The role of guilt in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (2023)

542 words | 3 pages

Have you ever been responsible for tragedies caused to other people? For most the answer is no, however for some, their actions led to the misfortune of lives without fault. In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, due to lack of care and teaching, Frankenstein's reanimated creation is unstable; Victor Frankenstein is to blame. Two events he should be responsible for are not training his creation to know right from wrong and the monster's abundance that led to the murder of innocent people.

753 words | 4 pages

Frankenstein essayist Joel Edgerton said, "Where is the guilt and punishment, and don't we talk more openly about remorse or guilt when other people see the evil in us?" In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," guilt and remorse play a crucial role. On one occasion, it may even affect fate. Victor's fate to be precise. Guilt and remorse add a basic plot to the story, as well as drive the plot forward.

610 words | 3 pages

In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, ambition becomes a form of obsession with revenge. But the result of revenge is a curse for human life and its longevity. The novel's two main characters, Victor and the monster, become obsessed and let revenge be their undoing.

404 words | 2 pages

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein's creation is at the center of the plot as he is the cause of all events and proves to be the most morally ambiguous character in the novel. The moral ambiguity of the creature, especially with regard to social interaction, serves to reveal the sense of the work as a whole that, without proper guidance, we are subject to imperfection.

539 words | 3 pages

When we first meet someone, we seem to judge them based on how they look. Judging someone's appearance is natural, because we first see their faces. Eventually, we got to know his personality. After that, we can decide whether or not we like him as a person. When you don't take the time to get to know someone's personality, you can leave the wrong impression. Appearances do not make a person. In the novel Frankenstein, critical people and someone's appearance caused many deaths.

1135 words | 5 pages

Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned with his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation due to the creature's appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.

1511 words | 7 pages

There are many evils in life that will try to defeat a person, but the key to living a happy and fulfilling life is learning to empathize with others facing their own evils. It's hard to empathize if a person hasn't been through any real struggles in their life. Being able to see firsthand what it's like to go through difficulties helps to create a level of empathy that leads to compassion for others. Victor Frankenstein is a prime example of someone who faced evils in his own life, but ended up not finding compassion for others, finding his own hell. In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, Victor's lack of empathy opens the door to his world of selfishness, cruelty and unhappiness.

337 words | 2 pages

The process Frankenstein achieved in building the creature he had planned was based on his determination, obsession and commitment. For example, in chapter four he says: “Examining the causes of life…. I knew the science of anatomy, but that wasn't enough; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body” (Shelley 18). This shows how committed he was to his work as he constantly studied with short breaks. Clearly, showing his obsession wouldn't let him stop until he finished his work. On why, he says: "And the same feelings that made me neglect the scenes around me also made me forget those friends who were so many miles away and whom I hadn't seen for a long time."

1720 words | 7 pages

But these are not thoughts that suit me; I will strive to joyfully resign myself to death and will cherish the hope of meeting you in another world ”(24). Victor shows strong love for family in his childhood “No human being could have had a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed of the same spirit of kindness and indulgence" (Shelley, 40), he grew up in excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gave this love to his creature and ignored it, not despite the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein's darkness and ignorance of his creature, he refused to accept the monster due to its physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if it were the monster when the creature

1039 words | 5 pages

Imagine a man walking down the street suddenly being mugged. The robbed man will certainly detest such injustice and will win society's sympathy. On the other hand, the thief will be despised by society. People judge the thief based on this incident alone and label him as a disgraceful and spiteful member of the community. What the public doesn't realize are the inner struggles and emotions that the perpetrator has to endure because of his crime. If he or she had the option of stealing or being robbed, a generous person would choose to be the victim rather than the scorned doer. Such a thought did not escape Nietzsche, who considered this concept as a madness of injustice: "An injustice we commit is much harder to bear than an injustice perpetrated against us" (Nietzsche). However, everyone who commits a crime endures much more than

1088 words | 5 pages

The monster is despised by society because of its hideous appearance, its lonely and hated body, unfit for the company of strangers, just as Frankenstein fears it is. It is the wretch that makes hatred grow, as he says, “All men hate the wretch; How, then, should I be hated, who am more miserable than all living things! Indeed, this misery and enforced isolation is the monster's main character trait, paralleling the isolation that is Frankenstein's greatest fear. Now that Victor is in college, he doesn't have his family to turn to for affection.

430 words | 2 pages

Many people say that for justice to be done, they must answer for what was done to them. In Frankenstein, the creature created by Victor tends to seek justice. In this novel, the way the "monster" tends to be shunned by many and brought him to the point of understanding and doing justice by killing different people throughout the entire book. Victor was a scientist who created and brought life to the world that was thought to be impossible. For example, when the creature was newly created, it didn't have any feelings at first.

1246 words | 5 pages

Frankenstein: From Benevolent to Feind “I was benevolent and good; misery made a devil out of me.” (Shelley 69) Spoken by Frankenstein's monster, this quote really defines him: initially a caring creature in search of love, he turned into a furious murderer, angry at humanity for the undeservedly poor way he was treated. Victor Frankenstein is a unique and complex individual who encounters change of a similar nature for similar reasons. The quote, though uttered by the monster, sums up the evolution of Victor Frankenstein's personality; Misery, the product of isolation and loneliness, caused a deterioration in the temperament of an initially benevolent Frankenstein.

656 words | 3 pages

Shelley describes the morning after Frankenstein created the monster and fled: "The gloomy wet morning finally dawned and I laid before my sleepless and aching eyes the church of Ingolstadt...". This sad scene aptly depicts Victor's miserable and despondent feeling towards the ugly monster he has just created. Shelley also uses the element of imagery to show Frankenstein's painful emotions about the aftermath of his creation. Immediately after the verdict of Justine's death, a deep sense of remorse comes over Frankenstein. "Blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse oppressed my heart, which nothing could remove.

1921 words | 8 pages

Such passion is seen in Victor's 'noble intention' to design a being who could contribute to society, but he went too far, falling under the spell of playing 'God', further digging his grave while blinded by glory. His creation, aptly named a monstrous being due to his stature, looks, and strength, proved to be yet another pure and intellectually willing "child" who moves through the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick regarding a lack of familiar figures in your life, especially your parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God, he was losing his humanity, becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley's hidden desires, deteriorating in The Lucifer Principle to which author Howard Bloom points to groups. social, not individuals, as the main "unit of selection" in human psychology