Responsibility in Frankenstein
By Ian Burt
"Have my murderous machinations deprived you also my dearest Henry of life ? Two i have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny."( Chapter 21)
In this quote Victor is feeling guilty about creating the monster and is realizing that if he didn't create it no one would be dead which is why it fits with responsibility, because he is claiming responsibility for Henry's death.
"I murdered her William, Justine, and Henry they all died by my hands."( Chapter 22)
Victor is again taking responsibility for the death of William Justine and Henry because he is the one who created the monster and walked away from the thing he created and was proud of until it was alive and hideous and he didn't want anything to do with it.
"My duties to the beings of my own species had greater change to my attention being the included a greater proportion of happiness and misery."(Chapter 24)
this quote was spoken by Victor when he was dying and talking to Walton. he is talking about how his pursuit to creating something and not taking charge of it may cause misery through happiness because he is taking the claim through creating the monster which he was happy about but also hated what he had made because of how stupid and ugly it was.
"I lay on my straw, but i could not sleep. i thought of the occurrences of the day. what chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, i longed to join them, but dared not. i remembered too well the treatment i had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct i might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present i would remain quietly in my hovel, watching and endeavoring to discover the motives which influence their action."(Chapter 12)
In this quote it is the creature talking about how he was run down in a village and he didn't know why but he took responsibility for what he had done so he would make no effort to go and have contact with humans.
"This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption, but when i found that in doing this i inflicted pain on the cottagers, i abstained and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots which i gathered from a neighboring wood." (Chapter 12)
The creature takes responsibility for taking the cottagers food and putting them in even further into poverty and he then realizes the pain he has cause so he no longer takes form the villagers.
"When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?" Chapter 13
In this the creature is realizing who he is and is accepting it even though he hates himself for being such a disgraceful abomination of life and he is going to take responsibility for who it is.
Article
"How to Be Responsible." WikiHow. Mediawiki, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
Modern Connections
You can make a lot of connections to modern life because you have to take responsibility for everything you do because you choose to do what you do no one else does. for example people choose to rob stores they try to get away but when they are caught they have to take responsibility for their actions no one else commuted the actions. There are about 2000 robberies in the US every day and only half are caught and convicted. what i am getting at here is you choose what you do and sometimes it may not seem like you have a choice but you have to be able to live with that choice and if you cant you have to take responsibility for the choice you make. If i wanted to hit someone in the face for no reason, and say i did, i'm not just gonna be like oh no that wasn't me because they clearly saw me and i cant just walk away i would take responsibility for doing this.
Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein ; with a New Foreword by Walter James Miller and an Afterword by Harold Bloom. Signet: n.p., 2000. Print.
"How to Be Responsible." WikiHow. Mediawiki, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
"Frankenstein ; with a New Foreword by Walter James Miller and an Afterword by Harold Bloom." (Book, 2000) [WorldCat.org]. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.