Frankenstein and Female Monster. Victor

Are you a made man? In Mary Shelley’s (1797-1851) Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus (1818), Victor Frankenstein creates a fiend out the dead body parts. Frankenstein, as a product of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution, is obsessed with advancing the cause of science, and in becoming famous and respected. â€Å"A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption †(Shelley 48). This modern day Prometheus, succeeds in doing what no man has done before, create life. The man he creates is contrary to what Victor envisioned. â€Å"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Gre at God!His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips†(Shelley 51). After his creation comes to life, he refuses to accept his (parental) obligation; he does not care for the fiend, he does not provide it with shelter nor with food or love. He fails to teach and to instruct dismissing a relationship with his creature.Instead, in disgust of what he has done, Victor abandons â€Å"the fiend. † The fiend attempts to live a normal life; however, being abandon leaves the monster confused, afraid, left to his own devices, and angry. â€Å"‘I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me;’’ (Shelley 129) Victor abandon and left t he monster as a fatherless child like his mother did when she died â€Å".. She whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever† (Shelley 38-39) All of the thing that he loved about his mother had been taken away and he was left as a motherless child.The story of Frankenstein and his creation is ultimately a story of abandonment. Abandonment (and neglect), Shelley suggests, is detrimental to growth and maturity; abandonment might result in the dehumanization of both the creator (parent) and his creation (child). Shelley’s novel is an exploration of where abandonment might lead. [NOT SURE WHERE YOU ARE GOING WITH THIS. KEEP IT FOR NOW, IF YOU DECIDE THAT YOU NEED MORE OF A HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK] Ultimately, Frankenstein refuses to accept the responsibility of providing a source of companionship for the creation since he does not allow for any connection between himself and the monster.Victor basically flees, hoping to f orget what he has created. He attempts to live a normal life however his abandonment leaves the monster confused, angry, and afraid. Frankenstein is an Enlightenment scientist, who crosses the boundaries of science and feels the need to discover the secrets of life. The Enlightenment Period was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in the late 17th and 18th century Europe emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. [START HERE] Victor Frankenstein has always been fascinated by nature and always wanted to conquer the unknown[PLACE AND ANALYZE THE QUOTE HERE – WHERE HIS FASCINATION BEGINS – â€Å"When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed. Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity† (Shelley 36). After being introduced to science Victor b ecame fascinated with it. In retaliation to his fascination, Victor betrays nature by creating the Monster. Victor frankenstein felt the need to challenge nature with him imagination and creating his own being.The Romantic believed there was good in all things, and the darkness could not be ignored. Many expressed their beliefs in through dark romantic writing and art work using the ideas of nature, emotion, individualism, and creativity and passion was a reaction against the rules and conventions of society. To all romanctic writers believed nature is devined there for violating nature is a violation of there god and themselves. Victor’s fascination led him to successful create a creature and Privately abandon his own needs, hidden away in his apartment where no one can see him work, he decides to begin the construction of the creature.Abortion and devoting himself to this labor, he neglects everything else family, friends, studies, and social life. This lead victor to grow increasingly pale, lonely, and obsessed. â€Å"My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement. Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realise. One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places.† (shelley 48)Victor creates the Monster to replace the lonely feeling he had after his mothers death. In creating the monster, one might say, that Victor is reconciling his own sense of abandonment. In other words, he creates a creature to validate him (often what our parents do) and to reconcile his feelings of maternal abandonment. Ironically, he in turn abandons the creature that he builds. Frankenstein feels abandoned by his mother and the Monster feels abandoned by Frankenstein. After creating the M onster, Victor takes takes one look at the monster and immediately abandons him, â€Å"But I escaped and rushed downstairs.I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited; where I remained during the rest of the night†¦ † (Shelley 59). When he returns to his chamber, the monster is gone and Victor feels relieved from his creator. Two years go by before Victor and his eight feet tall creation, face each other again. Victor is headed home after receiving his fathers letter informing him that his little brother William had been murdered. Victor is soon aware that the fiend is responsible for the murder of his brother.His adopted sister Justine is framed by the fiend. She is found guilty and is soon executed. Although Victor feels sadness, anger, frustration and guilt, especially about Justine’s death, he feels that he cannot confide his suspicion that his creation is responsible. Who would believe him? Victor begins his traveling toward Geneva with thought of the Monster. During his traveling he sees his creature , while coming face to face with his creating he insisted on the creature diapering and having the slightest contact with him.On one hand the creator had different feelings he almost seemed excited about seeing his creator and wanted to share all the thing he had learned with him even while victor continued to abandon him. â€Å"Be calm! I entreat you to hear me, before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine; my joints more supple.But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not e quitable to every other, and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good — misery made me a fiend.Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous. † â€Å"Begone! I will not hear you. There can be no community between you and me; we are enemies. Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, in which one must fall. â€Å"(shelley 89) though the monster had been abandoned several times by his creator he tried every chance he got [THIS IS AN IMPORTANT SCENE AND MOUNTAIN, SO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO IT JUSTICE. AND REMEMBER THE MONSTER NOTIFIES VICTOR TO EXACTLY WHERE HE WILL MEET HIM, BECAUSE HE WANTS THIS AUDIENCE WITH HIS CREATOR]. {YOU DON’T HAVE TO BRACKET THIS, BUT YOU SHOULD TRANSITION INTO THIS.IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE MONSTER IS ABANDONED MANY TIMES†¦ VICTOR, WHO LOST HIS MOTHER SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THE MONSTER LOST HIS FATHER – VICTOR – YET HE FAILS TO EMPATHIZE WITH HIS CREATION] He told Victor about how he grew to love the DeLacey Family and learned to see what it meant to love another. Studying the family led to the monster feeling abandoned because he couldn’t connect with them. â€Å"I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers — their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool!At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity†. (Shelley ____ ) Before the c ottage family met the creature he had already opened his heart to them wishing for adoption. When the monster finally felt he had completely prepared himself to meet his teachers he was rejected and again abandoned.This abandonment was held a great deal of the creatures hate for mankind. He then told Victor that he had met a little boy on his way back to find Victor, his creator. He tells that he thought he could make the little boy except him, because of the little boy's youth mind. The Monster then learned that the boy was a brother to Victor, who had abandoned him first. (talk about how he tried to grow comfort with the boy but was abandon) He got very angry at the thought of being friends with the brother of the man who caused the Monster such great pain.The Monster then killed the little boy and had taken the locket and put it into the pocket of a lady. Justin was soon executed for the murder of the little boy (William). â€Å"I determined to seek that justice which I vainly a ttempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form. † (Pg. 136) Victor then told the Monster to leave and never come back or he would kill him. The Monster then realizes that the blame is on him, himself and he decides to kill himself. â€Å"Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? † (Pg. 132) Once again this left me wondering if the Monster killed himself, would that leave another void in Victor's life?Victor had already lost so many loved ones that were so close to him. Did he have feelings for the Monster? Not feelings of love, because all that he had done; but some type, any type of feelings since he after all created the Monster. At the end of the book the Monster finally talks Frankenstein into creating a female for him. The Monster wanted another like him so he could feel normal and not feel the abandonment for the rest of his life. Victor begins making another replica of the Monster, but then abandon the thought in the middle of his work.Victor then r ealized what could happen if he finished the female Monster. victor realized that if he finished the female Monster that it too could turn against human kind, and also go on a killing spree. Victor then destroyed his half way complete work. This angered the Monster and he then swore to make Victor the most miserable person in the world. The Monster did this by going on another killing spree of people that were close to Victor. He killed Victor's best friend Henry Clerval and Victor was almost executed for the murder. In the mean time Victor had met a lady called Elizabeth, whom he planned to marry.So the Monster waited for the night after Victor and Elizabeth's wedding and then murdered Elizabeth. Victor's father had also grown very depressed from all the void's in his own life and too soon died after hearing the news Elizabeth's death. Victor then was very ragged and obsessed to get a bitter revenge on the bitter Monster. Victor chased the Monster up into the North. He nearly kille d himself when he was chasing the Monster on dog sleds and broke through the ice and fell into the water. Victor was saved by a passing ship. He recovered enough to tell his long, remorseful story to Robert Walton.Victor then got very sick and soon died. Thus, leaving a void in Walton's life. That same night the Monster came to see Victor in his death-bed. The monster met Walton while doing this and told him of all of the rage he felt toward Victor. Walton did not like the Monster at all. The Monster told Walton that he would kill himself now that Victor had died. He told Walton he would do this by going where nobody could see him, in the North, and set fire to himself. In conclusion, I feel the theme of the book is abandonment. I think this because every event that happens is the result to some sort of abandonment.Victor Frankenstein felt abandoned and had a void because his mother died. As a result to that feeling, he betrayed nature and created the Monster. He abandoned the Monst er, leaving a void in the Monster's life. The abandonment from Victor made the Monster angry, wanting to make Victor's life miserable. The Monster then began to kill people who were close to Victor, making Victor have even more abandonment in his life. Finally, Victor died from being sick and the Monster killed himself. All of the events in this book support that the theme of the book is abandonment.