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Frankenstein comparing victor and the creature
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In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankstein, Victor Frankstein assumes the role of a creator who suffers disastrous results after failing to assure happiness and well-being to his creation. After creating and abandoning the Creature, the Creature approaches Victor and demands him to make him a wife so that he can escape his ostracized state, and live a happier life with her. At first, Victor agrees to make him a wife, but eventually, out of fear, he chooses to destroy his 2nd creation, fearing the creatures would populate and terrorize the world. Victor’s decision to deny the Creature a female counterpart and, essentially, a happy life boomerangs as the Creature begins to kill Victor’s loved ones, denying him happiness as well. Mary Shelley uses Victor …show more content…
He approaches Victor and demands him to explain why he destroyed the creation. Victor then begins to attack the Creature verbally, calling him wicked and deformed. The Creature responds to Victor saying “Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master;-obey!” (131). By calling Victor a slave, the Creature is positioning himself higher than his own creator. He continues on, saying Victor is unworthy to him, and that he can make Victor’s life miserable to the point where it seems like everything is against him. In the last line, he calls Victor his creator, but calls himself the master of the relationship. The Creature is calling himself master because he is ultimately in control of Victor’s life as mentioned above. He then tells Victor “Are you to be happy, while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness?... I may die; but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery… I will watch with the willingness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom... I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night” (131). In this excerpt, the Creature is expressing his feelings towards Victor. He believes that it is unfair for his creator …show more content…
With his first creation living a miserable and isolated life, he requests Victor to make him a wife that he could live a happier life with. Victor agrees to make his first creation a wife, but he ends up breaking this promise as he ends up destroying the 2nd creation: due to his fear of the consequences that could arise from it. This angers the Creature, who believes that Victor, as creator, is responsible for the well-being of his creation. The Creature then begins to kill everyone that is close to Victor, making his creator’s life as miserable and lonely as his. If a creator doesn’t look after its creation, the creation will suffer and backfire on its creator. What Mary Shelley is trying to portray from this is the importance of parental responsibility and nurture. When children are born, their parents take on the responsibility for nurturing and raising the child until they are old enough to become released into the real world. In one of their first encounters, the Creature attempts to communicate with his creator by reaching with his hand, grinning, and attempting to talk. Victor then abandons his creation and leaves it to fend for itself and discover the world in a total alien-like manner. This causes the Creature to have to fend for himself and self-educate. Later on, the Creature approaches Victor and demands him to listen to his
Shelley characterizes Victor in a way that he acts on his impulses and not with rationality. As a result, Victor does not take the time to teach or talk to his creation. This action leads to his downfall as his loved one’s are killed by the Creature taking revenge on Victor for leaving him to fend for himself. Victor’s actions have consequences, hence why all his loved one’s are murdered because of his instinct to leave out of fear and safety. Shelley proves that our id demands immediate gratification of needs and thus, is in control of our actions.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “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). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
By the time of their death, both Victor and the creature has committed repugnant acts: Victor created a being out of corpses and then abandoned it and let it wreak havoc on the people he loved, the creature directly killed three people. But Victor tells Walton that, “During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable […] nor do I know where this thirst for vengeance may end” (269). 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 hate 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. He tells Walton that, “You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself” (275). Although no amount of regret or sorrow can bring back the people that he has killed, the creature does acknowledge the evil of his actions, which in turn allow him to make come to peace. He is able to reconcile his vengeful feelings towards his creator and praises Victor by calling him, “worthy of love and admiration among men” (275). Both Victor and the creature have done committed actions against each
Upon first discovering how to make life, Victor is overwhelmed with excitement and pride, feeling as though he has unlocked the greatest power on earth. His imagination is “too much exalted” by this newfound ability, and thus determines there is no “animal as complex and wonderful as man” for him to attempt as his first creation (Shelley 43). Frankenstein does not contemplate how he will react to or interact with the human he gives life to, or that he has created an extremely twisted parent-child relationship by creating a human from dead bodies. His general lack of concern regarding the consequences of his remarkable yet dangerous power is the root of the rest of the conflict between him and his monster throughout the rest of the novel, and it exemplifies Shelley’s underlying theme that science should not be pushed past morally and psychologically safe boundaries.
This evolution of Victor’s attitude about the creation occurs during the time immediately following the creation. In these few hours, Victor’s imagination creates an increasingly grotesque image of the creation. This developed condemnation that Victor imposes upon the creation is similar to all of the creation’s other encounters with human beings. This repeated rejection causes the creation to realize that "All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things" (Shelley 65). Eventually, therefore, the creation accepts its role as a monster based solely on the reactions it receives from other human beings.
Through the theme of birth and creation, Shelley criticises Victor not only for creating the new being, but also for abandoning it when it comes to life. Victor first wishes to create the being because he thinks:
The wise Uncle Ben once told Peter Parker, “remember, with great power. Comes great responsibility.” There is no greater power than that acquired by the infamous Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when he discovers the secret to creating life. Shelley’s Frankenstein is a tale of creation that depicts acts of human conception and discovery. The Oxford English Dictionary defines creation as “the action or process of bringing something into existence from nothing by divine or natural agency; the fact of being so created.” It defies the natural order of things and creates a world of its own. The multiple acts of creation and discovery bring upon a certain set of responsibilities and implications as depicted by David Collings who analyzes the responsibilities that come as a result of these acts in his essay “The Monster and the Maternal Thing: Mary Shelley’s Critique of Ideology”. The main act of creation is evident through Victor Frankenstein’s creation of the Being which is depicted most prominently in the novel. However, there are multiple other acts of creation and discovery that may not be apparent at first sight. One of the most important being, Victor’s discovery of the knowledge required to create life. Apart from initially creating the Being, Victor also plays a critical role in the Being’s evolution into a raging and vengeful creature. Perhaps above all other acts of creation and discovery is Victor’s personal creation of himself into a monster. As stated by Collings most of these acts of creation on Victor’s part are subconsciously brought upon because of their lack of a maternal figure but also in part because of his desire for fame and glory. However, he is blinded by his motives and forgets that with his...
Victor plays the role of God and creates his “Adam” but unlike the Adam from the bible, the creature is not designed in a perfect image or guarded by the care of his creator. The creature compares himself to Satan when he says “I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; …like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (228). The creature was forsaken his first days of living and learned about the society of humans through observation and reading. God introduced Adam to the world with everything provided and guided him his early days of life. He saw Adams loneliness and granted him a mate. The creature asks Frankenstein for a companion as a last chance to become happy and good hearted. Victor destroys his hope and brings more tragedy among him by doing so. God creates all things good, Victor took his Job as a creator and his creation became malignant because unlike God he was ashamed of his creation. From that point on the creatures’ heart becomes cold and makes sure to destroy his creator. When Victor dies the creature repents for the damage that he has done and would live with continuing pain till his death. “…My agony was still superior to thine; for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever” (380).
His unconscious mind is unfulfilled and this produces in him a yearning for a deeper understanding of the world. Victor strives to reach the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: self-actualization. According to Maslow, one must satisfy humanity’s basic and psychological needs before achieving self-fulfillment. Victor aims high, to reach self-fulfillment by achieving his full potential in all aspects of his life. For Victor, there is no greater achievement than the creation of life and this creation is personified as the creature. In order to construct the creature Victor must repress the moral compass of his superego and by doing so, he ignores the ethical dilemmas that arise from his endeavor. In his creation, Victor fulfills his ultimate wish: to be the archetypal character of the creator. Victor’s grand goal for self-fulfillment is unlike that of the creature’s, who does not want to achieve what no one else can but to experience in the most simple ways of what it means to be human. As the novel progresses, the creature recounts to Victor
Victor, impassioned and excited by science, does not realize the power of his actions because he sees himself as truly innocent. When recounting the beginnings of his tragic experience, he calls the words of the professor who inspired him “… the words of fate – enounced to destroy me,” (Shelley, 49), and even claims that “…none but those who have experienced them can conceive the enticements of science,” (Shelley, 51). Victor sees himself as innocent for creating the Creature, and does not care that any terrible deeds the monster performs would ultimately be the product of his own actions, as is he the creator. He claims, “I was surprised, that among so many men of genius who had directed their enquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret,” (Shelley, 51). In all of these cases, Victor blames the wonder of science for the creation of the Creature, and assumes no true responsibility as he could not control his passion and drive. Shelley shows the audience how using innocence in this way is extremely destructive, because it creates a realm in which excuses can be used to rectify just about any deed. Victor is abuses the concept of innocence by using it as a personal tool to gloss over his many mistakes so that he can aim his rage at
Monsters can come in various physical forms, but all monsters share the same evil mentality. A Monster is a being that harms and puts fear within people. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of how appearance does not determine whether a creature is a monster or not. In the story, Victor Frankenstein tries to change nature by creating a super human being. The being appears to be a monster. Victor becomes so obsessed with his creation and then rejects it. Victor is the real monster because of his desire for power, lack of respect for nature, and his stubbornness.
Is there a God? Is he real? These are questions that have managed to mess with humanity’s imaginations ever since the earliest stages of mankind until today. Although there has been many answers to these questions as there has been people asking them throughout history, a great majority seem to agree that God is the creator of all Mother Nature and mankind together. God is seen as this great father figure, someone who is loving and caring and someone who died for everyone’s sins. This thought made many believe that they too could create life and be like God, one of them being Victor Frankenstein. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein’s obsession with the secret of life and passion for science leads to him to creating
The confrontation between the two demonstrates Victor 's weaknesses as an individual. Although Victor is the Creature 's creator, he refers to his creation as an "abhorred monster" (Shelley 68) and is willing to "extinguish the spark which he so negligently bestowed" (Shelley 68) upon him. This demonstrates Victor 's lack of responsibility. His goal was to create life, essentially to play God. Once the monster began to murder those dearest to Victor, he failed to take responsibility for the creature 's actions. Another weakness in Victor 's character is revealed through the dialogue exchanged between creator and creation. Instead of calmly trying to reason with the Creature, Victor lashes back at the Creature. He even suggests that the two "try their strength in a fight in which one must fall." (Shelley 69) The monster, however, maturely and eloquently urges Victor 's "compassion to be moved" (Shelley69). Because Victor is full of "rage and horror" he wants to destroy his own creation even though victor is playing god in recreation of humanity. They both are to blame due to the fact that Victor created the creature as well as the signs of irresponsibility between the two for the Creature killing people and for Victor trying to recreate
When speaking about the natural philosophers that inspired him to uncover the mysteries of life, Victor talks about how little the philosopher knows, “He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery. He might dissect,” (Shelley 40). The depiction of nature as female and as something still not understood shows that Victor’s mission isn’t simply to create without the feminine, but to understand it. When Cross examines the creature’s learning of language, she makes the point that “the creature seeks language as a way of compensating for his appearance…however, the very language he learns determines not only the structures of his relationship, but his very identity, as the product of a specifically gendered and structured discourse.” (Cross 557). Here, Cross considers the creature to be symbolic of women in art, attempting to be included by learning the male dominated discourse, but never being accepted because of their inherent nature. However well the creature works as a symbol for the lack of feminine acceptance in academics, the creature is always identified as male, by Victor and the creature himself. Instead, if the creature is in some part a reflection of Victor himself, then Victor’s isolation, after his creation slays William, is self-imposed to prevent the acquisition of sympathy, by his fear of