Mary Shelley’s masterpiece “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss boy who grows up in Geneva studying the works of the ancient outdated alchemists that become the subject of his obsession and eventual downfall when he attends university of Ingolstadt. In university, he learns about modern science, and masters all that his professors teach him. Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with finding the “Secret of life,” selfishly thinking of only how to achieve this and nothing else.“So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein-more, far more, will I chieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.
” Frankenstein, Chapter 3; pg. 47]. He eventually achieves this and brings a hideous monster to life. [“It was on a dreary night in November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted agony, I collected the instruments of life around me that I might infuse a spark into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.
It was already one in the morning, he rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated it limbs. ” Frankenstein, Chapter 5, pg. 56]. The monster Victor unleashes begins destroying his family, youngest brother, wife and best friend and he is also indirectly responsible for the murder of two other people including Victor’s father.
He successfully brings it to life only to be repulsed and terrified by its hideousness.Victor selfishly runs away from his creation who avenges this abandonment by killing Victor’s family, friends, and wife. Victor follows the creation to the artic in an attempt to kill it and thus relieve himself of his guilt in creating such a monster. Victor Frankenstein changes as the story progresses. In the beginning, Victor Frankenstein is innocent and an idealist fascinated by what can be and what could be acheived by science into a disillusioned, guilt ridden man who had misused this knowledge through his arrogance and selfishness by mocking God.
Victor’s intension was to either achieve a godlike status creating new life and to ignore the normal rules and consequences of science that dooms Victor to be an inhuman, arrogant, selfish character. [“I knew therefore what would be my father’s feelings, but I could not tear my thoughts from my employment loathsome in itself, but which had taken an irresistible hold my imagination. I wished, as it were, to procrastinate all that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which swallowed up every habit of my nature, should be completed.Frankenstein, Chapter 4, pg.
54]. Victor cuts himself off from the world eventually committing himself entirely, to a primal, animalistic obsession with trying to correct the mistakes he made at the end of the novel by destroying the monster he had created. Mary Shelley’s character of Victor Frankenstein evokes the misuse of dangerous knowledge, the utter unnaturalness of his creation and the dangerous consequences of his arrogance and selfishness.Frankenstein’s dangerous knowledge of the idea of reanimating a matter into artificial life no matter the consequences. Did anyone else indeed exist, except I. The creator who would believe, unless his senses convinced him, in the existence of the living monument of presumption, and rash ignorance which I had let loose upon the world? ” Frankenstein, Chapter 7, pg.
77] Victor does not admit the horror, remorse, shame and guilt he feels for unleashing such a monster in the world even when he sees the results of his selfishness and arrogance spiraling out of control. In contrast to Victor Frankenstein’s arrogance and selfishness is his creation’s ersonality.Depicted as a loathsome fiend, bent on killing, the truth is Victor Frankenstein created a sensitive, emotional, and gentle creature that only wants to share his life with someone like him himself. It was the process of learning about the world and his negative experiences with the humans that he became “evil.
” In other words he was taught to behave the way others expected of him based on how he looked and Frankenstein rejecting him. Victor created a creature that believed he should be judged by his personality and not his appearance.Arthur Belefant author of “Frankenstein, the man and the monster (1990,) considered Mary Shelley’s intension was for her readers to believe the Creature did not exist, and it was a result of Victor Frankenstein’s moral degradation and arrogance in using science to play God. Victor Frankenstein is a metaphor in the dangers of humans playing God and the dangers of toying with what you don’t understand.
He errs in giving his creature life without considering the consequences of his actions and is therefore destroyed by his refusal in realizing and dealing with his mistake.
