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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.
It is clear from his birth that the creation’s
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goal in life is to love and in return be loved. The creation soon realizes Victor is one of many who shuns him away, and seeing his creator cannot take him in as his child, the creation looks around the town and eventually discovers a scene of people, specifically a close knit family. Upon witnessing this, the creation reacts, “He raised her and smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions”(Shelly 96). As the creation views the heartwarming actions exchanged between the girl and older man, he is again triggered by the feelings they have that he craves so badly. The intense compassion he constantly longs for is displayed before him, and although he feels warm and pleasant, also experiences a deep jealousy and pain due to him not being one of the individuals who was embraced. Subsequent to this event, Frankenstein’s desire to be loved turns into a raw, deep need for compassion, which he attempts to pursue throughout his lifespan. To be loved requires acceptance for an individual's true color, regardless of their differences.
The second aspect the creation strived for was to be accepted by townspeople amidst his physical deformities. He was terrified to interact with them, much less reform to their language and culture due to his extreme physical flaws. So the creation watched from afar, people watching and admitting, “I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers- their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions; but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification” (Shelley 102). After comparing his appearance to the seemingly perfect ones of the townspeople. He then fills with despair and sorrow knowing he cannot alter his in a way to look like one of them. Because he is unable to, in that matter, fit in, he tries many times to show people his personality, which although is kind and caring, is shadowing by his gruesome, monster …show more content…
appearance. There is a breaking point for all individuals, and when reached, leads to dangerous actions and decisions. In the creation’s case, not having love or welcoming into another life, he decides the only way to force Victor to fulfill these desires is to, over time, wreck havoc on his loved ones. As his heart and dreams were crushed, so were his desires and tolerance for persevering in his goals. The creation attempted to compromise with Victor as he stopped working on a companion to the creation, asking him to “Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends” (Shelley 86). This threat is extreme and indeed became very effective in completely destroying the life of Victor as he lost the love he once attained from each individual fallen victim to his creation. Because Victor abandoned his creation and refused to love him, the creation’s kind, harmless self became trapped under a layer of destruction and hunger to kill. The concept of revenge outweighs any good left in the creation, plotting his next victims death becoming what his world now revolves around.
As the creation reached and surpassed this point, he decided it would be fair to murder Victor’s family and was determined to succeed in this if nothing else in life. In one of his final confrontations with his creation, the monster taunts, “You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains- revenge henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery” (Shelley 158). He disregards making a compromise this occasion, and is denied someone who would accept him finally, making it the last straw for him. He kills the last remaining vital people in Victor’s life, including Elizabeth, the love of his life. The monster vowed to make Frankenstein’s remaining weeks miserable in order to get what he considered proper revenge for leaving his creation like an infant stranded within the
world. Frankenstein's creation internally, at the core, is a good hearted individual who longs to be normal and accepted in his society. His self worth and esteem is molded and quickly decreases as he observes the negative reactions everyone who crosses his path depicts. His perception of himself was not formed by himself, but by the humanity and all it contains. This is confirmed as Shelley stated, “the world made him evil”. The creation’s two prominent characteristics, the desire to be loved and the desire to destroy, are clearly opposing each other. The reader, as well as the creation himself, have difficulty discovering his identity, making him a complex and intriguing character from the beginning. As this tug a war game between the traits progresses, he yearns for the loving and kindness within him, but eventually, he cracks, allowing the greed and revenge seeking part of him to emerge victorious. The creation’s struggle is significant because it further develops his character’s personality and gives reason for his impulsive decisions. The novel highlights his internal conflict between his good vs evil consciousnesses and how each was developed. The theme of how humans can be defined as good or evil is prominent and causes the reader to reflect on their decisions made. Frankenstein’s creation, as do we, ultimately have the ability to choose to act in either a compassionate or destructive matter each day. Different events and perceptions of the world can alter one’s capability to partake in wise or poor behavior, as did the creation’s lack of love and refusal to be accepted by others. However, the way we react to those obstacles are what truly define us as quality human beings or monsters.
In Frankenstein, everyone treats Victor’s creation like a monster, including Frankenstein himself. This leads to the creation accepting that title and going on a murder spree. His creation says “When I reflect on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation” (69). Victor’s creation shows that he did not ask to be created, and his existence is miserable.
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...
There is one common thread throughout Victor Frankenstein’s behavior in the novel: he is ruled by his passions. From the beginning of the novel, he is unrestrained and unbalanced, and his major action in the novel is an expression of the fundamentally selfish and presumptuous desire to create life. As he says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source...” (Shelley 55). He wants to be lauded by the world as the first and only man who could create life. This desire to be special and noticed stops him from contemplating that there might be a reason that no one else has created life before. Once the creature has come to life, Victor is overpowered by fear and unable to provide care for him, an action of fundamental irresponsibility that is almost as reckless as his initial creation. He does not even begin to contemplate the ramifications of his act of godlike creation until it has already been done. It is only after he has lost everything that he seems to develop a somewhat more accurate and much more critical view of himself and his actions. In Victor Frankenstein, Shelley shows the folly of allowing your desires to rule over
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
After Frankenstein discovered the source of human life, he became wholly absorbed in his experimental creation of a human being. Victor's unlimited ambition, his desire to succeed in his efforts to create life, led him to find devastation and misery. "...now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished..." (Shelley 51). Victor's ambition blinded him to see the real dangers of his project. This is because ambition is like a madness, which blinds one self to see the dangers of his actions. The monster after realizing what a horror he was demanded that victor create him a partner. "I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was like torture..." (Shelley 169). Victor's raw ambition, his search for glory, has left him. His eyes have been opened to see his horrible actions, and what have and could become of his creations. As a result, Victor has realized that he is creating a monster, which could lead to the downfall of mankind. His choice is simple, save his own life or save man.
Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, is the victim of his own pride. An ego unchecked is a dangerous thing. But in truth, it really just shows Victor’s humanity. He is privileged, educated, talented, loved, adored, but he is not perfect. His flaw is his own ego and pride. Without doubt, this is the result of a childhood where he was overindulged. Overindulged to the extent he was given a little girl “Elizabeth” as a “present”, whom he considered from childhood “mine only” (Shelley 21). Little wonder the twenty year old Victor would think he could create, control and command life. But Victor as with any indulged child did not take the time to learn much from his parents about parenting and fath...
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she writes about a hopeless romantic man named Victor, who is on a journey to create a perfect human race, starting with a monster he created out of mortified body parts named, “The Creature”. The fact of the matter is, that Victor’s mind was not clear on the fact that he was creating another life, unnaturally at that. Throughout this story, Victor finds himself distraught, and displeased with his work on this being, so he decides to abandon the living creature. As time grows upon Victor, he realizes the damage he has done, not only to the angry, distraught Creature, but on society, and himself. The behaviors in this story range from positive and negative attitudes, and actions that display rage, from a sentimental
Humanity, as a race, is far from perfect: we cheat, lie, fight with one another, and at times, even with our creator. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a story about a man named Victor who plays God and creates another being. Now it turns out that this “being” is truly a monster in appearance, and, due to this, Victor rejects him. This leads into an epic story of creator versus creation. While on the surface this just appears to be a thrilling story of creation gone wrong, Shelley has a deeper meaning behind it. Mary Shelley’s use of text such as Paradise Lost and her allusions to the Bible suggest that the story of Frankenstein's creature is a recreation of the Biblical creation story and the downfall of humanity. Through this Mary Shelley shows that creation can never live up to its creator’s expectations, and because of this, leads to rebellion.
Many readers have sympathised with Frankenstein’s creation, the unnamed monster, because he is badly treated by most people who he comes across. Victor created the monster with dead body parts that he got though grave robbing once he got all of the parts it took him 2 years to build a body. Victor is very obsessed with his work because he would not let any one help him or see him his fiancée is very worried he might be doing something he would regret.
The creature had his happiness taken away and had to resort to murder by Frankenstein. Elizabeth, his only love, had died and so did the bit of humanity that was left in him. Frankenstein was engulfed in hatred and anger for the creature. This is when Victor Frankenstein vowed revenge upon the creature and had become just as savage as the creature itself. Victor exclaims,"Cursed, cursed be the fiend that brought misery on his grey hairs and doomed him to waste in wretchedness!"which describes how he lives for revenge. Revenge became a game between Victor and the creature, trying to outdo each other. The purpose of Victor's life left him in anguish and less humane as ever, his goals were but a sick dream. At some point, Victor Frankenstein even admits to being inhumane by saying "Human beings, their feelings and passions, would indeed be degraded if such a wretch as I". He lived a restless life, trying to kill a creature who he only brought misery to from the
When the creation of Frankenstein's monster occurred, Our main character, Victor, was deathly frightened and regretted creating this beast all together. He never thought about assuming responsibility for his creation and without knowing it he let his monster wander off. Although he acknowledges himself as the “creator of a new species”, empowering his strong ego, the sight of his new living creation forces him into solitude.
In Mary Shelly’s gothic novel Frankenstein, protagonist Victor and the Monster illustrate a conflict between humanity and monstrosity. The portrayal of this character reveals his transformation from man to monster. This exposes the ironic twist in this tale that the sinister being created by Frankenstein is himself. Victor Frankenstein evolves into the true monster in this novel by alienating himself, creating the monster, and showing irrational behavior.
Throughout Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, the knowledge of the existence of a creator has a devastating effect on a creature as he struggles to reconcile with his own perception of himself with his increasing desire for approval and acceptance. Many virtues and vices can be found throughout the text including those such as acceptance and belonging. For the creature, he desperately wants to feel loved by his father figure, his creator, Victor Frankenstein. As for Victor, he flees from his creation, which he views as a problem, despite the fact that he knows how important it is to belong, and in spite of his knowledge that it will affect those he loves.
Thereupon, Victor is unaware of how his actions have sparked the feeling of helplessness in a world which to him is “replete with wretchedness”. Further to the point, Victor is seen blaming his creation by letting the Monster “drink of his pain” and feel the “despair that torments him.” Through this, Shelley positons the reader so they can know the implications regarding what a lack of initial responsibility can lead to. Furthermore, this viewpoint outlines Mary Shelley’s dominant message throughout Frankenstein: the obligation to one’s own creation and how one’s downfall can be embarked from a compelling
Victor Frankenstein created a creature to experiment and when the creature awoke, Victor abandoned him and hated his creature. The creature was at first pure and he love the world. However, when he found out that his own creator abandoned him he became angry and swore to make a revenge to his creator. The creature’s emotion was well represented when he said, “For the first time, the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them; but allowing myself to be borne away with the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death.”(Chapter XVI, page 137). This resentment was made when the creature figured out that his creator abandoned him and when he was betrayed by the DeLacey’s. The creature was very mad and that is what made him to determine to search his creator and afterwards, to make a revenge. Also, Victor once more became selfish when he did not follow what creature has required him to do which was to make a female for the creature. Therefore, when Victor tore the other female creature, the creature got very angry and said, “It is well I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night.”(Chapter XX, page 167). The creature swore to revenge when Victor tore the female creature apart. This sentence that the creature said eventually led to the outcome of Victor’s selfishness. Victor’s friend, father and his wife died as result of his selfishness. At the end of the novel,