How Does Victor Frankenstein's Ambition To Create Life

Improved Essays
Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist in the story, becomes enamored with alchemy and the secret of life at a young age and fuses modern scientific knowledge with ancient alchemy in his omnipotent ambition to create life. Throughout the story, Shelley illuminates the questions of the moral and ethical obligations arising from Victor's unrestrained pursuit to create life.
The ethical aspects of whether man should create life is brought to the forefront of the story when Victor decides to pursue the creation of life. Victor intimates his feeling of preeminence upon discovering the secret of life when he notes. Basking in self-admiration, he stresses town able and beneficial his aspiration will be to society in a statement. His statement eludes

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The fact that Victor is unable to realize the severity of the sin he has committed until the creature is breathing, much like himself, further symbolizes Shelley's central theme on the laws of existentialism. Through creating this monster, Victor sentences a living being to a life of blatant suffering and isolation (due to Frankenstein's relinquishment of his own creation). By abandoning his creation of life, Victor forgoes more and more of his humanity and exhibits his akin to the monster. In castigating his unnatural child to a life of unimaginable torment and isolationism, Victor pays the ultimate price for a knowledge that causes his own…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the novel of Frankenstein, there is a noticeable pattern between Victor and his creation. Both Victor and his creation are pursuing something very important to them. Though they are pursuing certain goals it is hard to see what is driving them. Their drive can be narrowed down to the pursuit of a life purpose or complete and utter selfishness. Based on the text, I’ve found that they are driven by both a combination of purpose and selfishness.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Letter I–Chapter IV: Drawing Conclusions Victor Frankenstein discovers the principle of life, which enables him to bring inanimate matter to life. In the process of realizing his goal as a scientist, however, he also loses much. On the left-hand side of the chart, describe what Frankenstein gains and what he loses in becoming a scientist, citing examples from the text. On the right-hand side of the chart, describe an experience in your life in which something you chose to do resulted in both gains and losses.…

    • 91 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gilsinger 1 Amanda Gilsinger 10th Honors English Lit/Comp 11 August 2014 The Power of Knowledge, As Seen in Frankenstein Percolating under the surface of Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein is the pursuit of knowledge and the negative effects that it can have on one’s life if gone awry.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In today’s society, there are a handful of people being treated incorrectly causing them to make bad decisions. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is about Victor creating a creature that killed family members because of poor direction. Victor was guilty of the monsters actions because the monster was abandoned. Victor chose how he wanted the creature to act because he created it. The setting of Frankenstein took place in Victor's hometown, where all his family and friends were.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Victor took off to college and attended a University at Ingolstadt and became fascinated with science. He had great professors who cared about his education and he soon managed to learn all of the courses that he had to take. He came up with the idea of creating the monster, Frankenstein. Little did he know of the horrible consequences that were to come with his creation. A part of the book shows consequences of what can happen when you really mess with something.…

    • 1942 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is written from the perspective of Victor Frankenstein. His actions make up the bulk of the novel and in this essay, we will be evaluating what he does or does not do from an ethical point of view. Overall, Victor Frankenstein is an extremely complex character and I would be naive to say he was either ethical or unethical with regards to his actions. Rather, the complexity of his character is developed through a myriad of arguably ethical and unethical actions.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the creation of homunculi, the philosopher’s stone, and equivalent exchange, Shelley uses the tenets of alchemy to express Victor’s attempt to merge heaven and Earth. Shelley also uses alchemy to explain why Victor’s downfall is imminent- not because of the “fates”, but because of Victor’s God Complex and payment for the creation of the monster. Frankenstein is a reminder that even though modern science has largely forgotten alchemy, its truths still lurk behind every boundary pushed by…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Victor attends University of Ingolstadt, he completely isolates himself from society and his loving family, who begged him to stay connected. Victor Frankenstein is motivated by pride and scientific curiosity, but his misguided ambitions lead to the formation of a monster. Victor Frankenstein becomes so enthralled in his work that it appears he has an unhealthy obsession with the pursuit of knowledge, and this curiosity persuades him in an attempt to recreate human life. He selfishly isolates himself, “while [he pursued [his] undertaking with unremitting ardour” (Shelley 32). Victor is incredibly naive and irresponsible to believe that his experiment will not yield any negative repercussions.…

    • 1872 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her novel “Frankenstein”, Mary Shelley develops a story in which a human attempts to create life out of death, but instead creates his mortal enemy. After Victor Frankenstein creates this creature, he leaves it alone and hopes that it will perish. However, the creature gains consciousness of his surroundings, of his creator, and of the history of the world he was thrust into. As the creature began to gain consciousness and finds the letters that his creator had written about him, he came to terms with his unfortunate position on the planet. He then realized that none of this would have happened if it were not for Victor Frankenstein’s actions.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unfortunately, his creation of life turns out to be a bad idea and not godlike at all. He went through all that trouble and turmoil just to create an unsatisfactory creature. This part of the novel is a poor parallel to God’s creation story. According to the Bible, it took God six days to create the world; less than a week to create heaven and earth, light and darkness, animals, land and sea, and humans.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Frankenstein, written by Mary-Ann Shelley, Shelley portrays Victor as the ultimate monster. Throughout the novel, Shelley tests Victor’s morals and concludes him to be arrogant and selfish. Shelley depicts his immorality through the creation of the creature, abandoning his creation, and his decision to uphold his reputation and sacrifice mankind. Shelley illustrates Victor’s immorality through the creation of the creature. When Victor attends university at Ingolstadt, he decides to pursue his studies in the Sciences.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dr. Victor Frankenstein is the real Monster in Mary Shelley 's Gothic Novel Frankenstein? At first glance, the answer to this question seems quite simple but in fact; it is not. Like an onion, Frankenstein has many layers. This essay will peel away the many layers to determine who the real monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Some of the points this piece will touch upon will be Victor’s desire for admiration by his colleagues, his quest to animate a deceased human being that would allow him to find the answer to immortality, and how his self-imposed isolation causes his family and friends great sadness and worry.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Prior to that fateful night, Victor led a seemingly normal life with a loving family and an innocent curiosity to science. After the creation of the monster, Frankenstein falls into a deep depression that he does not overcome. The monster’s existence acts as a punishment to Victor for meddling with life and death with science. The Monster becomes an endless interference and threat not only to Frankenstein, but also to the people that he loves: Frankenstein’s younger brother William is murdered at the hands of the Monster in vengeance with the Frankenstein family’s young servant, Justine Mortiz wrongfully accused and then executed for the murder. Victor tormented by the guilt and falls into a deep depression.…

    • 2374 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein was an aspiring scientist who wanted to play the hand of God and create life. Through Frankenstein's obsession to create life he begins to seclude himself from the world to focus on his work. While he did successfully bring to life the dead, he is horrified by his creation and immediately rejects the creature. Victor lives his life as an outcast because of the monsters acts against him and the people dearest to him. While the Monster comes into the world with a loving heart, he is rejected by all and believes that all humans are terrible, and he seeks revenge on all who hurt him.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays