In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature spend the later part of their lives in a constant battle of grief against one another. Victor sets out to destroy his creation after he realizes he could not be responsible for the introduction of another creature like the former. The creature has sworn himself to making Victor’s life a living hell. Both have their lives consumed by hate and despair. At the end of the book the creature states “For whilst I have destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were for ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me” (Shelley 177)?
Are either character content in their quest of consumption and rage? Is Victor responsible for the creature, and all its wrongdoings? Is the creature justified in his rage and actions against Frankenstein’s family? What is Mary Shelley saying about society through the relationship between Frankenstein and his monster?
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007.
loved the idea for the questions. I don’t think either character will be satisfied in their consumption and rage because there is no way to satisfy these feelings. Rage is like fire it will continue to grow and consume and destroy the longer it is present. I think Victory is absolutely responsible for the creature, but in the way that a parent is responsible for a child. Victor created the creature, then abandoned it immediately. Victor is to an extent responsible for what his “child” does. If a fathers son robs a gas station, of course the son is at fault but it is also reflected back on the dad that allowed for this behavior. I think the rage the creature feels against the family is because he is unable to find a family himself, not even his creators family wants him. I think the theory or takeaway piece of Frankenstein is that humans are the true monsters with how we treat the “others” or “monsters” of society. Monsters and others being those that are different in appearances, education, and physical ability.
Even with the murder of Frankenstein’s family member, the creature will not be satisfied with revenge, nor will Frankenstein in seeking revenge. Victor is responsible for his creature and all of its wrongdoings, because the creature is a product of his intelligence, and craftsmanship. The creature would behave differently if Frankenstein did not abandon it after creation, therefore preventing the enraged behavior of the creature towards his family. Through this situation between a creator and its creation, Mary Shelley is presenting society as one who has many issues between a creator and its creation(s), specifically parents and children. If a creator does everything to make sure their creation is healthy, loved, and has access to resources, their creation will behave more civilly; this can relate to the actions of parents and children.
Both Victor and the creature were so blinded and consumed by their quest to destroy each other, they lost sight of what they really wanted in life. The creature shows this realization in the quote you provided. Victor is essentially the creature’s parent, and he was an absolute terrible one. I think he is at least partially responsible, much like in real life when there is a troubled youth, we look back at how they were raised and their environment as the source of the problem. It’s difficult to justify the creature’s actions, but when someone’s been abused like this, I would not blame him for harboring ill-will towards his abuser. I think Mary Shelley is giving us a cautionary tale of judgement and the terrible consequences it can lead to.
I think that Shelley is trying to tell us something about our battles with each other. That we will never be happy and we will only be in a constant battle until we reach a compromise. As far as how the creature and Frankenstein go, I think that they are both at fault for what happened. The creature didn’t need to go and kill everybody and Frankenstein could have approached the creatures emotions a little nicer. Though he is a creature its obvious he has feelings.