People do a lot of things for a lot of different reasons, maybe to prove a point or to make and impression, or to get even with someone or something, but no matter what the purpose is, one is driven by a motive. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is motivated by by ambition and the the thought a riches and medals, in which he decides to play “God” and attempts to create life, and unfortunately succeeds. However, in an ironic twist, the monster Victor created is shunned and cast out for being, well a monster, which motivates him to find revenge against Victor. So, in her writing, Shelley shows three reasons for motives, ambition, purpose, and last but not least revenge.
The motive that started it all was Victor’s ambition. Victor wanted to be known he wanted to do something that no one else has ever done. So after studying at Ingolstadt he decides he wants to bring the dead back to life. However, he soon regretted everything he had done once he brought the Monster to life and looked into its eyes, in which he saw something that can not be unseen. Which he said “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time
…show more content…
Whether it be for personal gain, or maybe to make an impression. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is motivated by ambition and the thought of awards and praise. He is motivated so much in fact, he decides to play “God” and attempts to bring an inanimate being back to life, and it shockingly works. However, in an ironic twist, the monster Victor created is not looked at in awe, but instead is cast out for being, the monstrous creation he is. In turn, this motivates him to find revenge against Victor. Which comes full circle in which Shelley writes about three reasons for motives, ambition, purpose, and last but not least
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
In the first chapters of the book, Shelley describes a scientist who was obsessed with "doing something great" for mankind. Victor Frankenstein, an educated man of science, was completely involved with his work, which happened to be the creation of another living being with human qualities. Once Victor’s work was finally completed, he realized that he had created a “monster”, and he was terrified. Mary Shelley, supporting Rousseau's theory, definitely believed that people are born essentially with good intentions and feelings, and she shows this from the first few moments of the creature’s life. When Victor was lying terrified in his bed, the creature came i...
Literature often works as depicted act of betrayal. Many people, friends, and family may portray a protagonist, but they will likewise be guilty of treachery or betrayal to their own values. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, there is acts of betrayal between Victor Frankenstein and the monster. In the Novel Victor Frankenstein is a betrayal of life itself because it should be given naturally and not created by a scientist man. The monster is actually the one who is majorly betrayed, he may look like a hideous dangerous monster on the outside but, not one within himself. From the beginning of the novel, Victor betrays the monster, and this betrayal is seen on many levels throughout the novel. The tragic figure in Mary Shelley’s
One’s nature has always influenced his or her actions. Everyone has his or her unique attitude but there are different attributes that make up one’s attitude. Arrogance, overconfidence, greed, selfishness, selflessness, benevolence, and fear are among these attributes. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley empowers her characters with these attributes. In the gothic novel Frankenstein, the character Victor creates a creature in order to fulfill his ambitions. This creature is abandoned by Victor, which causes the creature to be overwhelmed with loneliness. Everyone judges the creature by his appearance and this causes the creature to disdain his master. The creature murders Victor’s family and later both of them duel each other in order to satiate their need of vengeance. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the characterizations of Victor and the creature in order to convey the idea that those who are overwhelmed with ignorance and arrogance are bound to experience sorrow.
Victor stated in the novel, “a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time, renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption” (pg. 52). This quote portrays the reason why Frankenstein created the monster. 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
Ambition is a recurring idea throughout Frankenstein, and it holds a big role in many of Frankenstein’s experiences and his eventual downfall. Ambition is what drives Frankenstein to continue to pursue his scientific studies in bringing the dead to life, and as Frankenstein continues to follow his ambition, the reader is presented with many of the negative effects of his work. He becomes disengaged from his family and becomes addicted to his work. All of the consequences of Frankenstein’s ambition and work can be grouped together as a symbol of the negative potential of ambition. We can see that even Frankenstein knew the toll that it was taking on him through the quote, “"When younger," said he, "I believed myself destined for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound, but I possessed a coolness of judgment that fitted me for illustrious achievements. This sentiment of the worth of my nature supported me when others would have been oppressed, for I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow creatures. When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust.” Ambition and determination are normally considered to be terms with positive connotations, but Shelley put a twist on these traits by showing how catastrophic they can be in excess. Robert Walton is a subtle representation of the positive potential of ambition, as he maintains a relatively adventurous, motivated attitude throughout the story and is able to restrain himself and stop his studies when his crew and the people around him don’t want to continue. We see that Walton shows regret for his ambition before tragedy has even struck through the quote, ““I write to
He soon realizes the great mistake he has made when almost a year later, Creature kills Victor’s little brother, William. If Victor had gone home when his family begged him to, he would not have meddled with this dangerous subject and everyone he loved would still live. “His reasoning is overwhelmed by his fear, causing him to choose science over the safety of his friends and family” (Nguyen). Furthermore, he could have saved his family by simply telling them what he had done. Instead, he kept the monster a secret. “His failure to reveal his a secret of the monster leads to the destruction of those he loved. The loss of his family and friends detaches him from the rest of the world, and he remains in his secrecy out of guilt and shame” (Nguyen). Victor became the reason for the downfall of his family, as well as himself. He could have ended the monster from the moment he saw it and gone home to live a normal happy life, but instead he ignored it and let it learn on its own. He remained an accessory to the murders for never warning anyone about the demon he
From the onset of Victor’s youth, his earliest memories are those of “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember” (ch. 4) This is the first example of obsession that we see in the novel. This drive to learn the ‘hidden’ laws of nature is the original driving force that sets the plot in motion. Without this, Victor would have never embarked on his unholy quest to overcome mortality, thus leading to his creation of his monster.
The book Frankenstein is about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who used science to try and improve human lives. But as one follows Frankenstein throughout the book, one can slowly come to realize that his gift did more harm than good. This is shown when his creation killed the people Frankenstein was close to. In the meantime, Frankenstein was running from his problems. This continues until his creation kills his younger brother. We then follow Frankenstein when he is chasing his creation, which eventually leads to the death of Victor Frankenstein. Shortly after, his creation jumps from the cabin window upon the ice raft, and was swept away by the waves and darkness. This book symbolizes many things, but the one that sticks out the most are the emotions of desire
When Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is analyzed, critics comes to a conclusion about Victor Frankenstein's creation. The creature invokes the most sympathy from the readers than any other character in the novel. Because he is abandoned by society which manipulates the creature to do evil things despite his good heart. Therefore Shelley's message throughout the novel is that a person is not born evil, they are made evil.
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:
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein explores the downfall of certain human characteristics, set to the backdrop of creation, destruction, and preservation. The subtitle denoted by Shelly herself supports this idea, by relating the fact that the title can be viewed as either Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. One scholar, Marilyn Butler, also maintains this by noting, "It can be a late version of the Faust Myth"(302). Shelly uses the story of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, to produce the concept of a dooming human characteristic of which Frankenstein states, "I have . . . been blasted in these hopes"(Shelley, 152). The reader finds, as a result of his thirst for knowledge and infatuation with science, Victor creates a living being by whom he has "suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes"(Shelley, 17). Eventually, Victor realizes this self-destructive trait, but he is not able to save himself stating, "I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew"(Shelley, 16). Although everything in his life that is dear has been lost, Victor is able to convince one in his same position--Robert Walton--to not "lead [his crew] unwillingly to danger"(Shelley, 151). While addressing the concept of characteristic and self-discovery, it is possible to realize that the monster also possesses the characteristics held by both Victor and Walton; except in his learning, the monster is driven to continue to cause destruction. Most important about the thirst for knowledge is that, as a form of human characteristic or downfall, it leads to large, critical pieces of self-discovery. In obtaining these critical pieces, Frankenstein finds satisfaction in j...
Because of Victor’s need for fame and desire for power leads to Victor becoming a monster. Victor begins his quest to bring life to a dead person because he does not want anyone to feel the pain of a loved ones death. At first he is not obsessed with his project. As he moves along in the project he thinks about what will happen to him. "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source, many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me." (Shelley 39) He realizes that he will become famous if he accomplishes the task of bringing a person back to life. The realization that he will become famous turns him into an obsessive monster. He wanted to be admired, and praised as a species creator. He isolates himself from his family and works on the creature. “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I 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 156) By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, he has no time to write or contact his family. He puts fear within his family because they fear for him.
Mary Shelley, the renowned author of Frankenstein, explores the consequences of man and monster chasing ambition blindly. Victor Frankenstein discovered the secret that allowed him to create life. His understanding of how bodies operated and the science of human anatomy enabled him to make this discovery and apply it to the creation of his monster. Walton wished to sail to the arctic because no sailor has ever reached it. The monster was created against his will, his ambition was to avenge his creation as a hideous outcast. These three characters were all driven by the same blind ambition.