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Ethical dilemmas in frankensteins
Moral doubts novel frankenstein
Moral doubts novel frankenstein
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In chapter 17-19 of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature and is now having a mental argument of whether he should create a female companion for the creature or not. Victor’s reasons for not creating a companion are if he does create a companion, the creature will have someone to help him destroy the world. For the creature already showed evil in him. For example is he killed Victor’s little brother William Frankenstein. Another reason for not creating a companion is Victor knows the creature has the power to kill all mankind, and if he creates another one like him, destroying the world will be too easy. Victor’s reasons for creating a companion are the creature does not want to be alone, and unlove.
For all mankind is shunning and hating him. Another reason is the creature is promising Victor he will leave mankind alone and they will never see them, if Victor creates a companion for him. Plus the creature said, “Oh! My creator make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny my request!” (Shelley 139) The creature does not want to be sad and alone forever in the world. In the end, Victor decides to create a companion for the creature. For it is the only thing he can do to stop the creature from killing anyone else and to make the creature satisfied with his creator.
Human companionship is one of the most basic needs of humans that can be seen in the Creation story. It is tricky for any human to find the perfect companion especially if one is one of a kind. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein two characters exemplify this need. Dr. Victor Frankenstein and The Creature are in search of companionship, and they will go to great lengths to achieve it.
Mary Shelley refers to her most famous work, “Frankenstein,” as her “hideous progeny” (Shelley, 169). Her creation—the novel—mirrors Victor’s since they are both considered “hideous.” Shelley’s terming of the novel reveals her insecurities about her creation, much like Victor about his. Shelley calls the novel hideous like a form of self-deprecation. She let this novel “loose” like Victor let his creature “loose” on society, unsure of how it would be perceived. Her insecurities lie in the fact that she is a female author. Female authors were criticized and considered inferior to their male counterparts. This also displays her insecurities about childbirth, due to the death of her own mother through childbirth and having experienced a miscarriage
Do you think that “Frankenstein” would end differently if Victor had created a companion for the monster? In the book Frankenstein Victor created a monster because he wanted to created something that loved more then father loves son. After Victor created the monster he abandoned him leaving the monster to live on his own and learn the lessons of life himself. The monster was very hurt by Victor and mad that he left him. As a result the monster started to kill the people closest to Victor. The monster made a deal with victor that if Victor made him a companion then he would go far away with her and not hurt anybody else. The monster also said something would happen on Victor's wedding night. If Victor had built a companion for the monster
To begin, the monster longed for human connection so badly, he even begged Victor to create his wife: “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 my right which you must not refuse to concede,” (174). In this quote, the monster asks Victor to make him a companion, which Victor blatantly denies. This eventually leads to
During his abandonment, he wanders in the forest and learns social aspects from the DeLacey family. His request to Frankenstein is inspired by the relationship between Felix and Safie. When he saw the passion between them, the monster said that their love, “...expressed joy”(Shelley 83). Therefore, the monster learns that humans, essentially men, need women to eliminate such depressed feelings. When the monster demands a female creature, Frankenstein agrees to his request as he was threatened about the death of Elizabeth Lavenza. However, as he is working on his creation, he considers the possible consequences that this might bring because the monster, “had sworn to quit the neighbourhood…; but the female monster had not; and the female monster, who in all probability to become a thinking and reasoning animal” (Shelley 120). Frankenstein decides to discontinue the female creation which delivers a message that women can have a mind of their own. He believes that the female creature can decide whether or not to be a companion for the monster. If she were to choose not to, she would have the power to do so despite having destruction as a possible outcome.. Therefore, signifying that women have the potential to have agency and make decisions of their
There may even be a small possibility that Frankenstein detested the Creature when he realized that the Creature may be able to possess the ability to read and write. Frankenstein did not want to create anything close to a human companion when creating the Creature, he only wanted to create a slave that would procreate and form a “family” of slaves who would not only give Frankenstein the satisfaction of company but would assist him in scientific experiments. “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley 54).
...male companion in order to be content and accepted. “I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me, but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me." This clearly shows the monsters idea of hope. When Frankenstein rips the female creation apart, he’s also ripping the monsters glimmering chance of him experiencing happiness to pieces.
but Victor thought to himself and says “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, torn to pieces the thing on which I was engaged.” (Shelley 124 )Victor making the decision to not make another made the creature furious but Victor had his reasons like what if the creatures create more what if he doesn’t leave him alone just what ifs. He worries about making another creature because he wonders if the female would be as bad as the creature he first created. Victor does not make the second creature and tore it apart. Abandoning the creature caused him to learn for himself.
Frankenstein spent nearly two years devoting his life to giving life to an inanimate body. Frankenstein was so excited about finishing his work until he brought it the creature to life. Once the creature came to life Frankenstein abandoned him. Victor said, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchambers, unable to compose my mind to sleep (Shelley, 43).” Victor cast aside his creation simply because of his looks he could not get passed them. If Victor would have accepted and embraced the Monster than the outcome of their relationship could have been very different. Frankenstein’s rejection was the start of his future and happiness being stripped away from him. He had a chance to redeem himself to the Monster and he promised him he would create a companion for him and again he denies him that right as well. Victor spends months creating a companion for the creature and once he was almost finished he “tore to pieces” the Monsters companion. Victor now not only betrayed his creation once, but twice. First Victor left him and then he breaks his promise that he made
Since the monster has grown and has developed the concepts of life and why people reject him, all he wants is to be accepted and loved. He wants a companion because he is lonely in his isolation from the society. “He explains that since Victor deserted him he has been without companionship; all who see him run away in terror” (“Overview”). The monster understands that he is a hideous monster but he still wants to feel loved and accepted by society. He wants a companion to share his life with and be happy with. He is not given that opportunity because of his appearance. The monster will always be isolated from the world because no one can give him companionship. “If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature 's sake, I would make peace with the whole kind! But I now indulge in dreams of bliss that cannot be realized” (Shelley, 105). The monster has been isolated all of his life and all he wants is to have a companion. Isolation has made the monster feel alone and like an outcast. The isolation of the monster has the negative effect of making him lonely and in need of a companion. The monster finds Victor and demands that he build another monster for the monster to be a companion with, or an “Eve”. After Victor says yes and then changes his mind and says no, the monster casts revenge of Victor. “...he declares 'everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery” (Bond). The monster is angry at Victor. He wants Victor to build him a companion or he will kill everyone that Victor loves. After Victor rejects the idea, the monster wants Victor to feel the loneliness and isolation that the monster has felt all his life. “...if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you, my
The monster always says he wants a companion and someone to love him but how can you want love but kill someone else's love? That's quite the contradiction. On page 124 in chapter 17 the monster says to Victor "You must create a female for me.." But then in the beginning of chapter 23 the monster kills Victor's female love, Elizabeth. The monster must learn that just because he kills Victor's love that doesn't mean that Victor will make him a love. Overall the paradox of love is used to show how the monster feels and thinks.
The novel Frankenstein and the poem Porphyria’s Lover have the theme of the desire for eternal love. In the novel Frankenstein, this desire for love is shown when Victor Frankenstein’s monster implores Victor to make him a female. Frankenstein’s monster says, “I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive and it shall content me. It is true that we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.” (Shelly 135). Frankenstein's monster feels as if he needs a female that will be able to make him lose all of the misery that he feels. He says that even though they will be isolated from the world it will make them be closer to each other. He wants to have someone that will love him and comfort him. However, since he will not find this compassion amongst humans he wants Frankenstein to create someone as hideous as he, so they will both be able to love and comfort each other in the face of the biased judgments of the world.
Victor was consumed with all the information he had learned from school and his own experiments and he did not care to offend anyone who would try to show affection. The monster wanted Victor to create a monster just as hideous as he was because he didn’t want the other creation to find attention from someone else due to the fact that the female monster would be scary. Victor did abandon the monster and that was a selfish act because he didn’t want the burden of something that was unable to fend for itself to consume him; furthermore, the reason why the monster killed Victor Frankenstein’s younger brother was the selfish act of revenge.
In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creature's only need is for a female companion, which he asks Victor Frankenstein his maker to create. Shelley shows the argument between the creature and Frankenstein. The creature says: "I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself " (Shelley 139). Shelley shows what the creature wants from Frankenstein and what his needs are. Shelley gives us an idea of the sympathy that Frankenstein might feel for the creature even though he neglects him. The creature confronts Victor demanding his attention and expressing his needs. I feel a lot of sympathy for the creature based on him being able to forgive Victor for abandoning him and being able to communicate with him.
Victor promises his monster a female companion. However, just when he is about to bring the second creature to life, he has a sudden realization. His mind goes back to his past experiences, and all of a sudden, he sees the potential consequences of what is about to be done. This epiphany creates a relief in the audience that at last he has the foresight to see the potential disastrous outcome, thus he will not doom the world. A sudden realization such as this also carries with it the theme that it is never too late to consider the consequences of your actions.