How Is Victor Frankenstein A Complicated Character

Unit 3 in Class Essay

Victor Frankenstein is a very complicated character. He is the main character in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. He is the creator of the monster and spends most of the novel trying to defeat him. Overall, Victor is a good child. At an early age, he has a strong desire for knowledge and learning. A central element in the story is his fascination with electricity. When he was 15, he witnessed an electrical storm which sparked his interest in how he could harness that power. This leads him to study science and alchemy. As the novel goes on, it is clear that Victor struggles with ethical and moral decision making and as the story goes along are the consequences of his moral ambiguity.

Victor was born into family that

was caring and attentive to his needs. He was the only child of the family. One day, the family adopted Elizabeth and thus Victor had a playmate. However, Victor sees her as his toy. How he sees Elizabeth as a possession of his is the start of his moral ambiguity.
When Victor is seven, his parents bring another boy into the world. A few years later, Victor is becoming obsessed with learning. In his quest for learning, he delights in finding out what occurs in nature and the physical world. When his family moved to Geneva, Victor becomes more introverted and he sticks to being by himself. In a way, he went into a shell. This is the time where his personality develops and he has a tendency towards violence. It is during this time that he learns about electricity and then comes up with how he will create the monster. Because of what he was learning, he is thinking about applying the science he learned and the power of electricity, to create the monster. Once he goes down this path, he knows it is not moral, and knows that it will one day lead to his despair.
When Victor is 17, he goes to school at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. At school he is conflicted with his teachers and with the subjects he is studying. It is while he is at school that he vows to create new way to do things, to explore unknown powers, and to understand and challenge creation. It is here that he sees his destiny and that he is going to create something that it truly immoral and unnatural. His ambitions are not morally guided but his thirst for knowledge blinds him to what is right and wrong.
While at school, Victor becomes engulfed in his school work and he studies chemistry.

It is at this point that he decides to experiment and he creates the monster. He goes to cemeteries to get body parts and works over several months to make the monster come to life. In doing this, he neglects taking care of himself and staying in touch with his family. As this is affecting his health, it is also affecting his judgment. Because he brought life to a lifeless being, he is now playing God. He knows he is not using good judgment and because he is playing God, he knows he will pay for that in the end. His hard work and study has paid off.

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

decision.
As time goes on, Victor reconnects with Elizabeth and what’s going on at home. This helps Victor recharge since he wasn’t taking care of himself. Victor is planning on coming home. However, poor weather delays his trip. With the help of Henry, Victor goes on a new path of knowledge by learning other languages which helps him learn more about himself. This helps him forget for now, the horrible mistake he made creating the monster.
Victor gets a letter from his father asking him to return home because William was murdered. Victor discovers it was the monster that killed him. Justine is held responsible for William’s death. The moral dilemma is that Victor can come forward and say Justine is innocent and that his monster was responsible for Williams’s death. The problem for Victor is he would then have to reveal that he created the monster and that would create moral and ethical questions for him. The other problem is by not saying anything, Justine could be executed for a crime she didn’t commit.
Justine goes on trial and is found guilty. She says she is innocent but they are going to hang her for the crime the next day. Justine dies knowing she did not commit the crime. Now two people were dead because of Victor’s monster. He could not live with the poor decision he made and two people close to him were dead.
After the trial, Victor can’t live with himself and he slips into depression. On a trip to Lake Geneva, he thinks about committing suicide. Although he is deeply depressed, he has to time to rest. Although Victor gets a chance to think things through and get some rest, this is just the start of his pain and misery. What is ironic was he was trying to create life and defy death and now there was nothing he could do about the deaths of those close to him.
Victor’s quest for knowledge and learning into the unnatural takes him down a path of moral ambiguity. He only thinks about himself and his poor decisions and his quest to be God like results in the deaths of people close to him. His quest to defy death backfires on him and forever changes his life and those dear to him.