As people we often do not take responsibility for our creations, there are people that let others clean up that mess. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, had Victor taken responsibility for his creations, then those creations would turn out the way he had intended for them to turn out.
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
…show more content…
compassion to his creation he would have avoided all of these current problems. Although, the decisions the monster makes is equally for himself to make, considering that he is sentient.
So he looks for someone to accept him for what he is, but in truth, he himself hasn’t quite accepted what he is, he goes after Victor in an attempt to make him create another one like him. “You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede." The creature tries to make an acceptance, via another being like himself, when in reality all he needs to do is look deep down, take Victors journal and create one for himself, and he himself can learn to be accepted. Not that the men and women have to accept him, because for the most part monsters or people like the creation can only be accepted truely by little children and blind people, so therefore he has an obligation to himself to strive to work for a better
“image”. In the end, both Victor and the monster have an obligation to themselves and each other. Victor to move the field of science forward, and thus his obligation to his creation to make him a better person to walk the earth. The monster to help Victor be at peace with his mistakes, and to accept that perhaps he won’t be accepted in society, but at least he can try. Either way they need to take responsibilities for their actions, instead of letting others clean it up after they mess up or fail to clean it up themselves.
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:
In Mary Shelley’s work of literature Frankenstein many themes such as family, compassion, secrecy, and revenge are present throughout the story. Of all the themes, the one that stands out most is revenge. When revenge is brought up in any conversation the outcome is typically people saying revenge is not worth the outcome. Revenge is bittersweet but usually has an ugly aftermath because it can be dangerous in its own way. Throughout Frankenstein there are numerous examples of revenge and characters seeking revenge. The two main characters constantly pursuing revenge are Victor and the creature.
Victor’s decisions were the reason behind every death in the novel and is the cause of all of Victor Frankenstein’s misery. The novel proves this through the trial of Justine Moritz. Frankenstein’s poor decision leads the death of not only Justine, an innocent bystander, but of William. It leads to the merciless end of two benevolent spirits, taken at too young an age. Personal choice showed no mercy to Victor for his fiendish actions, and punished him for severely for them. The punishment he received was entirely deserved due to the way he treated his creation. Victor was relentless in the way that he treated his creation and because of this suffered deeply. Victor learned how deadly personal choice was the hard way as he watched helplessly as everyone that he loved died before his very eyes. His choices caused him to go mad with grief, and to be filled with the need for revenge when in fact he should have realized that he only had himself to blame. One must be careful when they are making any choice in their lives because, as Shelley has shown us, any wrong choice can prove fatal. Personal choice holds no regard for human life and will cause the deaths of many, if the wrong path is
Victor Frankenstein’s monster, a hideous being that was most often described as a terrifying wretch by those who became scarred by his figure. When Frankenstein gave life to this creature, he was unaware of what he had unleashed to the world. The monster would go on a murderous rampage and kill one of Frankenstein’s brothers, William. However, who is to blame for this homicide? The creator or the created? If Frankenstein never fashioned such a demented concept, no one would have be hurt in the first place. On the contrary, if the monster learned to control its inner rage, then lives would not have ended so violently. In the novel it is portrayed that Frankenstein’s monster is quite an intellect. If everyone was to accept him as who he was,
Knowledge is an abstract yet powerful idea that seeks to immerse its victims in the pursuit of unattainable information. Victor wishes to discover more than any person before him has, and in return discards all moral and ethical obligations he previously held. In doing so, Victor inevitably wishes to obtain absolute control of the fate of his surroundings, leaving the barrier between life and death an opaque abstraction. After creating the monster and performing his numerous experiments, Frankenstein takes no responsibility for the being of life he has actually created and dehumanizes the monster as a “success”. While the creation of the monster in itself was an atrocity, the ultimate proof of Victor’s irresponsibility can be seen with how he dealt with the monster after its unnatural
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 ...
Throughout the story, Victor Frankenstein became less and less responsible for the creature’s actions. At the beginning of the creature’s life, Victor can be held accountable for the creature’s actions because he is the one that “birth” it. In the beginning of Chapter 5 of the novel, Frankenstein, Victor expresses how ugly the creature is saying, (1818) “How can I describe this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God!” Victor created a hideous monster, not with the intentions on making him ugly. “Collecting bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame” is how Victor brought this monster together; sounds like Victor is a child at play with his new toys, in a rush to put them together, resulting in the creature’s body becoming an ugly and botched together a disgraceful figure of nature as if it was a rag doll. It was just Victor’s fantasy of autonomy that he tried to make become
In Frankenstein, the moral identity of the Creature is ambiguous to the reader because of the contrast between how Victor portrays him and he views himself. The Creature’s voice is absent in the first volume, leaving his moral character to be described by Victor as evil and monstrous (Shelley, 83-84). In the second Volume, the Creature becomes the narrator of the text and portrays himself as a curious and friendly being (Shelley, 119). It is the presence of the Creature’s voice that allows him to be seen as a new born full of benevolence who is longing for companionship (Shelley, 157). The Creature’s transition from benevolent to heinous occurs through a series of failed attempts at assimilating into human society. The characters
As human beings we are nurtured by our environment. In the book “Frankenstein” the main characters, Victor and Elizabeth Frankenstein, clearly demonstrate how influence can significantly impact one’s natural progress in life. In the story of Jacob’s chicken illustrates the power of influence teachers posses and lastly in On monster by Asthma, the influence from women's charecterists is metaphorically shown in each of the monsters.
Victor was so caught up in his science that he failed to consider that he is creating a monster. Consequently, just because he was ignorant of what he was doing does not alleviate him from all moral responsibility of his actions. In order to be morally responsible, he should have considered that if he succeed, his Monster would be marginalized due to his horrendous looks. Frankenstein never considered what he would do with his creation after it became alive, let alone make him look like he would fit into society. Even Frankenstein realized the immorality of his experiments via the guilt-ridden sicknesses and endless remorse he feels throughout the novel. Victor knew that he was morally responsible, if he didn’t, he would not feel remorse or guilty every time someone he loves
While Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein revolves around the quest for revealing new forms of knowledge and discovering innovative technology, another significant part of the book is the character's journey in trying to fulfill their innate desire for companionship. The novel features a crazed scientist named Victor Frankenstein who creates a living being from various dead human corpses in an attempt to become a god-like figure. Frankenstein’s creation presented a moral commitment of responsibility that a creator has over its creation. Frankenstein’s ignorance towards his responsibility as a creator left the disfigured creature alone to be ravaged by the evilness of humanity. The life of suffering that the creature faced due to his lack of emotional
Victor does not follow any guidelines that a physician should follow when treating a patient; for instance, a physician should “be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights” (AMA). As mentioned above, Victor crosses a generally held ethical boundary of proper responsibility by his initial escape from the monster and carefree disregard of his actions and their effects on the creature, along with his surroundings and as anticipated, his unthinking actions don’t pass without consequences. Victor had probably realized the society in general wouldn't accept his creation, as he himself has done, and that the outside world would be a significant danger to the monster. Moreover, he doesn't show any form of “respect” for the monster as an individual and instead, spends a majority the time thinking about how the monster was being a nefarious nuisance to his personal life and proceeded to deny repeated attempts of mutual connection and companionship from the monster. This is shown when the monster actually tries to communicate and interact with his creator when he first wakes up, only to be rejected: “His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds” (Shelley 49). Victor’s mentality is extremely unfair and reprehensible and holds him somewhat accountable for the ensuing repulsion and
Initially, he does not view his creation with disgust. He had regarded the monster as beautiful when putting it together. Then, the monster came to life and he ran. He did nothing to stop the monster from killing his family and friends. He refused to admit what he had done to the authorities. Victor’s unwillingness to confront the disaster he perpetuated hint at the existence of covert sentiments towards the monster, and towards himself. What Victor does, or doesn’t do, is irrational. He first submerges himself into creating this being, completely neglecting his family for years. Once
He shows another failure of character in neglecting to deal with this creature. If he believes the monster should not exist, Frankenstein should take care to imprison the monster or kill it, so that it cannot harm others. However, he lacks the stomach for that harsh decision, and instead just runs away. In fact, in the aftermath of creating the monster, Frankenstein manages to feel sorry for himself. Instead, he should be out trying to find the monster, either to help it or to capture it: “But I was in reality very ill, and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life. The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him” (55). Victor makes himself ill by worrying about the monster, but he does not do anything to prevent the monster from the destruction that it is capable of doing. Frankenstein’s solution, which is not really a solution at all, is the worst possible path to take. He has too much pride to tell his family about the monstrosity that he has created. This monster causes everything he loves to be taken from him. He does not want his family to change the way they look at him, as they might if he were to admit what he has done. By staying silent because he does not want to be treated like an outsider, Frankenstein leaves his family
With creating the creature, the creator Victor Frankenstein has a tremendous responsibility to mankind. He has achieved a phenomenon in science. Just as anyone who has created something amazing