Monster Similarities Between Victor And Frankenstein

Monster vs Monster

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.” Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein” depicts the life of a man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein is highly intelligent but has many downsides to his persona. Victor Frankenstein creates a monster that will eventually be the cause of his demise, which,could have been avoided if Frankenstein had not abandoned his monster in the first place. The film Victor Frankenstein portrays a man named Victor Von Frankenstein. Frankenstein is also highly intelligent, he however rescues a hunchback from the circus to be his partner. The hunchback (whose name is Igor) is also very intelligent, and does not actually have

a hunchback, he simply has an abscess on his back. Frankenstein creates two different monsters both of which he destroys, it is later revealed that he has intentions of creating another. Shelley’s Frankenstein and Victor Frankenstein’s, Frankenstein are similar in the aspect of personality and treatment of their monster, but ultimately differ in motivation and outcome; their monsters differ in quantity and intelligence.
Notably, it’s found that according to the novel and the film both Victor Frankenstein’s share a similar personality. Shelley depicts Victor Frankenstein as a friendly, charming, and intelligent person who was extremely loved as a child. However, as time goes on Frankenstein’s true identity is exposed. He often displaces blame, is self centered and self motivated. Victor is best expressed through one of the three elements of the psyche, the id. The id is characterised as the part of the psyche responsible for impulse and sex. Victor Frankenstein is solely ran on the impulse of creating a new form of man, and disregarding any consequence that may come. When Frankenstein discovers he does indeed behold the power to reanimate the dead he claims, “Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fiber’s, muscles and veins, still remained a work of inconvincible difficulty and labor” (54). He gives no thought to the consequences linked to this scenario. Instead he is concerned with the work involved; feeding his impulse and desires of playing the role of god no matter how large the consequence. Frankenstein from the film Victor Frankenstein is no different than that of Shelley’s novel. He is at first seen as a gracious, giving intelligent man, but he too has underlying desires to create life for selfish reasons. He manipulates others to help him work towards his goal. When Frankenstein finds himself cornered by the inspector he proclaims, “ There is no Satan. No God. Only Humanity. Only ME!” (Victor Frankenstein 2015). Frankenstein completely disregarded the existence of any possibilities of god and puts himself in place as the creator of humanity. Victor Frankenstein disregards natural processes of life, such as an inevitable death. He feels death is not a permanent position he says, “Life is temporary, why should death be any different” (Victor Frankenstein 2015). Frankenstein fails to realise death can not be reversed for reasons he will find out. In a fight between nature and man, nature will almost always win, death is one of those cases.
Moreover, the treatment of the creature is another similarity between both characters.

Shelley’s Frankenstein initially upon the completion of his monster is awed by the beauty of his creation he explaimes with extreme pride,” His limbs were in proportion, and i had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!”(58). He selected all the features of his monster to be beautiful, but no matter the beauty of the features, reanimation is traumatic. Those features were once dead, and they no longer have the beauty of living flesh, instead they are stained by death causing Frankenstein's monster to hold a rancid appearance. Frankenstein himself realizes this, “ I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life in an in animate body... I had desired it within ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”(58). Frankenstein is revolted by his creations appearance, which causes him to abandon his creation. Victor Frankenstein’s Frankenstein also has a similar reaction to his monster. He is first astonished he managed to create life, when he first glances upon his living creature he says,”Come to me, I am your brother” (Victor Frankenstein). His feeling of brotherly bond is short lived for soon after he looks into the creatures eyes and sees no evidence of life; there was no expression whatsoever. He cries out to the monster,”Oh my brother Henry

forgive me. I have wronged you, for this is not life. This is not life. You are not live. Live”(Victor Frankenstein). Frankenstein realizes his creation is not truly alive, and it does not feel emotion as a living human does. It does not understand emotions and doesn't behold the capability to do so.
Furthermore, the differences between both sets of Victor Frankenstein’s is noticed in their motivations and their outcomes.

Shelley’s character Victor Frankenstein’s motivation for creation is purely based around selfish intentions. He wants to be a god complex, so he plans to create the monster in order to be the creator of a master race. A race that is greater than that of humans. He plans on building his monsters larger, stronger and physically flawless. When Frankenstein discovers he beholds the power of reanimation Victor Frankenstein says,”...but my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man”(54). He is confident in his ability to play the role of a higher being, even though he should know he is in fact not god, and should not pursue as if he is one. The character from Victor Frankenstein shows he has a very different form of motivation which stems from the death of his oldest brother, Henry. Henry died in a snowstorm saving Victor Frankenstein’s life. Ever since that fateful night Frankenstein has felt the need to “create life to repay the balance”(Victor Frankenstein). His conscious feels heavy with guilt as Henry’s death sits on his shoulders. He is hoping that the creation of life will repay the balance of life and relieve his conscious. While the Frankensteins have different motivations they also have different outcomes. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ends up

expiring at the end of the novel. Victor Frankenstein knows his expiration date is approaching and tells Walton, “Alas! The strength is gone; I feel that I shall soon die, and he, my enemy and prosecutor, may still be in being”(219). Unfortunately Frankenstein does die, while Walton and his crew are voyaging home to England. The film Victor Frankenstein portrays Frankenstein to be found leaning against a rock amongst rolling hills writing a letter. He writes, “ I have some ideas as where we went wrong this time, and one day I may call on you once more, be ready”(Victor Frankenstein). Victor Frankenstein implies that he plans to create another monster, one even more successful than the original.
Additionally, the monsters as in line with their creators have pronounced differences. To begin with, Shelley's novel has a singular monster who is highly intelligent. The monster taught himself how to speak simply by observation; the monster taught himself how to speak by watching a family that lived in a cottage near his shelter, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language...While I improved in speech, I also learned the science of letters as it was taught to the stranger; and this opened before my a wide field for wonder and delight” (121-122). The monster has the ability to harness higher order thinking which allows him to learn the art of speech and reading, which is more than can be said about the film Victor Frankenstein’s version. The film version describes the Frankenstein’s monster to be similar to the one in the novel, however this monster has two sets of lungs and two hearts. His head is also flat on top. When Igor asks Frankenstein the purpose of the monsters flat head he answered, “because I like it, thats why”(Victor Frankenstein). Other than those differences the monsters descriptions are relatively the same; larger than an average man with pale yellow skin, and hideous. The film version also has more than one creation. It is argued that Frankenstein’s assistant, Igor, is also one of his creations. Victor Frankenstein breaks Igor out of the circus and cures his hunchback. When Frankenstein and Igor get into an argument Frankenstein yells, “I created you” (Victor Frankenstein) in order to guilt trip Igor into helping him build his final monster which he calls “The Modern Prometheus. Along with Igor and the Modern Prometheus Frankenstein builds an ape-mashup consisting of animal parts he stole from the zoo. The ape-mashup is Frankenstein's very first creation, which he presents to his University in hopes they will fund his research. The situation goes awry when Frankenstein's monster makes an attempted escape. After the mishap Igors love interest tells igor that, “I looked into it's eyes and there was nothing there”(Victor Frankenstein) implying she saw no emotions coming from the monster.
Given these points, both the film Victor Frankenstein and the novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley have similar personality and treatment of creature, they differ in outcome and motivation - as with the monsters who are similar in appearance but ultimately differ in number and intelligence. The film adheres to the novel losely and tells a whole different tale to the story of Victor Frankenstein. However despite its lack of accuracy to the novel the film creates a more likeable version of Frankenstein. He is more social, and ends up disposing of his creatures because he knows that he did not create life fit for living.