he theme of revenge is ever present in the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Revenge is the central driving force in the Creature’s attempt to punish Victor for abandoning him. In turn, Victor sets out to get revenge on his creation, ending with nothing but his own demise. When the Creature is telling his tale to Victor, he recounts his vast feelings of loneliness. “These were the reflections of my hours of despondency and solitude”(Shelley 102). It is from this loneliness that he develops the desire of revenge. He curses Victor and swears that he will make Victor similar to him; alone. The Creature succeeds in murdering those close to Victor, achieving part of his long goal. Victor’s desire for revenge begins in a similar way to the
After abandoning the Creature, it vows “eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” which ends up being in direct correlation with Victor’s life (Shelley 143). The Creature is able to carry out this deed by not directly attacking his creator and abandoner, but the one’s of his creator’s affections. The Creature not only makes Victor feel pain through the killings, but also through the guilt that Victor experiences since he knows that he (Victor) is the reason that all the people are now dead. After all the killings had happened, “yet one duty” remained for Victor, to silence the Creature and all feelings of sorrow rooted from death (Shelley 176). This was Victor’s act of revenge in which only one of the two could live while the other was dead. Victor was so influenced by all the death he had experienced, that his revenge took him to his deathbed. The ending years of Victor’s life had been spent focusing and caring for the matters concerning the Creature and himself, which differs of how Zeus felt about his revenge, as it was only of current importance and had no impact on his
Victor animated the creature from dead body parts, effecting his creature’s appearance when he came alive. He couldn’t even look at his creation, and thought that it was malodorous, without thinking how unwanted and helpless the creature feels. With little hope for the creature because of his unappealing appearance, Victor does not bothering to wait and see if he has a good interior or not. As a result of Victor not taking responsibility, the monster decides to take revenge. The monster is repeatedly denied love and deals with the loneliness the only way that he can, revenge, killing Victor’s loved ones making him lonely just like
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” is a quote from Chinese philosopher, Confucius, that immaculately describes the knowledge the characters in the story of Frankenstein lacked. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, creates a creature whom he abandons soon after. After the abandonment the creature gets treated horribly by other humans, feeling alone in a world where there was no other like him. This causes the creature to feel hate towards his creator, whom he continuously tries to seek revenge from. The desire for revenge transforms the creature into a true monster that has no feelings or aspirations beyond destroying Victor, leading to his miserable death.
...e all the evil things they have done. When he goes to Victor's coffin, the creature does the opposite of what a evil being would do. He grieves over Victor despite all the horrible things the creature has done to Victor. The creature even feels guilt over the innocent people he has killed and the torment he put his creator through. Despite Victor's actions leading the creature to commit evil deeds, the creature finds in himself to feel regret in the end.
Victor had created the creature with the vision from his dreams of a strong, tall perfect being with no flaws. His years of study with the unnatural and science had come to this final conclusion and masterful idea that he was determined to finish. To his surprise, he had created the opposite, “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. 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) Victor is saddened by what he thinks of as a failure. He leaves his own apartment to go sleep in his court yard outside following his creation. He begins to isolate himself from the creature because of his fear of the creature’s outward appearance. He loses all hope for the creature without even learning anything about him. The fact that Shelley begins to refer to the being that Victor created as a “creature” shows Victor’s ignorance and lack of acceptance. It is Victor’s prejudice that blinds him of the creature’s true potential due to the unwanted preconception that follows the creature as he finds meaning in
The brutal behavior that causes people to suffer or feel pain mentally or physically is known as cruelty. It is actions that people, real or fictional, experience, and these actions usually come from the one’s they love. Cruelty can either be unintentional or on purpose, and both forms negatively affect the person or object receiving the action. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, acts of cruelty, such as when Victor leaves the monster, are driving forces that causes characters to realize their mistakes, ultimately causing their own destruction. Victor’s cruel abandonment of the monster once he awakens causes the monster to feel lonely and isolated which affects his feelings towards humans and life in general in the novel.
Victor, at first sight of the Creature, abandons and leaves him to survive on his own. This is insignificant to the creature at the time, but later causes the Creature to have bitter feelings towards Victor. After the Creature discovers Victor’s notes, he becomes enraged, and incriminates Victor for the victimization that he faces; hence accusing him as a perpetrator of cruelty. Through the accusation of Victor one can see that the Creature believes that Victor should be held responsible, and owes the Creature a favor. Additionally, Victor double-crosses the Creature after obliging to create a mate for the Creature. These actions of betrayal demonstrate how Victor is a perpetrator of cruelty and how the Creature is his victim. Victor’s unintentional cruelty reveals how he only wanted what was best for himself and human kind. Victor’s betrayal is seen as an action of cruelty by the Creature, and consequently delivers the final blow that instigates the retaliation of the
Victor is not able to see past the metaphorical clouds that seem to shroud his mind from seeing the truth. Furthermore, Victor is not able to let go of his hatred for the creature. In contrast, the creature admits, “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless” (275). The creature is able to recognize that he has made mistakes and as a result, he loathes himself.
Since the fall of Adam, humanity has always been keenly aware of the existence of good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice. Any person who has been betrayed or abused has felt the weight of injustice. Anyone who has been mistreated has experienced the desire for vengeance. However, opinions begin to differ when defining the boundaries of justified revenge. Varying perceptions prevents humans from viewing and validating the motives of others. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the two main characters were driven to madness by their desire for revenge against each other. In the book, Victor Frankenstein and his creature both relayed the same story; however their individual perspectives drastically shift the roles of the perpetrator and the victim. Mary Shelly’s brilliant juxtaposition between the Creature and his Creator demonstrated the relativity of justified revenge.
His ambitions are what isolate him and bring to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated from everyone, including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge.
“.he declares 'everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery” (Bond). The monster is angry with Victor. He wants Victor to build him a companion, or he will kill everyone that Victor loves. After Victor rejects the idea, the monster wants Victor to feel the loneliness and isolation that the monster has felt all his life. “.if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you, my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred” (Shelley, 204).
After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monster's solitude, the monster is overcome with suffering and sadness. These feelings affected his state of mind and caused him to do wrong things. He did not deserve to see his one and only mate be destroyed.
The Creature then states in Chapter 17, “I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because my creator.” By this alone, one can tell that the Creature will not stop until he gets what he wants. After a while of the Creature’s begging, Victor makes it seem as if he will fulfill the Creature’s wish. The Creature departs with hope, however, after deep thought, Victor cannot proceed with the Creature’s plea. He then moves on with his life and hopes that the Creature will not find him. However, the Creature finds him and tells Victor that he will find him on his wedding night. Victor goes on thinking that the Creature will most likely try to kill him, but little did he know that the Creature’s intention would be to kill his wife, Elizabeth. In Chapter 23, Victor states, “A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife. I rushed towards the window, and drawing a pistol from my bosom.” The Creature was done compromising with Victor and wanted him to feel the loneliness that he has felt his entire life. This drives Victor mad to the point where he goes on a mission to kill the Creature once and for
Vengeance, an infliction of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person; violent revenge. Immoral conduct; an evil practice or habit; depraved behavior, this is the definition of vice. Virtue, moral excellence; goodness; living life by ethical principles. Some people let their vices take over their virtues. This happened to the creature in Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, and a serial killer by the name of Nannie Doss. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who made a creature come to life by using galvanism. The creature was made up of different corpse’s parts so he looked deformed. Due to this Victor, his own creator, abandoned him. Because
Based of Daniel Criswell, Ph.D. he states,”Man was created to serve. Human ambition for the purpose of serving oneself certainly cannot provide anyone with the fulfillment they are seeking . There are many examples of people who became famous and wealthy, only to find there is no fulfillment in personal ambition.The resulting disappointment in reaching personal goals and not finding fulfillment in them frequently leads to that individual’s despair or eventual suicide”(Criswell, Daniel, Ph.D). Mary Shelley made the creature have no life goal. The creature later on created one to have a companion,”This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone”(101). So the creature made it’s soul purpose to try and have Victor create a companion and did anything including murder to complete his goal. Because the creature believed that if his goal was completted he would be happy.At the end of the book when reading through Walters letter of the creature the creature talks about how it’s life was pointless and how Victor was the one thing that gave its life purpose and now that he's dead it has nothing else to do but just die,”But it is true that i am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any living thing”(165). The creature was trying to live with