Victor's Love Life example essay topic

How do people change in times of crisis and tragedy? In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, Victor learns a lesson in thinking before acting. Before creating the monster, he only cares about his studies and is relatively happy. After his creation, his studies become his phobia and his creation (which, while constructing him, used to be his love) became his tormentor.

In the end, he learns his lesson and stops himself before committing the same mistake again. In creating life, one learns to live life a little wiser. IN the beginning, Victor has a happy and almost carefree life. His home seems a place. ".. from which care and pain seemed for ever banished" (36). With a family such as his, no burdens seem to exist on his back. He has an entertaining mother, a father as a teacher, affection demanding brothers, and a gentle Elizabeth.

He simply has no concerns. When Catherine (on her deathbed) joined the hands of Elizabeth and Victor saying, .".. my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of you union" (37), it shows that Victor's love life is also worry-free. Allowing him to further pursue his primary love, his studies. In stating, "I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge" (40), Victor shows that his first priority is his studies. Even in leaving all he has ever known (family and friends), he only wants learn. Before creating life, his world is dandy... with only the amount of knowledge he acquires being his worry.

Furthermore, after his creation breathes its first breath, Victor already despises it, which leads to his health's deterioration and hatred of his previous love. His love quickly changes to despise when he says, "I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (53).

His statement shows how his heart does a complete 1800 and stops loving the monster the moment it lives. When Victor's. ".. heart palpitated in the sickness of fear... ". (54), it proves how his monster tormented his creator without having to be near him. Which also leads to the teaching of the lesson "think before you act". Victor further proves his hatred in exclaiming "Abhorred monster! fiend that thou art! the tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes.

Wretched devil! you reproach me with your creation; come on then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed" (101). His cry shows how he resented his actions. After the creation of the monster, Victor's world becomes full of tragedy and pain. Lastly, towards the end of the story, Victor learns his lesson and thinks everything thoroughly before acting and creating another monster. He proves his acquired knowledge when he says, "As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me, which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing" (178). The quote shows how Victor learns to consider his deeds.

He actually stops think about the consequences. In discontinuing his actions to consider the results, he realizes that "Three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart... ". (178).

In realizing this, he makes a wise choice to stop. To symbolize this alternative, Victor. ".. trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing... ". (179).

This act demonstrates Victor's transformation in the story. He learns to think less about his studies and more about the world's well being. In producing life, one learns to live life with a little more wisdom. Throughout the story, Victor is taught to use his previous mistakes as a guide. Rather than making the same error again, he stops himself... even at the cost of his own (and his family's) life. People change in different ways depending on the predicament.

In Victor's case, he discovers that in thinking of the welfare of others, he is doing so much more; thus changing his previous attitude towards life and the deeds done during one's existence.