Research Paper

Submitted By Avery2323
Words: 1253
Pages: 6

Avery Baugh
Ms Walker
Period 1st Ap English Literature

Hero or Villain

We’ve all seen the classic super hero versus villain theme in many natures. But what comes to mind when you think of a hero? Many people have different aspects as to who’s their “savior”, but in the novel Frankenstein Mary Shelly made this very unclear due to the fact that Victor and the Creature were more so alike then different but heavily expressed in a different manor. Even though Shelly didn’t make it clear as to who’s the real villain in the story, she allowed the reader to characterize Victor as the protagonist due to the fact that he didn’t commit any murders. Meanwhile the Creature is presented as the antagonist because of his appearance and the innocent people he’s killed which makes him the bad guy (sucks). It sometimes becomes unclear to the reader as to why the character commits the actions they do but society plays a big part on this also. In this particular novel Mary Shelly shows us how Victor and the Creature go back and forth from being the protagonist and antagonist throughout the story, but with both having such similar problems and grief’s they ended up both being the antagonist in the end. In the novel “Frankenstein” Victor was a guy who had the intentions onto making the biggest discover known to man which was creating life. Even with victors troubles already, dealing with his family and personal life he set out to continue what he started without looking back. He sets off for college at the University of Ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. After several years of research he becomes convinced that he’s found the solution to creating life. Victor always expresses his love for science with remarks such as "Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember"(50). He begins to construct the creature out of old body parts, and one night in his apartment he brought the creature to life. As soon as the monster comes to life, Victor is filled with intense disbelief. He explains, "the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart." (98). With the creation of the creature it begins to show how Victor plays the antagonist role throughout the story. With it being known that Victor was testing the waters in the first place by trying to do things of god it shows how Mary Shelly begins to let the readers discover what type of person Victor really is. Victor was so caught up on making this big discovery that he didn’t think of the after effects that it would bring to him or the actual creature he’s creating. The creature came out to be hideous and ended up running away from Victor for the simple fact that it knew it wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Victor then starts to feel grief and states "I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe" (110). He knew what he created was a monster and dwelled on the fact that this creation of his was out in the world doing things unimaginable and he was the cause of it all. With the failure in his creation and research he did for all those years he expressed to his dearest friend not to follow him in his footsteps, Victors knows what he’s done is a embarrassment and expresses to his friend Walton “"Learn from me . . . 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"(166).As the story progresses you start to see the different attributes Victor begins to show about his creation and how he feels about the whole situation at hand. Even though no killing virtually has been done by victor, hes created another life form in a society that downs anything from the “norm” so now this