Application Essay: Responsibility of Victor in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Introduction

In the novel, Victor Frankenstein played the character of a genius scientist who spent most of his time working in an isolated lab (Shelley, 21). He collected the body parts of his dead mother and was succeeded in creating a monster. However, he did not think much about his creation and the purpose of his creation. Immediately after looking at his own creation, Frankenstein was horrified and his created monster disappeared in the city and committed murders of the dear ones of none other but Frankenstein himself. Considering Frankenstein as a father/parent the monster, Mary Shelley successfully depicted that Victor failed to handle his responsibility of managing his creation. Although, the novel is written back in the 18th century, the concept can still be applied to the cloning procedures.

Discussion

The major character of the novel Victor Frankenstein belonged to a popular and wealthy family. He later went through medical college and came out a successful scientist. The first event of the novel which led Frankenstein to create a monster is his mother's death. Frankenstein's mother died when he was very young, and this provoked in him the aim to conquer mortality of the human. Thus, as soon as he finished with medical school, he started working on his theory of conquering death/mortality. He collected as many parts of his mother's body and using his theory and work, became successful in bringing the corpse back to life in the form of a monster. This was the point where Victor tried to create life out of some lifeless matter (Markland, 20).

While continuously working for giving the life to the dead body, the scientist initially thought that he had failed. However, as the monster waked up, Frankenstein was much horrified that he ran to his lab; meanwhile the monster disappeared in the city. He described his feeling of the instant as his dream's beauty vanished and his heart was all filled with disgust and breathless horror (42). The scientist expressed his feelings as “the monster's yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” (Shelley, 43). This is the first point where it is revealed to the readers that despite of being a genius and intelligent scientist, Frankenstein never analyzed or thought of the consequences of his creation. He resembled the mother who gives birth to a child, but then rejects it due to its ugliness (Johnson, 6). The most dangerous point of Frankenstein's creation was its immortality; the scientist would have to think about the consequences of such a creation because it would not be afraid of anything as death was not possible for it.

Frankenstein had actually created the monster with as many humane characteristics as possible. Initially, the monster had all the good features in it, similar to all humans who are born with good features; however, the people continue to be corrupt as they are exposed to the behaviors of society (Bronfen, 1). The monster actually felt betrayed and also ...