Frankenstein Villian Or Victom Essay Research Paper

Frankenstein Villian Or Victom Essay, Research Paper

Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s Monster: Villain or Victim? & # 8220 ; Am I to be thought the lone felon, when all human sort sinned against me? & # 8221 ; ( Shelly 165 ) & # 8211 ; Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s Monster Upon reading Mary Shelley & # 8217 ; s Frankenstein, it is all excessively easy to come to the decision that the animal Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates is a & # 8220 ; vile insect & # 8221 ; ( 68 ) that should be & # 8220 ; overwhelm [ ed ] with & # 8230 ; ferocious abhorrence and disdain & # 8221 ; ( 68 ) . But is this truly accurate? Is this & # 8220 ; monster & # 8221 ; truly the & # 8220 ; wretched Satan & # 8221 ; ( 68 ) Victor believes him to be? Or is he really a & # 8220 ; fallen angel whom [ Victor ] drove from joy for no misbehavior & # 8230 ; [ and that ] wretchedness made a monster & # 8221 ; ( 69 ) ? The instance for the animal being a & # 8220 ; horrid monster & # 8221 ; ( 102 ) is rather strong. He murders immature William Frankenstein with his bare hands ; afterwards, he frames Justine Moritz for the offense because he & # 8220 ; is everlastingly robbed of all that she could give [ him, hence ] she shall expiate & # 8221 ; ( 103 ) .

Victor & # 8217 ; s best friend, Henry Clerval, is murdered by the animal every bit good. Finally, the monster fulfills his promise of being & # 8220 ; & # 8216 ; with [ Victor ] on [ his ] nuptials dark & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( 139 ) by killing Elizabeth, Victor & # 8217 ; s cousin and new bride. It would look that this animal truly is, in Victor & # 8217 ; s sentiment, unequaled in & # 8220 ; malformation and evil & # 8221 ; ( 122 ) . However, after closer scrutiny, one finds that the animal, though he has committed flagitious Acts of the Apostless of force, is non wholly at mistake. In fact, it would look that the person responsible for the monster & # 8217 ; s actions is Dr. Victor Frankenstein himself. When Victor foremost creates the animal, he is struck with & # 8220 ; breathless horror and disgust & # 8221 ; ( 35 ) at its really visual aspect. Because of this, he abandons it, non caring about its public assistance or safety. This could be seen as slightly correspondent to giving birth to a babe, so go forthing it in the forests to fend for itself. After being deserted by his Godhead, the animal becomes nil more than a & # 8220 ; hapless, incapacitated, suffering wretch & # 8221 ; ( 71 ) , populating on a diet of berries and acorns, and experiencing Do 2 & # 8220 ; frightened? [ and ] desolate & # 8221 ; ( 71 ) . He learns the linguistic communication and ways of adult male by detecting a little household for a twosome of old ages, and yearns for their company so that they can be & # 8220 ; sympathising with [ his ] feelings and heartening [ his ] somberness & # 8221 ; ( 93 ) . However, all his brushs with worlds end with the worlds sing feelings of & # 8220 ; horror and alarm & # 8221 ; ( 96 ) ( due to his disfigured visual aspect ) while his bosom sinks & # 8220 ; with acrimonious illness & # 8221 ; ( 97 ) from these rejections. When he approaches an old adult male eating breakfast, the old adult male flees in panic. When he attempts to befriend the blind De Lacy, Felix darts frontward and tears him & # 8220 ; with supernatural force? from his male parent & # 8221 ; ( 97 ) . And when he rescues a immature miss from submerging in a fleetly fluxing river, he is non thanked with sort words, but alternatively with slugs. Therefore, the & # 8220 ; wages of [ his ] benevolence? [ is ] the suffering hurting of a lesion which shattered the flesh and bone & # 8221 ; ( 101 ) . It comes as no surprise

, then, when the creature comes to the conclusion that “there was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist [him]” (97), he declares “ever-lasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him [Victor] who had formed [him, the monster], and sent him forth to this insupportable misery” (97). He murders William Frankenstein because he is a relative of Victor, and frames Justine because he knows she will never be sympathetic towards him, since she is a member of the human race (talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time). When the monster finally gets a chance to speak with his creator, he has but one request: “a creature of another sex, but as hideous as [him] self” (105). If Victor complies with this request, the creature will, for once in his existence, “excite the sympathy of some living thing” (105) and promises that no “other human being shall ever see [them] again” (105). Victor agrees to this at first, but later decides that it will be too risky to create another being which might be “ten thousand times more malignant than her mate” (120). Upon coming to this conclusion, Victor destroys the second creature, leaving the first, once again, alone to “grovel in the intensity of [his] wretchedness” (123). At this point, out of rage and desperation, the monster kills Henry Clerval, and later, Elizabeth. Can the creature really be blamed for his behavior and actions? His heart “was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy” (164); however, in all his years of Do 3 existence, he has seen nothing but violence and hatred towards himself. It is no wonder, then, that “evil thenceforth became [his] good” (164) and he had “no choice but to adapt [his] nature to an element which [he] had willingly chosen” (164). Despite all this, though, he still retains some shred of humanity. He comes clean at the end, saying that “It is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin.” (165) Frankenstein’s monster is in no way perfect. However, it cannot be said that he is in any way responsible for being the “vile insect” Victor calls him. The creature fights to retain his humanity and gain understanding from humans, but without any proper guidance or sympathy from his creator, he has no chance to learn anything about the ways of the world except the ways of violence and hatred. Is it any wonder, then, that he lashes out at a world that cares nothing for him? How can someone be expected to be kind when all his or her life has been filled with negativity and brutality? In this writer’s humble opinion, I honestly cannot say I would have reacted any other way. And I doubt that anyone else could have, either.