (144). Victor agreed, but fearing a race of Creatures, Victor destroyed his second project. Because Victor had taken the only hope out of the Creature’s life, the Creature killed Victor’s best friend, Henry, and wife Elizabeth. At this point in the novel, Victor is a horrible mentor for the Creature. He left the Creature when he first created it, and
then agreed, but broke his promise to give the Creature a wife, which caused the Creature's extreme anger and violent actions. After the death of his wife, Elizabeth, Victor chases the Creature into the Arctic in his attempts to find and kill him. Already in poor health, the journey is hazardous to his well-being and Victor dies just after telling his life’s story to R.Walton. At the end of the novel, R.Walton comes into the room where Victor lay dead. Inside the room he finds the Creature mourning his creator. “‘Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings, who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with the hight thoughts of honour and devotion. But one crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil’” (221). After hearing the Creature be bad talked for months by Victor, R.Walton was surprised by this sight. The Creature, instead of feeling triumphant over the death of his creator, felt sorry for him. The Creature then went on to tell R.Walton some of the story from his perspective. He said that by losing Victor, he has no one. The Creature explained to R.Walton that his life is pointless now that Victor has passed. This showed the caring side of the Creature. That, although the Creature spent his whole life hating Victor, upon Victor’s death, the Creature came to the realization that his life was now pointless. It is Victor’s death that prompts the Creature to announce to R.Walton that he would burn himself and let his ashes scatter in the Arctic wind, as no one else could ever make another creature. Both Victor and the Creature spent the whole novel detesting one another, but when it came down to it, the Creature could not live without Victor. Throughout the novel, Victor’s strong influence on the Creature changes how the Creature views himself and the world. The Creature hated the world because people were scared of his appearance, which was Victor’s fault. The Creature changed from hating Victor, to at the end, hating himself, which caused the reader to pity the Creature even after all the horrible things he did to Victor and his loved ones.
The monster tells Frankenstein of the wretchedness of the world and how it was not meant for a being such as himself. At the end of his insightful tale the creature demands a companion of the same hideous features but of the opposite gender to become his. Victor only has the choice to make the monster or suffer a lifetime of horror his creation would bring upon him. Which the creator ultimately agrees to make the female monster to save the lives of his family but gains a conscious that fills with guilt of all the destruction he has created and creating. When the monster comes to collect the female he tears her apart and the monster vows to destroy all Victor holds dear. The monster’s emotional sense is consumed with rage against Victor, murdering Frankenstein’s best friend. Though when the monster’s framing ways do not work to lead to Victor being executed, he then murders Frankenstein’s wife on their wedding night. This tragedy is the last for Victor’s father who becomes ill with grief and quickly passes within a few days, leaving Victor with nothing but his own regret. Shelley doesn’t give the audience the monsters side of the story but hints that the remainder of his journey consisted of being a shadow to that of his creator. It is at the graves of the Frankenstein family when the creature makes an appearance in the solemn and
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Throughout the history of literature, instances will always occur where themes repeat themselves constantly. One of these instances appears in the classic novel Frankenstein, where two characters, whom one would originally classify as opposites, truly possess many similarities to one another. Victor and the Creature share and oddly large amount of similarities between them. One of which being their drive to obtain knowledge, no matter the topic. With Victor, he typically is driven to discover things no one else has. The Creature however, constantly tries to find out how the world works and to find his place in society. Another similarity found in the novel would be the two characters isolation throughout the novel, self-inflicted or forced. For Victor, he always kept to himself,
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 ...
After killing his younger brother, Elizabeth , and his best friend, Victor after having no family left wanted to put an end to it all so he ended up chasing his creation and dying before catching it. After bringing the creature into this world and leaving it behind to fend for itself the creature endured lots of agony and pain from society which drove its rage to Victor and his family and he ended up kill this younger brother and soon to be wife. Both were isolated from society, Victor brought isolation upon himself through locking himself up to create the creature and ignoring everything around him as stated in the article, “The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them; and I well-remembered the words of my father: "I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected.” As
The Creature, after learning what it is to love, requests that Victor creates a companion for him. Victor rejects the creature’s proposition, as Victor now understands the consequences of animating what shouldn't be alive, the Creature wants nothing more than for Victor to suffer, to feel the pain that he, as a wretch, faces. The Creature does so by devoting his life to the destruction of Victor’s. In chapter 24, the Creature states “But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes the malignant devil.” The creature is viewed as entirely evil by the characters of the novel, despite the scenes in which his benevolent nature is shown. It is ironic that Victor and his creature are foils of one another, yet they suffer a similar fate: their desire to destroy one another led to their ultimate
Victor Frankenstein was the creator of the monster in the book. He was an ambitious man who had high hopes and dreams for himself, but this characteristic was the cause of his downfall. He had a ruthless desire to obtain forbidden knowledge- a knowledge that only God was worthy of having. This lead him to lock himself in his laboratory, disregarding his family, friends, and health. His one purpose was to create life. In his quest to create a human being and bestow the power of life, Victor eventually did create a creature, but this lead to a situation
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 plays the role of God and creates his “Adam” but unlike the Adam from the bible, the creature is not designed in a perfect image or guarded by the care of his creator. The creature compares himself to Satan when he says “I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; …like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (228). The creature was forsaken his first days of living and learned about the society of humans through observation and reading. God introduced Adam to the world with everything provided and guided him his early days of life. He saw Adams loneliness and granted him a mate. The creature asks Frankenstein for a companion as a last chance to become happy and good hearted. Victor destroys his hope and brings more tragedy among him by doing so. God creates all things good, Victor took his Job as a creator and his creation became malignant because unlike God he was ashamed of his creation. From that point on the creatures’ heart becomes cold and makes sure to destroy his creator. When Victor dies the creature repents for the damage that he has done and would live with continuing pain till his death. “…My agony was still superior to thine; for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever” (380).
Victor was consumed with all the information he had learned from school and his own experiments and he did not care to offend anyone who would try to show affection. The monster wanted Victor to create a monster just as hideous as he was because he didn’t want the other creation to find attention from someone else due to the fact that the female monster would be scary. Victor did abandon the monster and that was a selfish act because he didn’t want the burden of something that was unable to fend for itself to consume him; furthermore, the reason why the monster killed Victor Frankenstein’s younger brother was the selfish act of revenge.
Victor Frankenstein's determination to constitute a race causes him to create a deformed creature, which he immediately rejects. In the first place, Victor, who is strong willed, spends both night and day working on his creation, his initial concern is to create a race in which he may be their leader. He also uses parts that are bigger in size so that he may finish faster. When he finishes his reaction is completely different from what he had expected. For instance, when he is done with his creation he becomes so appalled by its appearance that he "rushed out of the room" (42). When Victor awakens the next morning he finds the creature at his bedside and at that moment he leaves. When he returns he finds an empty house with no creature in sight, which brings him a feeling of relief. Victor describes the creature as a "demonical corpse" (43) to which he has given life. Furthermore, Victor, sometime later, sees the creature at a distance and never once decides to approach it. Instead Victor always rushes in the opposing direction. For example, while Victor is on his journey home he crosses the lake to Plainpalais and sees...
He had asked Victor to create him another monster as a companion and if he doesn’t keep his promise, then he will be miserable. When Victor goes to England with the intention of creating this promised monster, his friend Henry follows him. After several months, Victor destroys the half created creature and this upsets the monster very much so because he wants this companion. When he kills Henry, the monster distinctly planned it so that Victor would be blamed for the murder. Through all this confusion on who killed Henry, Victor knew all along that the monster did it. At this point, Victor knew that he must return to Geneva to protect his family whom he loved very much (Shelley 181). Since this monster killed Henry, Victor knew that his family was now is in danger. The monster is very happy that Victor is having to suffer because, Victor is now feeling the loneliness that he feels all the time. Though the monster’s character is not evil, the pain he feels is what he wants his creator to feel. His revenge only increases throughout the book because he is only longing for a fellow companion that Victor can only give him, but yet he is choosing not to create it. The anger that is within the monster is only growing and this is increasing the possibilities of him hurting more
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
The confrontation between the two demonstrates Victor 's weaknesses as an individual. Although Victor is the Creature 's creator, he refers to his creation as an "abhorred monster" (Shelley 68) and is willing to "extinguish the spark which he so negligently bestowed" (Shelley 68) upon him. This demonstrates Victor 's lack of responsibility. His goal was to create life, essentially to play God. Once the monster began to murder those dearest to Victor, he failed to take responsibility for the creature 's actions. Another weakness in Victor 's character is revealed through the dialogue exchanged between creator and creation. Instead of calmly trying to reason with the Creature, Victor lashes back at the Creature. He even suggests that the two "try their strength in a fight in which one must fall." (Shelley 69) The monster, however, maturely and eloquently urges Victor 's "compassion to be moved" (Shelley69). Because Victor is full of "rage and horror" he wants to destroy his own creation even though victor is playing god in recreation of humanity. They both are to blame due to the fact that Victor created the creature as well as the signs of irresponsibility between the two for the Creature killing people and for Victor trying to recreate
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.