Comparing Victor And The Creature In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor and his creation punish the other by hurting those around them. The Creature murders Victor’s loved ones as a result of Victor’s incompetence towards creating a female creature. A character parallel between the Creature and his creator is revealed. Victor and the Creature both feel hatred towards one another, when in reality, they are actually similar. They show the flaws in each other, though they both share many of those flaws. Victor tries to assure himself, in his last few days of living, that the events of his life are the Creature’s fault, not his. Victor is ill and is approaching his death, so he looks back on his life.
““During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; …show more content…
The Creature explains, “he suffered not more in the consummation of the deed,” showing that Victor did not suffer more than the Creature, the one who had to initially make Victor suffer. He continues to explain, “not the ten -thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine,” showing that although the Creature’s actions were with intent to make Victor suffer, the Creature suffered as he committed the hateful crimes. He explains, “my heart was poisoned with remorse,” showing how he did feel bad about it. He continued to commit the crimes due to a “frightful selfishness.” The Creature initially asks Walton, “do you dream?” as the Creature subtly shares his dream to live a happy life. Throughout this paragraph, the Creature explains that he was overcome by many different emotions, and he was simply doing what he needed to in order to live a happy life himself, “A frightful selfishness.” He did not think about how he was ruining Victor’s life until Victor finally passed. The Creature specifically explains the selfishness taking over with the words, “hurried me on,” as he shows he did not completely want to ruin Victor’s life. If the whole time he had the intention of destroying Victor’s life, he would not have to be hurried on with selfishness. Victor explains something similar as he approaches his death. He shows that he took priority for protecting mankind over protecting his creation. The Creature shows he has emotion similar to that of a human being, as he explains, “My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy.” He feels the same way a human would feel, so he understands that he is inflicting pain upon Victor. The Creature continues to explain how he has feelings of guilt, but they are overridden by his feelings of hatred and pain towards Victor. The Creature tries to put the guilt of his life on Victor and explains the feeling