Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein has sparked an age-old controversy about which character in the story is the most threatening to society. While there are several “bad” people throughout the novel, there is one candidate who overshadows the rest for the title of most detrimental. Victor Frankenstein, the story’s protagonist, inadvertently causes the death of more than three people by creating a horrible creature. Because of Victor’s lack of accountability, tendency to lie, and refusal to rectify his wrong doings, he is the most threatening person in society. Victor Frankenstein is the most dangerous for society for several reasons, one of which being that he created a revolting, violent, and rampaging creature. His creature is violent in the …show more content…
If this creature that Victor created is willing to kill its own creator, then there is no telling what it would be willing to do to the rest of society. Through further progression of the plot, the reader discovers that Victor’s creature murders Victor’s own dear brother William. The creature happened upon him in a grassy opening, and he “grasped his throat to silence him” and “[William] lay dead at [his] feet” (Shelley 122). By creating this horrible creature, Victor accidentally caused the death of his innocent brother. Though his death brought great dejection to Victor and his family, it was only the beginning of his creature’s rampage. Another reason that Victor Frankenstein is a great threat to society is because of his lack of accountability for his actions. After creating a horrible creature, Victor’s first instinct is to retreat to his bedroom in disgust. In fact, Victor admits, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber” (Shelley 47). Frankenstein’s lack of immediate attention and care for the creature leads to the mutual feeling of disdain between …show more content…
Later in the novel, this same lack of responsibility also causes the death of Victor’s younger brother William, as well as the framing of a family friend, Justine. Knowing he was the true cause of the deaths, Victor admits that, “now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I am the cause” (Shelley 67). Nevertheless, Victor still refuses to take accountability for them. Due to his lack of responsibility, several other people’s lives are lost throughout the remainder of the novel. A final reason that Victor Frankenstein can be considered the most threatening to society is because he fails to rectify his wrong doings. Victor is given a chance, by the creature, to rectify his wrongdoing. All the creature asks is for Victor to make it a mate. After Victor begins to do so, he ends up destroying his progress near the completion. “And trembling with passion, tore to pieces the [creature] on which I was engaged” (Shelley 142). By destroying this mate, he destroyed the only way in which the creature believed he could be
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...
The Controversial Issues of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley ‘Frankenstein’ is a Gothic Horror novel written by Mary Shelley. An ambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates a creature from Human body parts in secret. Instead of taking responsibility for the creature he abandons it. The creature spends its life learning about Humans, learning to read and trying to find Frankenstein.
Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that follow the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being. This is obviously something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and finding out what he is doing. At the end of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor says:
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 is one common thread throughout Victor Frankenstein’s behavior in the novel: he is ruled by his passions. From the beginning of the novel, he is unrestrained and unbalanced, and his major action in the novel is an expression of the fundamentally selfish and presumptuous desire to create life. As he says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source...” (Shelley 55). He wants to be lauded by the world as the first and only man who could create life. This desire to be special and noticed stops him from contemplating that there might be a reason that no one else has created life before. Once the creature has come to life, Victor is overpowered by fear and unable to provide care for him, an action of fundamental irresponsibility that is almost as reckless as his initial creation. He does not even begin to contemplate the ramifications of his act of godlike creation until it has already been done. It is only after he has lost everything that he seems to develop a somewhat more accurate and much more critical view of himself and his actions. In Victor Frankenstein, Shelley shows the folly of allowing your desires to rule over
Victor Frankenstein is a complex character that we have come to learn more about while reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He is a man that seems to have this fervent desire to do what suits him best without regard to what others may think. Victor’s brother William has been murdered and a childhood friend is to pay the price of his death. After sighting what is assumed as the creature created by Victor, Victor is panged with guilt that these events are his fault. If he is correct, then he would be justified in feeling this way because Victor is selfish, stubborn, and lacks compassion for others around him. Victors actions all lead up to the demise of William and Justine.
With the appearance of a monster and the mind of a sociopath, it could be perceived that the true villain of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the creature that Victor Frankenstein created. However, despite the creature killing the family members that Frankenstein loved the most in revenge for his abandonment, Victor Frankenstein is the true monster of Frankenstein, mostly because of his narcissism, but also because he believes himself to be the only victim, he is continuously disgusted by and abandons his creation, and the way that Frankenstein treats his creature in the times after he meets the creature again is more evil than anything that the creature has done to Frankenstein. Frankenstein, obsessed with bringing the dead back to life, sets
This reveals a great deal about Victor’s character rather than the Creature; Victor deems the Creature monstrous simply because he is not as beautiful as Victor had hoped. Victor’s God complex fuels his narcissism, “I had selected his features as beautiful” (Shelley, 43). The Creature later explains that in the first few moments of his life he reached for Victor for affection and reassurance, but was left cold and alone. As the Creature fends for himself out in the world, he witnesses nature and beauty and develops an intense self-loathing. When he witnesses the beauty of William Frankenstein playing outdoors, he longs for the same pure appearance and for a companion.
At first, Victor views his monster as a beautiful creation but later when he first lays eyes on the monster he starts to fear and rejects the monster and no longer took interest in the monster. Frankenstein pays no attention to the Monster what so ever, and the Monster becomes jealous and angry at his creator. The Monster starts to take action and starts to go crazy/ berserk and later on in the novel begins to kill Victor’s family. The Monster kills Victor’s little brother William out of jealousy and confusion. The quote on page 58 states,” William is dead!
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, many similarities can be seen between the creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein. While Victor and the creature are similar, there are a few binary oppositions throughout the book that make them different. The binary oppositions in the novel serve as thematic contrast; and some of the most illustrative oppositions between the two characters are on the focus of family, parenthood, isolation and association with others.
The ability of police to exercise discretion was originally designed to allow officers to maintain the peace by allowing certain types of crime to remain unpunished in certain circumstances. This essay will aim to explore the issue of police discretion that suggests that the application of discretion works against the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In drawing this conclusion, this essay will examine the relationship between policing ideals and the use of discretionary powers and the relationship between policing attitudes and the use of discretionary powers. A discussion regarding the use of police discretion towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can scarcely be mentioned without making reference to arguably the greatest failing by a police officer since indigenous Australians were formally recognised as citizens. Further to this, the case of Mulrunji Doomadgee (Cameron) will be examined from the point of view of officer discretionary powers. The penultimate point to be made will involve the Anglo Australian response to this case as well as the ongoing relationship between indigenous Australians and the institutions that govern them. As mentioned, the first point will involve policing ideals and their relationship to discretionary powers.
..., played God, abandoned his creation, and then hid any relation to the creature. Victor is quite at fault for the murders that take place in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. True, the monster does know right from wrong, the difference is he was not brought up by his parents that way. How to live life is something that is learned and imprinted through experience and guidance. The monster was never fully given the chance to live because upon the day he arrived he was instantly rejected. Victor created the monster physically and emotionally within himself and in turn died by it.
In conclusion, Victor Frankenstein is to blame for the actions of the creature, which was brought about by its rejection. Victor became obsessive in his work, but when his creation was complete he fully rejected it causing the creature to lead a life of solitude. The monster also attempts to seek acceptance from society and fails. The creature, also aware that it has been rejected by Victor, pursues a life of revenge killing those dear to him. Hence, if Victor would have never abandoned his creation the multiple deaths of the innocent could have been prevented.
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.
Society is a concept found in all aspects of life; it is a slant which is impossible to avoid. For instance; sadly in life society labels things or people as good or bad, poor or rich, ugly or pretty. The literary piece of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley clearly reflects this act of society in which they classify all things. The novel reflects how society labels everything; by being judgmental from the way the family is seen, how people view Frankenstein as a monster, and how the monster is affected, his conduct gets altered by all of society judgmental actions.