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Good and evil in the history of literature
Good and evil in literature
Good and evil in the history of literature
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When deciding who the true monster in Frankenstein is, one can point to the obvious and determine that it is Victor Frankenstein’s morbid creation (who commits murders), but when looking at the situation from both perspectives, the reader can deduce that the real monster is Victor. Despite the aforementioned murders, the creature was Victor’s responsibility, and the brilliant scientist decided to abandon him. This denial of affection greatly impacted Frankenstein’s creation because he had to forgo the trials of being an outcast of society ever since he was brought into the realm of the living. Victor Frankenstein is the true monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein because he heartlessly leaves his creation to suffer the strife of human discrimination. …show more content…
As the creation retells his life’s story he says, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” (Shelley 69). Sadly, since Frankenstein left his creation to fend for himself, he had first-hand experience of the trifles of being an outsider to humanity. Victor is a monster because of this disconnect, had he actively sought to raise his creation or make him a companion, Victor may still have loved ones in his family and friends. On the Discussion Board, Danielle Johnston supports the idea of the creation killing Victor’s family as an act of retaliation as he states: “He wants to get back at Frankenstein for being the first person to show him what it feels like to be unaccepted and to be left alone.” Even though murder is wrong, Victor mistreated his creation and in return, he got his just deserts which led to his mental demise. The mistreatment of Frankenstein’s monster occurs two-fold however, because not only was the creation abandoned, but he was left with a misshapen …show more content…
He did not plan in advance as to what he will do after his creation is complete. On the Discussion Board, Cecila Fuchu agrees that creating the monster made Frankenstein sick, as she sums, “Victor 's desire to attain the godlike power to create life became more powerful than ever. This situation led to the destruction of his arrogance and the sickness of his mind.” Victor worked tirelessly to achieve his goal at the cost of his social relations. Since he selfishly cut himself off from his relatives and most social contact, he became a reclusive individual who could not sit still without being overly anxious. The mental strain that he had placed upon himself over the years correlates with his disregard to his health. He is a monster because he knowingly destroyed himself, alongside the creation he gave
Victor makes several attempts to stop the monster but all fail it solidifies the monster as a dangerous force that cannot be stopped. Every attempt Victor makes or every chance he misses it ends with another death as stated in the article: “Frankenstein believes he saw his creature in the area and concludes that he must be the real culprit. Justine is put on trial, condemned and executed. Frankenstein, who does not intervene, is overwhelmed by guilt”(Cornillon 4). The few attempts Victor makes to save his family are either stopped by the monster or Victor’s own fear. Not only does it result in a loss of a love one for Victor but it also makes severe problems to his own
Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He was born in Naples and led a very troubling life after the death of his mother. As he delved deeper and deeper into his studies, his mental state began to deteriorate and he became a recluse. His clear obsession then engaged him into the creation of a monster who soon became the culprit of many murders. Thus arguing that the crimes committed by the creation are not a result of Victor's negligence but rather out of the Creation's lack of ability to control his revengeful nature and therefore Victor's innocence on accountability for the Creation's crimes.
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
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 ...
Victor is on a path that leads to making decisions and more often he makes these rash decisions that he doesn’t take responsibility for right off the bat. He goes and creates this monstrosity without thinking “hey, what could be the repercussions of bring life to the dead?” or the fact that he basically robs graves to make his life's work come together as one almost literally. “Is this not a free country? asked Frankenstein… Ay, sir, free enough for honest folks. replied an ill-looking man” (127). This man walks up to Victor asking for him to go and meet with a Mr. Kirwin about a dead man, Victor could be thinking of what he did to create the monster, or more accurately what the monster did. If Victor had shown some
Within Mary Shelley’s gripping novel “Frankenstein”, Victor’s creation is a complex character due to his two dominant characteristics being in conflict with each other. Throughout, it is clear the creation’s greatest desire is to be loved by another. When he sees his creator is unable to do so, he ventures into the world looking for someone to show compassion toward him, only to be rejected over and over again. As anger arises from getting virtually no acceptance and Victor fails to build him a companion, the creation seeks revenge on those close to Victor. His battle to locate a balance between love and hatred during his existence defines him as a seemingly threat who is a truly good person.
From even before the monster is created, readers see Victor begin to slowly but surely lose himself. Victor changes from a very determined and ambitious young adult, to a completely different adult driven by all the wrong reasons. After the creation of the monster, Victor’s actions cause a direct reaction back to him, and the reactions all stem from the creature. Once Victor had made it clear that he would give no attention or companionship to the creature, the creature wanted Victor to feel the same emptiness that he did. Victor began to lose those he loved, the first being his younger brother William Frankenstein. Rather than letting the authorities know what had happened, and who the true murderer was, Victor allowed for his cousin, Justine Moritz, to be framed for the murder and ultimately put to death. While reading this in action, readers patiently wait for Victor to do what is right and ultimately save a family member while he still can and confess that there is a vengeful creature out there and that it was his creation, yet Victor never does. The events that take place after this completely snowball, and it is all because Victor refuses to do what is right. The death of Justine was followed by the death of Henry Clerval, Victor’s closest and dearest friend. The marks on the bodies resembled strangling, and Victor knew that the creature was the murderer of both victims. However, no authorities were ever notified that there ever was a creature, so the rampage continued. The creature was destined to make sure the emptiness was felt by Victor, and so far it didn’t appear to be enough. Victor was selfish enough to allow his younger brother and best friend to be killed, and this was not the end. Following the deaths of Clerval and Justine, came the deaths of Elizabeth, Alphonse, and Victor himself. Once Victor traveled
In the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the main character Victor becomes obsessed with recreating life. When Victor finally does so the outcomes are not good. The monster was assembled from old body parts and strange chemicals, animated by a mysterious spark. After Victor discovers the secret of life he bring his creation, a hideous monster, to life. The monster then proceeds to kill victor's family. His creation becomes a monster and even has the appearance of a monster. The creation was not created with the intentions of being evil. Victor changes over the course of the novel from an innocent youth fascinated by the prospects of science into a disillusioned, guilt ridden man. Victor cuts himself off from the world when he has lost his
Victor Frankenstein is just an ordinary man. Like most people, Victor strives to be an individual. He wants to set himself apart from the rest. Frankenstein is interested in philosophy and science, and he has the goal to do the unexpected. Victor wants to prove his father and others wrong about the old teachings of ancient philosophers. He has the passion to learn and teach himself what others can not imagine. Many people label Frankenstein based off his latest experiment: The Creation. Because the monster acts monstrous and is an endangerment to the public, they blame Victor for the monster’s actions, which is entirely false. Victor Frankenstein’s was not a monstrous person, he was trying to inspire and motivate himself, by attaining
How he tried to hide behind his own flaws and in doing so turned the creature he made into a monster resembling his own self. He lacked the responsibility to care for his creature, the responsibility to stop the creature, and to figure out how to make what was ruined better. But even though he was realizing this for himself, he still chose to run away from his creature and problems. “Frankenstein is not a tale about a mad scientist who loses an out-of-control creature upon the world. It's a parable about a researcher who fails to take due responsibility for nurturing the moral capacities of his creation” (Bailey). Humanity slowly started to enter his brain, but his monstrous ways fought back to push it out. Causing him to be alone through his last leg of life and die with his life in vain. Through all his deserved pain and suffering he at least finally understood that he was wrong in calling his creature a monster, that the true monster was himself. It was his own fault that a large number of his loved ones were dead, and in the process he also damaged what could have been the greatest discovery of that time. Even with the little glimmer of redemption he earned by understanding where he went wrong, it still was far too late to change the fate that was ahead of him. With Victor dead and gone there were still ends to tie up with the creature, the “reader of the novel is left to ponder if
After Frankenstein found out though and threatened Victor’s family and friends I believe that his refusal to create a mate for Frankenstein is selfish and irresponsible. This is because Victor knows that the monster has killed one of his family and friends before due so what is going to stop him from doing it again. When he refuses to stop creation of the second creature he puts other people’s lives at risk and knowingly does this without concern for their life only his.
First, we can identify a literary element: if Victor stops the monster before he commits murders, the book would not be interesting. But it is more—perhaps it is because we are so quick to trust and empathize with Victor, as he is the narrator throughout the tale, that we must come to see, through his indifference, he is actually more evil than his creation. When I first read the book, I pegged Frankenstein as good. Even though he admits to being the murderer several times, such as this lamentation: “I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer” (88), to me, he is only crying for help, like Justine’s coerced confession (81-82). However, through the above analysis, we find that Frankenstein is apt to be an unreliable narrator, biased to support his inaction. His warning of the monster: “he is eloquent and persuasive; and once his words had even power over my heart: but trust him not” (216), may better describe himself. As in legal tort, he has a “duty to rescue” his family from his now malevolent creation, yet he continually ignores it; his best idea is repeatedly shouting “wretched devil!” and “abhorred monster!” (95), followed by promising to create a woman, only to “[tear it] to pieces” (170). For the monster, this is sadistic torment, but the doctor excuses himself again, claiming it to be preferable to “[inflicting] this curse upon everlasting generations” (170). In the words of Edmund Burke, “no passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear,” and I see that Frankenstein is crippled by fear, wavering on any decision. Shelley has written a subtle allegory between the lines: do not believe narration immediately, as even if it appears trustworthy, it is always written in the interests of the narrator. Frankenstein tells us many times that his fate is sealed: “destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction” (33), but he really is a
Before Victor started to begin his experiment, he proclaims “a new species would bless me as its creator and source, many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley, page 39). This quote shows that Victor wants the full responsibility and glory he thinks he will receive from creating a new species, but he completely aborts this way of thinking as soon as the creature is brought to life because he’s not the perfect, superior organism that Victor imagined. Victor’s whole reason for creating the monster was so he would be the creator of something more powerful than ever seen before, but he never gave the creature the chance to prove his worth. This created an early riff between Frankenstein and his beast from the very beginning, and due to Victor’s unwillingness, it will only continue to
Victor did not know what he was getting himself into by trying to create the perfect child. Consequently, for himself and the monster, his plan backfired. The monster needed love, support, compassion, and guidance just as every child does. Victor was too disgusted by his own creation to provide it with these essential needs. Victor was not a good father to his creation. He abandoned him at the most crucial time of its horrid life. Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel, Victor reaps what he sows through his actions. In the end he is dead and the monster is about to commit suicide out of pure misery out of Victor’s
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, builds and animates a creature. The creature is isolated by Victor Frankenstein and goes about exploring the world and attempting to find a place to fit in. Frankenstein regrets his creation and fears it may have malicious intent towards the human race. When he finds his monster again, it recounts the two years of exploring and learning it did and demands that Victor make him a companion so he would finally have someone who would understand him. Victor refuses, so the monster threatens to murder him and his family and friends if he did not comply. So Victor again isolates himself and begins building another monster for his first. He later destroys the monster before its