Victor

Victor

• Constantly on edge, wants to find the monster
• Reminiscent of the ancient Mariner- retelling a story to warn others "Let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips" "deduce an apt moral from my tale
• "Slave of passion"
• "Quelling the dark tyranny of despair"
• Victor’s pursuit of scientific knowledge reveals a great deal about his perceptions of science in general. He views science as the only true route to new knowledge: “In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.” 
• "So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." Victor utters these words in Chapter 3 as he relates to Walton how his chemistry professor, M. Waldman, ignited in him an irrepressible desire to gain knowledge of the secret of life. Victor’s reference to himself in the third person illustrates his sense of fatalism—he is driven by his passion, unable to control it. Additionally, this declaration furthers the parallel between Walton’s spatial explorations and Frankenstein’s forays into unknown knowledge, as both men seek to “pioneer a new way,” to make progress beyond established limits.
• References Sir Isaac Newton showing his knowledge within science
• Becomes aware of electricity which fascinates him
• Learns about chemistry from one of his lectures M. Waldman
• "turn away with loathing from my occupation, whilst,still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased."
• When Victors mother dies, he is deeply affected by the loss of her life, describing his loss as a "void that presents itself to the soul." At this point Victor is still portrayed as an emotional and human character, however, later in chapter 8, when Justine is about to be executed, Victor describes his ordeal as " living torture" despite the fact that he was not the one about to be hung. The shift in Victor's emotional connection to others seems to have been corroded and he is now self absorbed, especially as he goes on to say "The tortures of the accused did not equal mine" 
• , Believes his life at home, surrounded by family had "given me invincible repugnance to new countenances" His downfall into creating the monster stemmed from loneliness. Happens to the monster also as he requires a mate.
• "A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity" Ironic as Victor's mind is far from peaceful and calm, and he allows himself fits of passion against the monster. The monster on the other hand, displays an image of peace and tranquillity when talking to Victor on the ice, and he seems to be the one in control  showing that the monster is perhaps a better human being than Victor.
• "The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature" Human reactions are to be expected and Victors reaction is what would be expected from humans.
• Victor describes that "for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise have excited, was obliterated in the minds of the spectators" Showing that humans base their first impressions upon looks, beauty automatically earns respect and admiration, whereas the only time when the love and desire for beauty falters is in scenarios where the person in question has committed an atrocity.
• "When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I so ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly bestowed" Realises the evils and massive implications his actions are having and instead of trying to help the creature he made and then banished, he decides to try and avenge his brother and Justine. It is likely that their deaths would not have occurred if Victor had looked after his creation instead of casting it away, leaving it to learn how to behave and live by itself.
• Internal struggle when deciding whether to make the monster a wife. "I compassionated him and sometimes wished to console him" Beginning to feel emotions towards his 'son'. Possibly because of the natural environment,
• In contrast to the peace and tranquility that the creation feels when he is at one with nature, however, Victor feels as if it is mocking him. "Oh! stars, and clouds, and winds, ye are all about to mock me" He "wept bitterly" The harsh scenery of their surroundings echos Victors inner turmoil and how nature is mocking him "the eternal twinkling stars weighed upon me" Juxtaposition as twinkling stars would be taken to be calming, natural, enlightening, profound as nature is so vast and beautiful, however it is weighing Victor down as he has betrayed the natural beauty of nature (including humans?) and created a being so ghastly that he has betrayed nature. 
• "as if never more might I enjoy companionship with them" foreshadowing the death of Elizabeth? 
• Denying the monster a mate equals denying Victor a mate, as the creation is a part of Victor and they are arguably very similar, their situations have to mirror one another. Both are struggling with feelings that no one else can understand, both have the weight of murder round their necks, and both will be denied a mate.
• In contrast to how Victor felt when first undertaking the task of creating life, he now looks towards it with repugnance. "I was unable to overcome my repugnance to the task which was enjoined me" 
• The whole beginning to chapter 18 feels very Gothic to me, as hearing Victor describe what a vile task he has to endure and referring back to the way he went about it the first time makes it harder to read as you as a reader are aware of how strongly this repulses Victor. "shrunk from taking the first steps"
• View of marriage as a means to an end. Victors marriage to Elizabeth as an end to his misery and vise versa for the creation. burying the past.
• "as I preceded my spirits and hopes rose" chapter 3 when Victor is leaving home the first time differs greatly to his view on leaving home a second time. "I now made arrangements for my journey; but one feeling haunted me, which filled me with fear and agitation" cyclical feel to narrative.
• "I was the slave of my creature" Our actions have consequences which we all have to face individually, slave to the creature as punishment for his "sins" going against God, having to right his wrongs. 
• "I passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes, but my eyes were fixed and unobserving" Overarching theme and character flaw in Victor is not appreciating what he has got and appreciating the beauty of nature instead of ignoring it. How the creation was born in the first place, out of the need to expand on what is already out there. Victor completely ignoring the beauty of nature- possibly not out of choice but as a punishment for creating life? no longer able to appreciate the beauty of nature. 
• Descriptions of all the beautiful places Victor has been an indication of how well traveled or knowledgeable Shelley is in geography and not just literature. Seeing nature in its beautiful simplicity brings Victor back to life, begins to appreciate how beautiful it is. tainted by feelings of depression and the knowledge that he still has to create another life. 
• When visiting the tomb of the illustrious Hampden  "my soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears". The shelleys had visited his tomb in 1817 and loved it.
• "shake off my chains" another reference to slavery? selfish- doesn't take into consideration the creations unhappiness and chains which bind him to a life of solitude and rejection.
• Makes female companion three years later
• "she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate" Anti feminism, fear of a woman in control, who doesn't oblige to what she is told, who may not want to be with the first creation and who might have free spirit and want more for herself than Victor would allow the creation to give her. Fear for her reproducing, something Victor could control as he is in control of how he makes her. nonetheless, still concern over her ability to create her own "race of devils". 
• Victor tears the monster up in front of the creations eyes in a change of heart, fears to greatly the wrath that two creations could potentially threaten the world with. 
• His creation says to him "Slave" again it would on the surface that the creation would be the slave to his master as he gave him life- The creation represents the devil (Lucifer) as he goes against his God (father)? Grown emotionally and mentally and is aware of the capacity his his own power. 
• Grounded morals now, "your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness" completely stubborn and goes against his ideals in the first place. "I am no coward to bend beneath words"
• naive- "I will be with you on your wedding night" "In that hour i should die" doesn't cross his mind that the creation could be talking about Elizabeth despite telling him that he will make his life hell. Shortsightedness has inflicted Victor before as he doesn't think of the malevolent consequences of making the monster
• "I again felt as if i belonged to a race of human beings like myself" Contrasts to the creation, who has been declined of company someone of the same 'race' as him. arguably he already is part of the human race as he has the same scope of emotions and capacity to be molded by knowledge and craves companionship.
•  “I must pause here; for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory of the frightful events which I am about to relate, in proper detail, to my recollection,” reminder if the aural narrative in which this story is told.
• “Clerval! Beloved Friend! Even now it delights me to record your words,” the reader senses the power of Victor’s emotion and its ultimate uselessness against the force of fate. 

Chapter 21
Victor in prison ill, father comes to visit and he is relieved when it isn't the monster. Henry again serves as a link between Victor and society, as his death brings Alphonse to visit his son. “Nothing, at this moment, could have given me greater pleasure than the arrival of my father,” Victor says. As a result of spending so much time in Ingolstadt ignoring his family, and also as a result of the monster’s depredations, Victor becomes aware of the importance of interaction with family and friends. Having failed to inspire love in Victor, the monster seeks to establish a relationship with his creator that would force his creator to feel his pain. By destroying those people dear to Victor, the monster, acutely aware of the meaningfulness of social interaction, brings Victor closer and closer to the state of solitude that he himself has experienced since being created.Victor’s pattern of falling into extended illness in reaction to the monster suggests that the deterioration of his health is, to some extent, psychologically induced—as if guilt prevents him from facing fully the horribleness of the monster and his deeds. “The human frame could no longer support the agonizing suffering that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions,” he recounts of his despair at seeing Henry’s corpse, making an explicit link between psychological torment and physical infirmity. That Victor also falls ill soon after creating the monster and experiences a decline in health after the deaths of William and Justine points toward guilt as the trigger for this psychological mechanism.
Chapter 23:
The murder of Elizabeth forms the climax of the novel, as it is the moment in which the monster finally succeeds in obliterating Victor’s social world. With his family, best friend, and faith in science snatched away from him, Victor can derive meaning in life only from his hatred of the monster. The crucial transition has been made: stripped of Elizabeth, the last, and most important, element of his life, Victor becomes dehumanized and develops an obsessive thirst for revenge similar to that exhibited previously by the monster.
Chapter 24:
Echoes of the monster’s earlier statements now appear in Victor’s speech, illustrating the extent to which Victor has become dehumanized. “I was cursed by some devil,” he cries, “and carried about with me my eternal hell.” This is the second allusion to the passage in Paradise Lost in which Satan, cast out from Heaven, says that he himself is Hell. The first allusion, made by the monster after being repulsed by the cottagers, is nearly identical: “I, like the arch fiend, bore a hell within me.” Driven by their hatred, the two monsters—Victor and his creation—move farther and farther away from human society and sanity.
Walton in continuation: