Examples Of Destruction In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the theme of creation and destruction is displayed through Victor creating the first monster, and beginning on the second one. Creation, in chapters seventeen through nineteen, leads to destruction. The first example of this would be the creation of the first monster himself, throughout the beginning of chapter seventeen he say he will destroy everything, and cause fear throughout if another female monster isn’t created: “…if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth” (Shelley 104-105). …show more content…
Victor decides to follow this demand and create the second female monster. This creation leads to the downfall, or destruction in Victor’s health again like we saw in chapters three and four. Early on in chapter eighteen Victor realizes that until he gets through the misery of creating another monster, he will never be happy again. He states, “For myself, there was one reward I promised myself from my detested toils – one consolation for my unparalleled sufferings; it was the prospect of that day when, enfranchised from my miserable slavery, I might claim Elizabeth, and forget the past in union with her” (111). Victor knows that the only way through this misery of making a second monster is to create it and after he does so, he can then marry the love of his life and forget what has happened in the past. Although this is the only way out of his unhealthy state, Victor still dreads this work and declines more in health. Victor states, “During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy fixed on the consummation of my labour, and my eyes shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands”