Responsibility
by Blaine Guidry
Disaster!
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is filled to the brim with tragedy. However, are the misfortunes of Victor Frankenstein his fault or the creatures?
Who is Responsible?
Victor Frankenstein is solely responsible for his misfortunes. Creating a hideous human creature and abandoning it at birth to suffer on it's own certainly doesn't win you a father of the year award. The creature acknowledges this by asking him "How dare you sport thus with life?" (Shelley, 81) The creature might have turned out much better if Victor had not shown hatred and disgust towards him. "Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance" (Shelley, 43), Victor exclaimed when describing the monster.
Those Victor Affected
William
"I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts." (Shelley, 71). The first victim of the Creature's killings. Victor blames himself.
Henry
"I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny; but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor-" (Shelley, 155). Victor is terrified and overcome with guilt that his creature has killed yet another close to him.
Elizabeth
"My thoughts rambled to various subjects, reflecting confusedly on my misfortunes and their cause" (Shelley, 174). Victor reflects on his terrible luck and traces it all back to the day he created the foul creature that haunts him.
And many more...
Modern Ties
In the modern day, scientific ventures gone wrong are fairly frequent. From simple accidents in a lab to natural disasters, humanity always takes things a step too far. One example of humans overstepping their boundaries is the infamous BP oil spill. The oil killed thousands of aquatic creatures. We could blame the oil for these deaths, or the source, BP. Another great example would be the nuclear weapons developed during World War II. Once he had finished his work, Victor stated "I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (Shelley, 42). One can only imagine that scientists involved in the Manhattan Project were devastated by the events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the same way that Victor Frankenstein was revolted by his own creature.
Citations
- "Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
- Pallardy, Richard. "Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010 | Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
- Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan J. Wolfson, and Ronald Levao. The Annotated Frankenstein. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2012. Print.