Frankenstein Guilt Analysis

In Frankenstein, Victor 's guilt follows him along with his creature, which causes him to often fall ill. Two instances are after he creates his creature and when he can longer take the guilt of indirectly killing both Justine and his little brother. Victor says, "My father had often, during my imprisonment, heard me make the same assertion; when I thus accused myself, he sometimes seemed to desire an explanation, and at others he appeared to consider it as the offspring of delirium, and that, during my illness, some idea of this kind had presented itself to my imagination, the remembrance of which I preserved in my convalescence.” (Shelley 391). In this quote, Victor feels accountable and guilty for the actions his creature has taken. Guilt …show more content…
An example of Victor 's guilt changing his current situation, is when he falls ill and Henry is brought back into his life. Victor says, “Henry was my only nurse... But I was in reality very ill, and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life”(Shelley 109). Shelley brings Henry back into the picture at this time to prove that Victor is unable to deal with and accept his guilt currently. As Victor is healing, he forgets about the creature and so his guilt begins to go away. Shelley links guilt and illness to point out the toxicity of it and that Victor is unable to overcome it at this point in the novel. His guilt comes back for him when he is standing outside of Geneva at the spot where his brother was killed and he realized his creature was the one to kill him. This event sparks a change of Victor 's personality because of the guilt and trauma he is facing. Victor 's guilt leads him to become more of a cautious person. The death of Elizabeth and Alphonse increase the amount of guilt Victor is feeling and cause him to start taking action against the creature by trying to convince a magistrate that his creature is behind the deaths. Victor states, “I will exert myself, and if it is in my power to seize the monster, be assured that he shall suffer punishment proportionate to his crimes. …show more content…
Illness is the leitmotif of guilt, because when Victor falls ill, he is usually harboring some form of guilt. When Victor is overcoming his illnesses, he usually had someone to help him through it, which caused him to be unable to take responsibility for all of his actions. When Victor overcomes his illness alone, he is taking the blame of the creatures crimes and realizing that he is the source of the problem and he alone can fix it. Shelley wrote illness into Frankenstein like this because she wanted to bring attention to the effects of Victor 's creature on Victor and how the guilt caused by Victor 's creature shaped Victor 's entire character. As Victor recovers from his illness, he is realizing the worth of other humans. Victor says, “I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human beings like myself,” (Shelley 355). Once Victor has lost everything, he finally goes after the creature. This is significant because this shows that Victor is taking charge of his life after the creature had been controlling it. Although Victor dies on his journey to find and kill his creature, he had overcome his guilt induced illness and taken responsibility for his