I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror, and disgust filled my heart,” (Shelley 43). Though Victor achieves creating life, he immediately reacts with harsh judgement and despondency, saying “For this I have deprived myself of rest and health. As ictor digresses deeper and deeper into obsession, he becomes blinded by the pursuit of perfection and thus enables the Creature to fail before it even exists, because no such unprecedented invention could stack up to the desires that Victor set out for. Victor’s dream that the newly formed species would “bless” and “owe” him puts Victor on a divine pedestal that he climbs too rashly to ever properly earn. His heroic ploy is construed by his inability to respond to the demands of his own creation, and the outcome is one of violence and chaos. This result would necessitate a large sum of responsibility and perfectionism, both of which Victor fails at providing. Discussing his experiment, he passionately explains, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me,” (Shelley 40). Though Victor’s original intent was to change the face of science, his actions become less admirable as it becomes apparent that his actions are those of narcis self-gain.
I had desired it with an ardour full#
The structure of the novel allows for the fear to rest with Victor and not the reader, which opens up the reader to understand the message from Shelley with full knowledge of the consequences throughout (Moretti). It is not a question of whether the creation of life is possible, but whether its existence is beneficial. This is important when interpreting Shelley’s work because it highlights the process and not the result. Critic Franco Moretti points out about Mary Shelley’s writing, “She fixes the narrative in the past… ntervening time enables one not to remain a prisoner of events.Ĭhance is replaced by order, shock by reflection, doubt by certainty… ,” (84). Such dependence on praise for his scientific contributions uncovers the self-interest involved in the task and thus reveals the misguided hubris in which his character is driven by, which opens up the reader to questioning Victor’s ethical legitimacy.
Here, Victor acknowledges the failure of his ambitions and his failure to achieve success in the scientific community.Įven then, he only views the Creature as a burden to his success - he does not come out right and explain that it was entirely his fault that the Creature formed into what it did. “You seek for knowledge and wisdom as once did: and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be the serpent to sting you, as mine have been,” (Shelley 15). Speaking to Walton who is on his own journey of scientific discovery, Victor recognizes the mistake Walton is apt to make, forev ng. In the letters, the reader is introduced to Victor Frankenstein, on the verge of death, who even then speaks warmly of his scientific ambitions that he has since left in the dust and is now lonely himself. Scientific discovery is neither innately good nor bad however, it does require the responsible yielding of that knowledge and the proper relaying to the scientific community. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley capitalizes on society’s perception of monsters to imbed the greater truth about the nature of monstrosity – that it inherently is based on the presence of unperturbed hubris and a lack of accepting responsibility, as opposed to the external appearance which generally guide society’s prediction of one’s character. In the truth that Creature does wrong ( several characters are murdered throughout by the Creature), it is ultimately the person who made the Creature and acts in cowardice that is truly that one to blame. Even then, the Creature continually resorts to doing good after being harmed by society, while Victor meanwhile fails to recognize the shortcomings of his own promises. Meanwhile as the Creature grows and learns, the Creature is further exposed to rejection that he was aware of since his day of birth. As Victor progresses in his studies, he comes to a point at which he cannot accept the outcome of his work and this creates a very real dichotomy about whether it is better to preserve the life he created or preserve the lives and safety of others.
I had desired it with an ardour crack#
The first major crack in the foundation of Victor’s quest to create life is found when he sets up the expectation of praise for his work. Mary Shelley introduces a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, with great ambitions and also great flaws, so as to twist a seemingly innocent endeavor into something with very grave consequences.
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