Wixted 1

Breanna Wixted

Ms. Dill

AP Literature and Composition

31 October 2020

Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster in ​Frankenstein

Mary Shelley, a 19th century romantic writer, composed the literary work of

Frankenstein​ which features the morally ambiguous character, Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein

is often misconstrued with the “monster”, when in actuality, Frankenstein is the mad scientist.

Victor interrupts the natural flow of life and death by usurping the role of God and creating life

unnaturally. Victor establishes an internal conflict against the creature before the creature

externalizes it. Meaning, Victor makes the monster his enemy before the monster has a chance to

realize it, and when the monster does realize it, the monster does as his creator intended.

Through that action, Victor sets himself up for a life-long battle against his creation. Victor

Frankenstein’s choices throughout the novel cannot be classified as “good” nor “evil” which

makes his character intriguing yet frustrating to the reader. The human mind often categorizes

“good” vs “evil”, but Victor Frankeststein proves that he is neither good nor evil. Although it

might seem like the creature in Mary Shelley’s ​Frankenstein ​is responsible for the novel’s

conflicts, it is actually Victor Frankenstein’s moral ambiguity that should take responsibility.

Right off the bat, Mary Shelley paints Victor in a way that makes him parallel to mythical

figures such as Prometheus because of his quest for knowledge; Victor is a picture of the

‘overreacher’. At his university, natural philosophy and chemistry enchant Victor, and “the

structure of the human frame, and, indeed, any animal endured with life” (Shelley 41) inspired

him. Later in the novel the reader makes the connection between Victor’s academic interests and
 Wixted 2

his eventual downfall. Victor takes on the role of God when he created life without women,

crossing unnatural and forbidden boundaries, which he ultimately pays the price for. Victor’s

behavior, as the overreacher, is morally ambiguous because the reader cannot identify whether

Victor’s intentions were purely evil or purely good. Mary Shelley intentionally characterized

Victor as a highly ambitious individual who will meet his fatal downfall due to his morally

ambiguous behavior. By doing this, Shelley is not rejecting man’s ambitious nature, but the

consequences that may follow if responsibility is not accepted. Victor is an overreacher: the

perfect example of how far man’s ambition may take him, but also the question of if the man

should be taken there.

Victor’s second morally ambiguous action, after bringing the creature to life, was

deserting his creation. The theme of parental responsibility and nurture is expressed by Shelley’s

emphasis on Victor’s actions after he becomes a father. Shortly after his creature came to life,

Victor’s euphoric state quickly extinguished as he realizes what he had created, describing “but

now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust

filled my heart” (Shelley 49). Victor does not accept his paternal role as he abandons his child

moments after it was “born”. At this point in the novel, the reader is horrified that Victor would

abandon his child so abruptly. On the other hand, the reader can emphasize with Victor because

he is scared of his creation. The way Victor describes the night after his creature came alive,

“listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of

the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life” (49), the reader cannot condemn

Victor for his actions. Anyone who was in Victor’s place would probably do the same, but that

does not make his actions morally correct. Shelley is speculating the importance of a parental

figure because, if Victor raised the creature and nurtured it the way a child must be, the novel’s
 Wixted 3

meaning would be completely different. Through her novel, Mary Shelley exposes the damaging

effects of not parenting a child and the consequences that result.

Victor’s morally ambiguous act of self-imposed alienation is not only limited to the

physical isolation he faces, but also the moral and spiritual isolation as well. Over a month goes

by as Henry Clerval, Victor’s childhood best friend, nurses Victor back to health. During that

time, Victor does not mention anything about his recent “miracle” to Henry and even gets jumpy

when Henry tries to ask about something: “I trembled. One subject! What could it be? Could he

allude to an object on whom I dared not even think” (Shelley 54). The reader begins to worry

about Victor because if he could not confess to his best friend, then to whom can he? Victor

separates himself from the external world and builds a self-isolating wall that drives him into

insanity. When the monster kills Victor’s brother, and then his best friend, and then his newly

wedded wife, and finally, when his father dies, Victor is completely alone in the world, except

for, ironically, his monster. If Victor had not been so morally ambiguous from the beginning,

meaning if he had either purely “good” or purely “evil” intentions, the reader might emphasize

with Victor. Shelley incorporates the theme of isolation so that the reader may observe its

damaging effects, both physically and psychologically. Since Victor not only failed as a parent,

he also ran away and hid from his responsibilities, the reader cannot justify his actions. Due to

his moral ambiguity and lack of pure intentions, Victor faced physical, emotion, and spiritual

isolation.

As the novel progresses, Victor’s morals are so ambiguous that the reader cannot

distinguish if Victor himself is “good” or “evil”. Mary Shelley sets up the novel’s theme of good

vs evil to be synonymous with Victor vs his monster (respectively), but if the reader accounts for

the lack of pure intentions by Victor, the monster is arguably more “good”. By the turning point
 Wixted 4

of the novel, when Victor decides to hunt and kill his monster, his intentions become evil again.

Victor is constantly changing his morals, and the reader cannot keep up. In contrast, the monster

in ​Frankenstein​ is not morally ambiguous and easier for the reader to understand. The monster

never had any intentions of killing Victor, or else he would have, the monster just wanted Victor

to feel the pain Victor brought onto the monster. In the Aftermath section of ​Frankenstein​, Keith

Nelson wrote, “the creature’s motive is simple: to reduce his creator to the same state of isolation

that he must endure” (236). The reader can justify the monster’s actions, even as the monster

cries over Victor’s dead body, because all of the monster’s intentions are pure. Victor is not

always so transparent in his motives, which makes him morally ambiguous, more difficult for the

reader to understand, and less appealing.

After reading ​Frankenstein,​ it is clear that Victor’s moral ambiguity is the driving force

of the novel and is the center of all the themes. Through Victor, the theme of the overreacher

allows Shelley to comment on man’s ambition and his downfall. The reader could interpret

Victor’s act of usurping God as one with purely good intentions, he was just not prepared for the

consequences. When Victor decides to reject his creation and abandon it, his morals switch and

the reader establishes that act as purely evil. Victor builds a wall of guilt around himself, making

him completely alone in the world. At that moment, Victor’s actions could be classified as purely

good because at least he recognizes his own guilt, something the reader can justify. As Victor

then decides to hunt down the monster, his purpose switches for the last time to purely evil.

Victor should have stayed either purely good or purely evil because it is difficult to stay loyal to

someone who switches their morals so frequently. The monster, on the other hand, was not

morally ambiguous and stayed pure in his intentions throughout the novel. The monster is a

character the reader can support because his goal always stays the same. The flip flop effect,
 Wixted 5

purely good or purely evil intentions by Victor, are nothing less than confusing and enough to

sentence Victor as the real monster in ​Frankenstein.​