Power And Responsibility In Frankenstein

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The Necessity of Pairing Power with Responsibility One billion, five hundred and fifteen million, three hundred and eight thousand. This is the alarming number of humans ruled by a communist government, a negative outcome of power in the absence of responsibility. Mary Shelley explores this relationship in Frankenstein, a novel concerning Victor Frankenstein's hasty decision to make a hideous being and the intense and devastating consequences of such a creation, which included abundant bloodshed and tears. By specifically examining each stage of the circle of life, Shelley explores how when power and responsibility aren't paired, unfavorable results consistently occur, and vice versa. Through the birth of Victor and creation of The Creature, However, Victor's irresponsibility is merely a continuation of how he deals with The Creature. One terrible way he treats The Creature is he cruelly withholds a companion from the helpless and lonely Creature. This irresponsible action causes The Creature to wail, saying, "'Shall each man,' cried he, 'find a wife for his bosom and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?'" (204). This is the turning point for The Creature: this cry of pain marks the end of his hope for an enjoyable life. No longer can he realistically wish for someone who will love him for who he is. Despite being the sole human who can provide for this dire need, Victor chooses to irreparably break The Creature's heart. Instead of rehabilitating him, altering his emotions from deep sorrows to jubilation, he plays with The Creature's emotions by starting to create a mate but then ripping it to pieces. Though he has power, Victor, by not assembling a suitable companion, demonstrates total irresponsibility. By creating a new race, it becomes his, and only his, responsibility to provide him a similar partner. The Creature, distraught by this new reality, one without any chance for love, decides immaturely to ruin his creator's life. In vengeance, The Creature leads his creator on a chase for him, in which Victor attempts to end The Elizabeth, Victor's wife and sister, is an unfortunate victim of The Creature's seemingly endless wrath only a day after her marriage to Victor. Foolishly, Victor sent Elizabeth to a room alone and after hearing a piercing scream, he found "the murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips […] I hung over her in the agony of despair" (238). This passage indicates the death of The Creature's final victim. Aware of how much misery would engulf Victor following the death of c his sister and new wife, he happily commits this wrong. Yet he chooses to use such power for evil, killing an innocent bride. This despicable choice is the epitome of The Creature's wickedness; nothing more starkly displays his lack of responsibility. However, Victor, an emotional victim of Elizabeth's death, too made an equally shameful choice. When The Creature murdered Victor's younger brother, William, a trial is set for a second casualty of The Creature's heinous crime: Justine. In spite of Victor being the only one with solid proof of Justine's innocence, he resolves not to speak up. Making an excuse he thinks, "A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine […] but [it] would have been considered the ravings of a madman" (99). Not wanting to diminish his reputation,

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