On the Character of Victor Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein shows many examples of character development amongst its characters. This includes the character of Victor Frankenstein. The story traces Victor's life from an early age until his death, and shows that Victor had always had a passion for learning. However, during his life, three major events affect his attitude towards life, which in turn influences the events of his life. Those three major events are the death of his mother, his succeeding in creating life, and the death of Elizabeth.

In chapter two of the novel, Victor states that his passions were turned "not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn" (page 19). His favorite subjects were the natural sciences. At the age of seventeen, Victor's mother caught scarlet fever and died. Victor describes her death as an "irreparable evil" (24), and these harsh words describe the passion that fueled him towards his goal: discovering the secret to life. It was only after his mother's death that he became obsessed with learning about the causes of life. Almost immediately after he arrived at school he began this pursuit. Victor says, "After so much time spent in painful labor, to arrive at once the summit of my desires, was the most gratifying consummation of my toils" (31). This is what Victor wanted to accomplish since he arrived at the university, and it was fueled by the experience of his mother's death. Before she died he had never been exposed to death, so his outlook on life was positive. After she died, he became obsessed with trying to find a way to overcome death. He became so obsessed with it that he separated himself from the rest of humanity and even made himself sick over it. His attitude towards life went from being healthy to unhealthy, as he tried to change one of the basic laws of life: everything dies. He viewed life as something to be manipulated.

His mother's death motivated him to create life out of death. Once Victor created that life, however, he was struck with how horrible his creation was. Victor says, "but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (35). It was not so much the physical ugliness of the creature that fills him with horror, but the act of creating life that filled him with horror. He realized what an abomination it was to the Creator that he was playing God. As he describes the creatures physical features he uses such words as "lustrous" and "pearly white" (35). These are not the words used to describe a horrid looking creature. His grievances all center around the question of "what have I done?" Victor is ashamed of his actions, which causes him to shun the creature he created. When he looks at the monster all he can see is how horrible a thing he has done. His attitude towards it causes him to run from his responsibilities as a creator, leaving the creature to fend for himself. If Victor had not shunned his creation, then the outcome of his life may have been different. Yet, his attitude towards the creature and towards his actions caused a backlash. Before he saw the wretchedness of his creature, he was able to work continuously towards his goal. Afterwards, it became a pain for him to even think about his work. He became incapable of action.

When the monster finds Victor, he charges him to make another creature to be his companion. Victor, with the hope that he could make amends for the evil he has done, agrees to do this. However, because Victor had become incapable of action (his work disgusted him), he was not able to create a female companion for the monster. At the beginning of chapter twenty-eight, Victor says, "Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to Geneva, and I could not collect the courage to recommence my work" (108). Victor could not bring himself to do something he knew was wrong. However, he was incapable of deciding on some other way of solving his problem. His attitude kept him from moving towards action. He and Clerval decide to travel to England. Victor says it is to finish the job the monster charged him with. He does begin his work, but destroys it before it is finished. Again, Victor knew that the work was wrong and it caused him pain to be undertaking it.

After he destroys the creature he was working on, the monster kills Clerval. Victor begins living his life in fear, but is still unable to take action. He goes ahead and marries Elizabeth, but the monster kills her on their wedding night. His father dies on hearing the news. This is the last tragic event in Victor's life. At this point, Victor takes action. He begins to hunt down the creature in order to kill it. Victor says, "revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure" (149) and "Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best means of securing him" (147). After losing his entire family, nothing in life made Victor happy. He no longer had any fear of losing anything, and he had resigned himself to his fate. He realized that the cause of all his pain was his creature. His heart filled with revenge and he was able to take action. His attitude changed from the helpless victim of Divine Providence to that of the man who seeks revenge from an enemy.

We can see that Victor's attitude towards certain events in his life affects the way he acts after those events. This causes certain other events to happen. If he would have accepted his mother's death instead of trying to overcome it through science, then the monster would not have been created. If Victor had accepted his responsibilities as a creator and helped the monster, the monster would not have had a reason to kill (the monster only wanted love). However, Victor failed to do this, so the monster killed Elizabeth. Victors whole life was motivated by trying to make amends for the pains and sufferings that he felt. He wanted to amend, or make better, the pain that he felt for his mother's death, so he created life. He then felt the need to make amends for the life he created, but he did not know how. At first, he tried to create another, but decided that that would not amend the situation. So he destroyed that life. After Elizabeth and his father died, Victor decides that revenge would amend their deaths. This attitude to change, or amend, fate (whether it was fate caused by his actions or his mother's death) caused all the pain. Acceptance of one's own fate would have caused less pain. For example, as was stated before, if Victor had accepted his fate as a creator and helped the monster instead of shunning it, the monster would not have killed. However, his overall attitude determined that he would not accept his fate.