Frankenstein

There are two distinct characteristics that make up the human personality; they are considered as the battle of good versus evil inside one’s self. The “good” side is known for being normal or what is considered to be normal by society. The “evil” side can be described as the alter-ego or bordering/ crossing that border into insanity.

In Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, Victor started as a young, innocent, happy boy that loves his family very much. With the terrible loss of his mother and the birth of his brother, William, Victor Frankenstein began traveling down the path towards evil, hoping that he would never lose anyone that was close to him again. With the entrance into a University, Victor continued to perform experiments, pushing forward and overlooking the morals and legalities of that time. He challenged conventional wisdom, always pushing towards his ultimate goal restoring life. While befriending professor Waldman, victor makes the discovery that his friend was on the same quest before. This only to fuel his desire to press on only making people feels as though he may be insane. With the death of Professor Waldman, Victor feels that his quest will not end, but finding the journal of notes that Waldman used, then he realized that he is much closer than he believed. He presses harder and harder, more than ever, with every waking moment, not taking into consideration the threat to his own life and the cost of his true love Elizabeth. Through the dead of night through the hours of daylight, he was on an insatiable hunt for “raw materials”. Until that one faithful evening, Victor’s dreams were fulfilled, with the creation of life from death. But at that moment, when he saw his creation come to life, Victor’s hunger for life had turned to despair for what he had done.

Victor, himself, becomes the true monster of this story, using science and his abnormal ways of acquiring knowledge to push unusual experiments and recreate human life even though it was wrong and not accepted by society, but hoping to cleanse his soul he leaves the monster to die of cholera in the city of Ingolstadt and forget his evil doing and return to Elizabeth, his love

The reason that Frankenstein’s creation is not considered the monster of the story, even though he has the physical characteristics of a monstrous being. This is because he was a creation that was abandoned by Victor, and alone cast out by an ignorant society. Now looking to find out who he was and learn how to be a human. Frankenstein’s creation wasn’t given a name or a purpose; he was created and then left for dead. The monster went off into the woods and hid in a barn of a family While spending time hiding from the family, the monster finds a journal that belonged to Victor, which was left in his pocket filled with all of his secrets and experiments, yet did not know what to do with it because he did not know how to read. As time went on he learned many things from them like reading, talking, and what different things meant. He also learned about family, friends, and what a father was. By doing this he tries to become a true human and found the “good things in life”, he wants to transform himself from the perception of evil that he is labeled by society into the “good” human. When he helped the family in a time of need, by harvesting the crops, the monster began to feel and know that doing good for others brought him happiness. He also finds friendship on this occasion, by talking to the grandfather of the family, who was blind and could not experience the horror in his appearance only the goodness in his heart. By experiencing all of these things, the monster began to change. With the feelings of compassion he rises to the occasion to save his new found “friend” from the beatings of an angry landlord, but unknowingly he would end the one thing that meant the most to him, companionship. He now begins to see who he truly was, nothing but an experiment, only a hodge-podge of parts from different people put together for Victor’s own personal ambitions. He now discovers his evil side, revenge and hatred.

With Victor entrenched in his life of normalcy, with his love Elizabeth his father and brother, his evil side buried deep within him, and Victor thinking that he left this creature for dead. Victor’s evil creature was to be reborn. The monster was on his way to seek revenge on Victor, indirectly starting with the death of his brother William, and ending with his adopted sister Justine. Driven to rid his life of his evil doing, Victor, willing to give up his life with Elizabeth, travels deep into the mountains to meet and destroy his evil creation. When they finally meet, Victor finds out about all of the things that his creation can and cannot do, the mistakes he made, and that there is a good side and a bad side to every being.