Victor's Reaction In Frankenstein

The second stage of the monster that Shelley talks of is his coming to life, and, specifically, the reaction that Victor has to it. When Victor’s creation comes alive for the first time, his initial reaction is one of disgust; “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?” (Shelley 58) Victor’s reaction shows how he cannot even put into words the unsightliness of the Monster and the disgust he feels when it finally comes to life, despite the countless hours he put in to do so. In using the monster as a symbol of Victor’s obsession, Shelley portrays how even Victor, though he may not want to admit it, is disgusted with his own obsession with the

sciences. Despite the countless hours that Victor devoted to creating the monster, so much so that, “it gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory” (Shelley 50), he still only created, “a pitiful botched-up creature, a ‘filthy mass that moved and talked’, which bring nothing but grief and destruction upon the power that made him” (Joseph 121). In using the monster as a symbol of the outcome of Victor’s obsession, Shelley shows just how fruitless his efforts really were, and provides humanity the lesson on the danger of becoming enveloped by something that ends up a complete failure.
The moment Victor’s creation comes to life he abandons it causing the monster to feel bad about himself, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (Shelley 240).

This leads to an almost immediate reaction by the monster, “It begins at chapter V with the creation of the monster who becomes, within the first two pages, Frankenstein’s pursuer” (Spark 93). By starting off the relationship between Victor and the monster in such a poor fashion, Shelley makes lays out the template for the kind of relationship the two characters will have throughout the novel. Now that Victor has acquired the vast knowledge to be able to create life, and then actually succeeds in creating a live creature, he now has the result to deal with; which will prove to be an extremely agonizing

experience.
First Victor had too much knowledge, now he doesn't have enough.

Due to Victor’s confidence he attempted experiments that were too advanced for him to succeed in. This lead to, “in the book a revenge of nature against practitioners of a technology that surpasses their understanding” (Tenner 108). Victor ventured away from what he knew, and in doing so created his own “revenge of nature,” better known as the monster. “Mary Shelley was pointing to a dilemma of all science-based technology-at a time when science was only starting to influence technological practice” (Tenner 108). Shelly did this by putting Victor in an uncomfortable

situation:
“His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 58).
This is an extremely important quote in which Shelley explains the dangers of science. Shelley shows that, although Victor had chosen the perfect body parts, when he put it all together, the creature was disgusting in appearance. As it was written, “Frankenstein’s fateful error was to consider everything but the sum of the parts he had assembled” (Tenner 108). This comes due to lack of experience. Since Victor was unfamiliar with the experiments he was running, it caused him to make errors that, although they may have been small, in the end when life had finally been created, the mistakes had grown exponentially. This lead to a monster being created which would wreak havoc on Victor and his loved ones for the rest of his life.
Not only did Victor not have enough knowledge, but he didn't have proper materials or working space either. “When he comes to make his creature his laboratory is remarkably small—‘a solitary chamber, or rather cell’—and peculiarly ill-equipped even by the rudimentary technological standard of the day: ‘my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw…”’ (Harvey 22). Through this, Shelley shows again that Victor is way out of his league in this situation. Shelley uses this inexperience to cause Victor to make mistakes when attempting to create life. Due to this, Victor creates something so repulsive that not even he can love it, leading to instant abandonment. This causes Victor’s creation to be lonely for life, thus seeking revenge on Victor for what he did; which shows why, “Frankenstein is generally regarded as a prophetic vision of the dangers of the scientific and technological era that was still in its infancy at the time the book was published in 1818” (Harvey 21).