Frankenstein: Selfish And Selfishness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

After Victor brings the creature to life, he is immediately repulsed by his creation and abandons him. Victor's cruelty towards the creature has far-reaching consequences, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads to tragedy. This act of cruelty is a powerful motivator for the creature, who seeks revenge against his creator for abandoning him. As the creature explains, "I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley 117). Victor's cruelty towards the creature ultimately leads to the deaths of several innocent people, highlighting the dangers of unchecked ambition and the human desire for power.

Victor Frankenstein and Lady Macbeth take it upon themselves to call evil spirits to help them in their endeavors, in the end the calling of spirits is no help and things end badly for both characters. This theme of calling on spirits is a common one in literature, though the results may not be exactly what the characters had hoped to accomplish in most cases. The calling on of evil spirits ends negatively for both Victor Frankenstein and Lady Macbeth, ultimately leading to their deaths. Victor Frankenstein spent a lot of time in his younger years creating his creature, his goal was to make it perfect and to be the first to create life in this way. His creation turned out to be a disaster and Victor's irresponsibility led to the monster becoming exactly that.

In the novel, Victor is seen as an optimist, who hopes to create human life takes a drastic turn towards the worst. His creation of a monster, by giving life to a man with dead body parts, creates chaos and disaster. Victor’s family and loved ones face constant danger, and the result is deathly. For that reason, the character of Dr. Frankenstein and the monster can be seen as a classic Romantic Hero but also a Byronic Hero. The Byronic Hero is dark, brooding, and isolated, and someone who shows immense love for themselves.

Throughout the novel Victor and the Monster come across many relatable situations that they are forced to overcome. Victor Frankenstein had a very happy childhood, and he describes his parents as being “possessed by the very creature of kindness and indulgence”. Although Victor had a very happy childhood, these characteristics do not seem like the foundation of good moral character. Similarly Victor’s monster was not raised with the foundation of a good moral character. When the monster was first created he possessed more strength than he knew what to do with.

Victor came from a privileged family and decided he wanted to play god, which is when he created the monster. It was selfish of Victor to create the monster and leave without explaining the world it. After reading this essay I think you will also have sympathy for the monster. Sympathy is when you have feelings of pity or sorrow towards someone 's misfortune (Oxford Dictionaries, 1998).

(Shelley 56). This is the reason that Victor did not realize he had gone too far until it was too late. Once victor brings the creature to life, he immediately realizes the hideousness of what he has done: “Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (Shelley 56). Furthermore, Victor struggles to cope with his creation throughout the novel.

Thus, leaving Victor fearful and assuming the Creature want revenge. From the Creature’s point of view, he was afraid that Victor wanted revenge on him. In the beginning of the novel, the Creature was abandoned and believed Victor did not want him. The Creature was terrified that he did not impress his master. The Creature read Victor’s journal stating, it was a “Hateful day when he received life!”

When telling Victor everything he experienced the creature says, “Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (138); meaning that all these events he experienced mold him to be wicked and spiteful. Without human interaction, he becomes an actual monster, when he at first only craved company and longed a friend yet all he received was mistreatment and insults. When he saw Victor’s younger brother he thought “I could seize him, and educate him as a companion and friend…” (138), but sadly the boy was prejudice against his looks and insulted him, and shortly reveled he was a Frankenstein and the monster killed him out of spite. This shows the importance of social connections and just having someone to talk to and lean on. In a way, it is societies responsibility to care for the misfortune and treat them with not only respect but with kindness.

This is also Victors only drive to live because of the loss of his loved ones, which is once again the undoing of the creatures selfishness. The creature’s tragic struggles with humanity, ironically becomes the worst part of humanity. This drives Victor to; “seek one who fled from him” (Shelley.10). The selfishness that motivates the Creature to continue living and commit such immoral acts against humanity is the very thing that fuels Frankenstein’s vendetta. However, when Frankenstein sees that Walton’s own ambition is mirroring Frankenstein’s own guilt-wrenching past, he makes the decision to share his misfortunes.

Firstly, Victor is evident to be the true monster in Frankenstein shown through his natural attitude conveying selfishness and abandonment. Throughout the novel Victor displays these traits through his many actions where he only cares about his well being. Victor is completely focused on creating human life and does not care that he is hurting Elizabeth, his family and the monster. To begin with, Frankenstein creates the monster so he could alter the gift of life, not to learn for the sake of science or himself. He started his experience out of his own self interest as he ignores his family back in Geneva and does not write them letters explaining his personal status for long periods of time.

Only until then, witnessing that horrific and table turning experience did the creature turn on his creator and wanting revenge by killing all the people Victor loves. At this point, in the book Frankenstein’s creature says “ I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! you may hate; but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever” (122).

I personally believe that Victor Frankenstein is curious, selfish, and cowardly. Victor’s outlook on the world has always been more on the curious side since he was a kid, but you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat. In the book Frankenstein gives us an insight on what his child was like. In chapter two, he says “The world was to me a secret which I

Victor’s rejection of the monster is cold blooded and heartless and leads the monster into doing bad things. It’s like a newborn baby in the world with no one to take care of it. Victor is not the only monster in Frankenstein but society is also the monster in this

Materialists could argue that Victor Frankenstein has fallen prey to delusions of divine purpose. He is plagued by fluctuating feelings driven by his ego and delusions of grandeur. Victor believes he is predestined to do great things, and at times consumed by pseudo-sociopathic intellect. Victor has immense ambitions and feels driven by destiny. He views his family and friends as objects in his possession; however, he rarely shows any obligation to them and interacts with them only when convenient, or to further reaffirm his self-identity.

He only thought of all "wonderful" things he would be doing for the world. He was selfish and only thought of what he would get out of his work. His greed and desire for glory and power temporarily blinded him. Victor had already shown his selfish ways before he created the creature. He had a decent childhood, and his mother even brought home a young girl to be his wife.