Victor Frankenstein 's Moral Ambiguity

Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant scientist who has mastered everything he has learned from his professors. However, he has never learned how to master his emotions about his creation. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores the relationship between Victor and the monster to show the reader that the dynamic between the two beings happens to be two-faced. On the surface, they are hell-bent on revenge; while deep down they need each other, and more importantly, they need each other's forgiveness.

Mary Shelley’s ability to create such multidimensional characters in Frankenstein proves that writing is a powerful tool that has the ability to provoke vastly different opinions amongst readers. Even though each individual reading the story is reading the exact same words, their interpretation of those words often leads to opposing views in regards to the fate of the characters. The creature, in particular, has been a popular topic of discussion when conducting a close read of the novel due to his arguable versatility as a victim and villain. The concept of the villain has evolved over the years, however its basis still rests upon the simple fact that as a character in the story, their actions are a result of malicious intentions

The pity that the reader once felt towards this child-like creature who was abandoned upon creation, is turned to hatred and fear towards this monster who slaughters innocents. One doesn't blame the parents of a mass murderer for the crimes of their offspring simply because they gave birth to him. So why should Victor be held accountable for the treacherous deeds of his creation? The portrayal of the monster as the villain in this story attributes to the conflicting feelings of whether he is purely good or evil.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein deeply develops the trope of nature vs. nurture. The romantic era is characterized by a desire to revert to natural animalistic living in the world. Shelley’s main characters embody nature and nurture respectively. Victor, raised in a loving home, kills with no concern and disregards his caring family. The Monster, Victor’s creation, on the other hand, is forced to live in nature like an animal with no companion. Victor is Shelley’s direct comment on the Victorian lifestyle characterized by material possession and religious moral structure. Victor embodies one who is grounded in societally constructed niceties and formalities but is corrupted by the lifestyle. The monster is shown to be the morally correct character

Mary Shelley’s story of internal turmoil, the cruelty of altering the laws of nature, and the consequences of redefining the laws of nature is a harrowing one, known widely by many audiences, yet it is never the nature of the characters that is discussed, only the outcome. Shelley’s deliberate use of different character foils portrays the deeper connections and themes in her 1818 novel, Frankenstein. The creation and presence of Frankenstein’s monster directly foils the character of Victor Frankenstein himself, illustrating overarching themes of self inflicted isolation and internal conflict, exposing the dangers and consequences of complete and total narcissism, and revealing a truth many still refuse to accept: we, as humans, are capable

The pressures that Frankenstein experiences coming from society force him to continue his strenuous work of making the creature, which eventually deprives him from his morals. Shelley’s changes in point of view allows the reader to fully comprehend the heartlessness of

Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man 's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation 's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.

In the religion Taoism, the Yin-Yang represents all the good and evils within humans. However, it is often difficult to tell the difference as good and evil is only based on perspective. In literature, writers and authors use the technique of having morally ambiguous characters to have this effect on readers. These characters are used to discourage readers from being able to distinctly identify if the character is either purely good or purely evil as a way to allow the story become more complex and be based on the reader’s perspective. In Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel, Frankenstein, the Monster is seen as a morally ambiguous character through Shelley’s use of identity, references to Paradise Lost, and multiple perspectives within the narrative structures to suit the overall theme of good and evil where it is based on morals and beliefs.

He believed that his Creature murdered his brother and framed Justine, the Frankenstein’s maid, in order to achieve vengeance for Victor abandoning him, but according to Levine, Victor is the cause for this evil, “...evil is a consequence of maltreatment or injustice,” (Levine 31). Victor’s internal flaws and shortcomings prevent him from revealing the truth about his Creation and therefore he is unable to disclose details of Williams death to save Justine. Victor cowers and stands by as the town unjustly convicts and “executes” Justine, (Shelley 117). The cowardly act committed by Victor shows that he does not possess a strong enough moral compass to do the justified act.

Victor’s conscience holds the painful achievement of giving life to a beast capable of murder due to selfishness. The first victim that dies at the hands of the creature is William. Victor’s selfishness is reflected when his creation frames Justine for the murder. Victor states, “Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims of my unhallowed art” (Shelley 60). Victor does take responsibility and admits that he is to blame, but he does not express this to others, only to himself. Nor does Victor fess up to the real cause of his monster’s bloodlust and turn himself in like a selfless individual would. Although his selfishness affects the lives of others, the ones near and dear to him receive much affliction too.

Various novels contain an abundance of characters, with characteristics that assist in advancing the plot and deepening the story’s meaning. However, those characters are not only one sided, but have multiple colours to them because they would be nothing, but disposable, plain characters if they are not given a lot of depth. Morally ambiguous characters, a character who is neither purely evil nor purely good, adds more dynamic to the novel by introducing morally questionable ideas, more perspective, and unpredictable situations in the plot . A well known example would be Hamlet by Shakespeare, where Hamlet defends his mother and avenges his father by murdering countless people in his way, however, he portrays his conflicting emotions when killing

Moral ambiguity is defined to be the lack of clarity in ethical decision making. This is when a situation has moral elements but the morally correct answer is unclear because of emotions or principles one may have. There is a fine line between good and evil. No one is perfect, therefore everyone can be considered morally ambiguous, some more than others. In the frame novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creation’s moral ambiguity shows that social isolation, the concept of family, and emotions can have a major effect on behavior.

Although Frankenstein was castigated by critics when it was first published, it set the precedent for many gothic novels afterwards. Most characters in novels can be easily identified as either good or bad, but in Frankenstein the personalities of Victor and his creature are ethically equivocal. Their good deeds and bad strike an unsettling balance, causing the reader to be perplexed about who to support. However, this vagueness is what makes the novel distinctive; at the end, the reader is left with conflicted feelings and the need to blame someone, but not knowing who. Moral ambiguity is vital to the work as a whole because it sanctions the reader to see everything in an unbiased perspective, acquire more from the central themes, and

He is “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I [Frankenstein] had created” (Shelley 35). As a human, the creature yearns for care and love of his creator. Nevertheless, Frankenstein deprives his creation of any companionship and abandons him right away. Additionally, when Victor Frankenstein’s brother dies, Frankenstein is well aware that his creation murdered William, but he does not take responsibility for his death. Although he had this knowledge, he kept it a secret, which eventually led to the death of an innocent woman, Justine, who “...was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy; now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I [Frankenstein] was the cause!”(Shelley 66). This exemplifies Victor's lack of concern for the lives that he has destroyed, Instead of warning people about the creature he had created and then abandoned, he keeps everything to himself. His irresponsibility further shows that he is the true monster. In conclusion, the creature is a victim of Victor’s ambitions and these ambitions have converted Victor into the real

“Since Victor’s story is a story of creation, murder, investigation, and pursuit, Frankenstein is ultimately a book about our pursuit of self-discovery, about the knowledge of the monster within us” (Griffith 2).