Kamal Mohamed

Essay one

Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

In the novel Frankenstein we are presented two big characters, Victor and the

creature he creates. Even though they are two separate characters they are one

in the same. The creature is Victors underlying identity. He is his other half,

opposite but yet the same. The best way I can describe that is the literary

doppelganger. The creature can be seen or presented as the “evil monster” but if

one looks closer they will realize that the creature is no more monstrous than the

people around him, especially the one that created him, making him only a mirror

of the environment around him. Throughout most of the novel both Victor and his

creature are miserable, because they can’t find happiness in what they have or

because of what they are denied of. Victor was hoping that making this creature

would make him invincible. “A new species would bless me as it’s creator and

source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me(32)”. He

was disappointed when his experiment did not turn out the way he thought it

would. That disappointment turned into so much misery that he forgot to deal

with the after math of his creation. The creature on the other hand was an

outcast “but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a

feeling and kind friend, they behold a detestable monster (90)”. He believed since

he can’t fit in the human society that Victor owed him another like him so he

could feel acceptance. The creature was going to do everything in his power to
get the chance to live life fruitfully, and Victor was going to do everything he

could to deny him that. Both stubborn in a similar fashion on the opposite sides of

the spectrum make a clash that leads down the same fall at the end.

“Listen to me Frankenstein. You accuse me of murder; and yet you would, with a

satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature (67)”. The creature brings up a

good point to show that Victor is being a hypocrite. He points out that Victor

himself is guilty of what he is accusing him of. So if he is going to blame the

creature Victor has to take fault in it too. At this point is where Victor realizes that

the creature has a good point. The creature wants to make a deal, and even

reason with his creator Victor. “If you comply with my conditions, I will leave them

and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be

satiated with the blood of your remaining friends (65)”. As the reader you can see

what leads to their downfall is how the creature’s flaws mirror those of

Frankenstein. They both feel like the other has caused them the pain that they

are going through. The creature feels pain and agony because he is given life,

without the tools to live it. Victor has created life without considering the other

elements that go along with it. Because of this the creature feels like Victor is

being unfair, unjust, and un-creator like. Frankenstein on the other hand feels like

since the moment he began creating the creature his life has been on a

downward spiral. It has taken over every part of his life, and he wanted nothing to

do with it.
What is similar in both of these characters is in the way they went about handling

things. They both believe that evil, hate, and revenge will satisfy them of their

losses or in the creature’s sense on what he is denied of. This is the flaw that

mirrors between the two characters, and which again shows they are one in the

same.

“By the sacred earth on which I kneel—I swear to pursue the demon, who

caused this misery, until he or I shall perish in mortal conflict. For this purpose I

will preserve my life: to execute this dear revenge (140).” Victor has reached a

point in his life where the only reason he is living for is to destroy the creature

that he has made. In the legend of the doppelganger, this is that if you have a

doppelganger, then you must kill it before it kills you. Victor Frankenstein

believed that his quest for knowledge against all odds will lead him to self-

immortality, which in we witness throughout the book becomes the thing that

destroys him at the end.

What destroys Frankenstein and his family was not the monster he creatd, but

the monster that he carried within. His greed eventually overpowered his morals,

and he commits the three murders. I say that because another reason that Victor

and his creature are one in the same because of the fact that Frankenstein could

have prevented the death of William and Henry by not creating the creature,

especially for personal reasons and doing whatever it took to stop Justine’s

execution. “Sleep fled from eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had

committed deeds of mischief beyond description (59)”. Victor is referring to the

execution of Justine. Even though he did not physically kill her but by knowing
that she was innocent, and he did not do much about it makes him just as much

of a murder. Victor’s true monster was his ruthless pursuit of knowledge past

human boundaries without taking into consideration the consequences that came

with it. Victor says “Learn from me, if not by my percepts, at least by my example,

how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that

man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to

become greater than his nature will allow (31)”. This is the advice he gives to

Walton, and he is tested when he is trapped between the sheets of ice. Learning

what happened to Victor Frankenstein; Walton decides to pull back from his

dangerous mission. The difference between him and Victor is that he was

fortunate enough to not go to the point from controlling his work to his work

controlling him.

We should take into account that of the manner in which Victor gave life to

Frankenstein is through electricity. When someone hearts stops medics use

electricity to re-start your heart again. On the other hand it can take your life if

dealt with in the wrong manner. I believe that there is a good reason why Mary

Shelley uses electricity for Victor’s tool to start life. Like Victor and his creature

electricity is also one thing with two opposite effects depending on usage. So

In conclusion even though Shelley uses Victor and his creature to explain the

motif of a doppelganger, she is using the story as a whole to explain the

doppelganger within Science itself. It is one entity with two faces. It can be the

tool to find the cure for cancer, or on the other side of the spectrum building the

type of weapon that could wipe out a nation in a blink of an eye. “When I found
so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated for along time

concerning the manner in which I should employ it (31) “. Victor understood what

was at stake, he understood the liabilities pertaining to his creation but he went

along with it anyway. Victor a man raised in a loving and caring family, a man

with good intentions could not stop himself once he gained the knowledge of

creating life. If he could not stop himself even knowing the dangers of his work,

then who accounts for the rest of the other scientist? I believe this is one of the

big ideas that Mary Shelley was working into to the novel Frankenstein. Just like

Victor and his creature science is one coin with two sides, and depending on

what side it lands on can determine the faith of mankind. For Victor gets the

unfortunate of being destroyed by his work. Even though Victor exceeds the

limitation of mankind; giving life to a lifeless being, he wasn’t prepared to deal

with the consequences. In other words he figured out how to fly, but not how to

stay afloat and this is what Mary Shelley warns us of.