Frankenstein Themes, Guilt
...rs.” (43). Victor’s first reactions to his creation lead him down a road of guaranteed misery. He has created a being that is superhuman in strength and speed, and he has just turned his back on it. His creation has nobody to turn to and is forced to live a life of seclusion. While the creation is still ignorant of human prejudice, he ventures to a village where he learns that all it takes for a person to hate you can be how you look, “I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted… some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel…” (91). The things the creation experiences lead him to utter hate for his creator and all of mankind. From then on the creation seeks revenge on his creator, which leads him down the path to becoming a monster. Victor is the one solely to blame for his creations journey to becoming a horrible monster. The creation does take things too far in seeking vengeance on his creator though. The monster indirectly hurts Victor by murdering all those he loves, even Victor’s youngest brother William. Victor feels guilty for the monster which he has created, “I considered the being whom I had cast among mankind and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now done…” (61). Shortly after William is murdered, one of the Frankenstein’s maids is tried for the murder of William. Victor’s monster cleverly made it look as if the maid, Justine, had murdered William for a necklace so that she would have to take the blame. The Frankenstein’s know that Justine is not the culprit, but she pleads guilty to the charges because of her religious faith. During the trial Victor conceitedly feels that, “My own agitation and anguish was extreme… The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom and would not forgo their hold.” (69). Justine had the weight of death on her shoulders, and because Victor would not admit to having created a monster she died, and all he had for this was guilt. After she had been executed Victor felt ever more guilt, “Justine died, she rested, and I was alive. The blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart which nothing could remove.” (74). Victor’s monster constantly haunts him day and night mentally, every minute of every day Victor fears the worst about everything that goes on around him, “I waited for my letters with feverish impatience; if they were delayed I was miserable and overcome by a thousand fears, and when they arrived and I saw the superscription of Elizabeth or my father, I hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate.” Victor’s guilty and fearful conscience leads him to consider doing something which his monster desires. His lonely creation wishes to have a companion more than anything. The creation promises to live in the most secluded place on earth he can find, and to never bother man again if Victor would only create him a female companion. Victor agrees to this promise and begins working. After he’s gotten far in his works though, he decides that he must not make another wretch capable of horrors unknown to man, “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.” (151). Unsurprisingly enough, this only leads to more ...