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Keren Rivera

Professor H Batty

English 102

15 November 2017

Victor, the Real Monster

A monster is defined as an extremely ugly, wicked, or cruel person (Websters

468). In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor, one of the narrators of this

novel, is a bright student who is fascinated by science. Victor becomes obsessed with the

idea of creating life or the secret of life itself. He later reaches his goal and creates a

huge monster, not to mention the creature is very hideous. The creature ends up killing

most of his family, his wife, brother and best friend. Victor is responsible for creating this

creature, embarrassed and ashamed, he just lets it all happen. Victors desires of creating

life, ruins him and loses control over his life. The lack of humanness shows his true

colors for whom he really is. Although many people think the true monster of this novel

is the creature, the real monster is Victor because he lets his Id take control, has thirst for

power, and has a need to fulfill his long life obsession.

Victor does not care about his actions and does not seem to be bothered by the

consequences. This leads to his Id, incorporates libidinal and other desire, to take over.

Victor not being able to have control over his life, and runs. Just like most of us when

going through hardship, family problems, a crisis and so on, our first instinct is to run

away from it all. He chooses to abandon the creature, Victor says I seemed to have lost

all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit (Shelley 55). Not being able to control his

Id, Victor has no limits and it does not make a difference to him to reach extreme
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measures. In An overview of Frankenstein George Griffith states, He loses all contact

and sympathy with the human community (Griffith). Letting his Id to be uncontrollable,

later in the novel, we see the consequences to Victors decisions and he is forced to face

reality.

The main reason why Victor is obsessed with bringing the creature to life is to

have some sort of power. Victor says, A new species would bless me as its creator and

source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me (Shelley 54).

Victors actions take complete control over him, reason for actually creating the monster

is to have literal proof of his abilities and that his name is known. In the article Good

and Evil in Man: The Double Nature of Victor in Frankenstein by Sara Marklund, she

states Victors actions are sometimes quite egotistical and appear to be a part of his

motivation. His real and somewhat unconscious reason for creating the monster seems to

be a desire to obtain awe and fame, and to make sure his name makes a mark in history

(Marklund 4). His thirst for power leads him to change completely, his life has a new

meaning and nothing and no one can change that. Victor says, Wealth was an inferior

object, but glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from human frame

and render man invulnerable to any but violent death! (Shelley 39) His monstrous being

controls his thoughts and emotions just like us when wanting to thrive in our social and

economical statues. Furthermore his thirst for power leads him to become different and

insensitive towards humanity. He argues My temper was sometimes violent, and my

passions vehement (Shelley 36). Victor actions demonstrate his thirst for power, just like

our thirst for social power in our community.

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His obsession began early on as a young child by reading and learning from books

by Agrippa. When Victor left to continue his education, he rarely kept in contact with his

family and throughout the book distant himself. Absence cannot have rendered your

callous to our joys and griefs; and how should I inflict such pain on an absent child?

(Shelley). He left his family in purse of education and hadnt seen them in years before

the monster was created. Although, Victor most likely wouldve returned sooner if he

hadnt been invested in hiding the creature, it was his personal decision. But his pursuit

began by a spark into the world of science, and wanting more knowledge. Victor states in

Frankenstein, I was capable of a more intense application and was more deeply smitten

with the thirst for knowledge (Shelley 35). His thirst for knowledge increased

throughout the years and it came to the point where his obsession had to be fulfilled by

bringing a creature to life. He states further in the novel, But this discovery was so great

and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were

obliterated, and I beheld only the result (Shelley 53). Knowing this Victor was only

focused on the end result and this being his only desire he must accomplish. In addition,

Brendan Hennessy states in The Gothic Novel that The main message is thus

dramatically and symbolically made clear when reason is pushed to its limits, it breaks

down; and the way in which the monster and his creator work toward each others

destruction implies that balance is the key to virtue, sanity, and wholeness (Hennessy).

Proving that Victor was completely obsessed with reaching his end goal, building a being

out of pieces from the dead. Therefore it is the mixed desire and fear of immortality

beyond this, expressed by Victor himself.

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In this novel there is a series of events that happen due to Victors one-sided

obsession. He says, I considered the improvement which every day takes place in

science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay

the foundations of future success (Shelley 53). Victors mindset was to reach his

obsession in life to finally fill the void within him. Although Victor knows that the

creature he brought to life killed his own brother, he felt that his own family member is

killed by his own invention. Not only that but Victor commits another mistake due to his

passionate obsessiveness. Not to mention the reason being when the monster asks him to

create another monster, and Victor simply couldnt say no and starts but stops midway.

But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom... (Shelley 99).

He stops, even though he knows that this could prevent his family from dying which

makes him monstrous. Also another cause of the destruction to his own wife on the day

of their honeymoon. Again we see Victor is not taking into consideration the aftermath of

his actions. Victor could have created the female for the creature and he could have saved

his wifes life and even potentially his own life. In this way one after another, Victor

becomes the victim of his own creation. He receives only horrible consequences from his

own invention. It was to be decided whether the result of my curiosity and lawless

devices would cause the death of two of my fellow beings (Shelley 90). He didn't care

about the consequences of his creation before creating the monster all to fulfill his own

deceiving obsession.

Although many people think the true monster of this novel is the creature, due to

that he is very ugly and is in fact a monster. In this novel Victor describes the creature

His yellow skin, hair was of a lustrous black, his watery eyes, that seemed almost the
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same color of the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and

straight black lips (Shelley 58). People seem to be perceived by looks, so if we take in

his descriptions we automatically think he is the bad guy of the story. Also to mention

when referring to a monster, what are the actions of monsters? To kill, therefore makes

the creature the monster of the novel.

In this novel Frankenstein I argue that the real monster of this story is Victor

due to his inabilities to act like a human being. Rather than the actions of the actual

creature stated by Ashley Lancaster, The Monster drifts away from society as a creature

driven first by kindness, than by hatred, and finally by desperation, only to continue to

live alone (Lancaster 1) Here we see that the monster acts more like a human than what

he actually is, which is defined as a monster. Quickly this proves how the creature was

not the monster of this story.

As shown before the real monster is Victor because he lets his Id take control him,

has a thirst for power, and has a need to fulfill his long life obsession. He never takes

responsibility for his actions nor faces the consequences of what came directly from his

own hands. After abandoning the creature, being the creator we see how cruel Victor

really is. We see the same thing happening today for example as humans, we see

ourselves as the best, perfect beings but are actions show otherwise. If Victor could have

simply given this own creature a chance to know him, he would realize that he is not this

monstrous evil demon. But showed human reactions and true emotions like every human

should. In conclusion, not having control over our Id, wanting a un-amount of power, and

living off our obsessions will only affect ourselves and those around us and impact

humanity.
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Works Cited

Gothic Monster." The Midwest Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 2, 2008, p. 132+. Literature

Resource Center,

Griffith, George V. "An overview of Frankenstein." Literature Resource Center, Gale,

2017. Literary Sources,

Hennessy, Brendan. "The Gothic Novel." British Writers, edited by Ian Scott-Kilvert,

vol. 3, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1979, pp. 324-346. Scribner Writer Series,

Lancaster, Ashley Craig. "From Frankenstein's Monster to Lester Ballard: The Evolving,

Marklund, Sara. Good and Evil in Man: The Double Nature of Victor in Frankenstein.

June 2010, p. 4.

Webster, Noah. Monster. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2016th ed.,

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2016, p. 468.

Shelley, Mary, Douglas Clegg, and Harold Bloom. Frankenstein. New York, Signet

Classics, 2013.