The story of the way Victor treats his creation remains part of a tale that has just as strong a message against humans acting outside rational thinking now as it did two hundred years ago when Mary Shelley wrote the novel. It can be directly compared to an irresponsible father refusing to take responsibility for their children. As strange or comical as it may seem, this process can actually be compared to how some of fathers are when it comes to sexual intercourse. He was engulfed in the idea of creating this creature. He was overwhelmed with the process leading up to giving it life, but when the creature came alive Victor realized what he had done and refused to have anything to do with it. This leads to a very popular question about the book. Is the creature the monster for killing and causing so much trouble over wanting to be loved, or is Victor Frankenstein the monster for not loving and taking responsibility for what he has done?
Now, if one does a close analysis of this novel there is actually a lot to that the reader can see. In Victor's attempt to create life in his laboratory, he makes a somewhat frightening being. At the same time the being has great sensitivity and intellect. After Victor does this deed, he considers his actions to be a crime against mankind. He thinks that he has crossed the boundaries of forbidden intelligence, and he realizes that he failed to take responsibility for what he has unleashed upon the world. In consequence, Victor Frankenstein places himself, and his creation, beyond all possibility of forgiveness and redemption.
It's true that the reader can tell the Victor Frankenstein apart from his creature, but can be difficult to tell what to make of them. Victor Frankenstein is a young man who comes from a nurturing family, and the creature is something completely different than human. Sure he's made from human, but they were dead human parts. He's simply made up of dead body parts that were brought to life by an electric current and the brilliance of a very curious student. The question remains as to the true essence and nature of Victor Frankenstein and his creation. It is hard to speak of them separately. The creature is Victor's daemon and is type of manifestation of his subconscious personality. Victor probably never imagined how the birth of his creature would turn out or what consequences would result from it.
There are actually ways that Victor Frankenstein and his creation can be compared to a plant, however this will require some explanation. There are basic properties that plants must have. The plant is an organism, starting as a seed, with the entire thing being greater than the sum of all of its parts. In it's natural state, it grows and manifests. It evolves spontaneously from some type of internal source of energy. It's structure is organic whereas a machine is just a combination of things whose parts can be substituted.
From a physical point of view, Victor Frankenstein is clearly a human being. The son of Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein. While growing up, he is intelligent, sensitive, and a very responsible person who starts his education at the University of Ingolstadt. He has a huge enthusiastic love for the natural sciences. However, it's this enthusiasm that eventually brings him to his own downfall as he becomes seduced by his own personal abilities to surpass the rest of the scientists that came before him. This all begins at the very moment he gives life to the creature he has assembled together. Starting from his creature's creation onward, Victor Frankenstein's mental and physical well-being are terribly interrupted and continuously become increasingly unstable as he is aggravated and just sickened by the deed he has done. The most important thing, though, is Victor's belief and overwhelming fear that he must not ever tell what he has done. So, he vows to never tell another soul of his doings, and can never again act ethically. Victor Frankenstein forfeits his integrity as a result of his experiment and the transgressions that it implies. Victor becomes more and more speechless and it gets harder for him to even communicate with others. As a very extreme result of his lack of integrity he is unable to testify during Justine's trial, and he becomes responsible for her undeserved execution.
In the creature's case, he is a manufactured being who was put together from body parts that Victor Frankenstein went around collecting from grave sites and crypts. The creature is made up of dead matter that is missing an organizational plan, and Victor has no idea of how or whether the disparate parts will even work. Victor Frankenstein just learns as he gets further into the construction of his being and makes adjustments as needed.
The creature is being condemned to loneliness and he is rejected by all who look at him, but he is very sentient. The creature develops amazing language skills and eventually convinces Victor Frankenstein that he is obligated to at least create him a female companion. The creature agrees with Victor that he will go out into the wilderness away from all civilization forever with his wife, as long as Victor will create her for him. It's almost like the creature has stolen Victor Frankenstein's powers of articulation and surpassed him as well. We really don't have any evidence of Victor's previous rhetorical skills. The monster plays with the reader's sympathies and, although one probably wouldn't uphold him for the crimes of murder and all of the chaos that he has caused, the novel allows you to understand the motives that drives him to do those horrendous acts. In the moments when the creature acts out of love and desire to be a part of the human civilization, the creature acts with integrity. So basically, the monster's possession of human characteristics appears to be because of Victor Frankenstein's dehumanization, blurring the distinctions between the human and mechanical being.
Mary Shelley could have very well titled her work “One Catastrophe after Another.â€Â Victor Frankenstein is in love with his own disastrous history and thinks about his creation all the time. The night of the creation is actually the fateful event to which all the other catastrophe in the story follows. So much hardship follows people in this tale, but Victor Frankenstein is the chief victim. Not only does he have to live with the fact that he created what he thinks is a hideous monster, but he also has to live with the fact of knowing that he is responsible for all of the grief that has fallen on the world from his creation.
Upon reading and examination, one can see that this novel is deeply interested in a certain kind of social union; the political community. The book was written in 1818 which was the time period between revolution and reform. Mary Shelley's novel raises discussions and theorizations of the political community. In her novel Shelley engages with certain political debates by depicting characters who endeavor to attach themselves to others, like the creature. On Montanvert, Victor Frankenstein declares that there can be no community among enemies. This voices Shelley's belief that hostility and alienation are unavoidable characteristics of the human condition. It also draws some attention with the book's preoccupation with building new communities. All of the characters in Shelley's novel long for companionship, whether it be longing for a father, longing to be married, etc.. So one of the principal tasks the story sets for the characters is the building of social community.
