Major Causes of Victor's suffering in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Research Paper Sample)

Student Number: 318211323.
Lecturer: Dr. Robin Shochat Bagon.
Course: Writing Pro-Seminar.
Date: 1/1/2018.
Major Causes of Victor’s suffering in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Introduction
Victor Frankenstein is the main character portrayed in Frankenstein as the doomed protagonist narrating a large portion of the book. Since his childhood, Victor manifests the desire to conquer the secrets of nature. The commitment and loneliness he undergoes throughout his years of tireless discovery do not cause him regrets. Little does he realize how this would, in the long run, result in his guilt and consequently dissipate his life as he ends up in a suicide mission over the regrets of what he has created. The book is dominated by the secrets of Victor, and towards the end, the reader discovers that his suffering is a consequence of various factors in his life as he strives to quench the thirst of his desire for knowledge. This paper delves into Victor's misfortunes and sufferings from his childhood up to the end of his creation, highlighting and analyzing various ways in which Victor suffers and reasons behind his suffering. The Victor's personality traits, narcissism, and upbringing are the major causes of his suffering.
Personality Traits of Victor and How it Cause his Sufferings
The nature of Victor's introvert personality is the major cause of his suffering. Victor is born an introvert child who enjoys spending most of his time alone. Most often, Victor meditates about nature and gradually gains interest in exploring and discovering more about him. He has the innate quest for perfectionism which compels him to create a creature. Even in his own family as a child, Victor demonstrates interests in his activities and does not easily speak his mind. However, this is noted from his behavioral tendencies in the family as he tries to dig deeper beyond ordinary knowledge. Perhaps, it is because of his personality that he thinks deeper to the extent of creating horror. The suffering of Victor is characterized by lifetime struggle and a painstaking lifestyle. Despite his struggles, he does not enjoy the fruits of his struggle in the long run when he takes off to the suicide mission. In ordinary circumstances, it is ideal that people should suffer at one time and enjoy at a later time. Had he not been born a naturally silent person, he might have perhaps shared the intents and desires of his life to the family members or someone else, and this would have saved him from the sufferings of a lonely life and misguided adventures (Forry 72). This statement is an implication that Victor's misfortunes are a result of his personality traits and his environment that surround him..
Narcissism in Victor’s Personality and How it Cause suffering to him
Victor's narcissism is another cause of his misfortunes. He is portrayed in the story as a lover of his desires, drives, and motives. As Joseph Kestner describes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it becomes evident that Victor's problems culminate from his narcissist characteristics (Kestner 68). Kestner states, "The longings of Victor Frankenstein for ‘the Other,' the fleeing of Victor from ‘the Other' and the pursuit of Victor by the Other all constitute signal instances of the corollary of the narcissist's reflection, flight.".(Kestner 68). As Victor longs to create the supernatural creature and then flees it after realizing the mistake he made, his narcissism becomes evident. It is also evident that Victor experiences oedipal dreams after creating the creature (Shelley78). This act is an element of narcissism in the novel which certainly contributes to his fleeing and consequently his suffering as he, later on, comes to pursue a mission of suicide. The "overwhelming libidinal energy,"(Kestner 77) for homosexuality portrayed him as the person who loves himself. He killed his lover Elizabeth for fear of having sex with her and to create an opportunity for self-love, thus, he is showing the element of narcissism. This act is manifested throughout Shelly's Frankenstein is the basis of the sufferings that Victor Frankenstein goes through throughout the novel. Finally, Victor showed an inability to love people around him, for instance, when he said: "I must absent myself from those loved while thus employed," (Shelley 147), was the culmination of his passions towards the monster. Therefore, from this statement, narcissism is manifested in Victor's life.
Victor's own desire to be alone and separate most of the time is another significant contribution to the sufferings that he goes through in the course of his creation and after the accomplishment of the creation. Victor had an opportunity to make friends and share his plans with them, but he did not. In his family, he could have spent most of the time with his parents talking about the desires of his heart, but he chose not to do it. Even as it was opportune for him to depart home for further studies, he could have chosen a nearer rather than the faraway place he chose. He did so just to alienate himself from those who were close to him. By going for scientific study in Ingolstadt, Victor was deliberately choosing alienation. The nature of studies he pursued was a choice he made as an individual. There were many other fields in which he could have specialized. But he chose a field that favored his desires. Once in Ingolstadt, Victor often locks himself up in a private study room to carry out his experiments in a lonely manner. This decision is an implication of alienation in which no one else apart from himself participated. Even as Victor focuses on creating his monster in his laboratory, there is an opportunity to get in touch with his family, which he does not use. His statement manifests a decision he makes to stay alone "I must absent myself from those I love…once commenced, it would quickly be achieved." (Shelley147). In the end, Victor decides of fleeing and alienating himself and his creature alike. This act is the last decision of alienation in the life of Victor that marks the climax of his suffering.
The Nature of Victor’s Upbringing and how it Cause him sufferings
The Parental Care
The parents of Victor and his family at large have a responsibility to bear in Victor's suffering. Frankenstein's family is described as "perfect" (12) in the book. This stability is somehow ironic, considering its contribution to the life of their only son, Victor Frankenstein. The limitations in the family such as the father's lack of scientific education contribute to Victor's sufferings. For instance, he said, "I was, to a great degree, self-taught about my favorite studies. My father was scientifically uneducated..." (Shelley 38). This statement implied that Victor was left with his childhood blindness which, together with his thirst as a student desiring to find more in science, adopted his scientific experimentations. Also, the statement implied that his family failed in its responsibility to provide Victor with appropriate guidance on the dangers and repercussions of uninformed scientific experiments. Had they guided him properly in his childhood, Victor would have ventured into a more profitable undertaking. Probably he would have later on come to enjoy the fruits of his labor, and this would make him happy.
Victor’s Education
The use of science in an inappropriate manner is another reason why Victor Frankenstein underwent all his sufferings. According to laws of Kant on knowledge, ‘If one wanted to make entirely new concepts of substances, of forces, and of interactions from materials that perceptions offer to us, but without borrowing (entlehnen) the example of their connectedness from experience itself, then one would end with nothing but brain-figment…'(Gava 372). This statement implied that for any inquiry into knowledge one needs to consult the discoveries and the findings of other researchers in the related field of knowledge. This act will ensure that one connect from experience itself thus avoiding the mistakes. Had Victor adhered to these laws, he would not have decided to delve into his experiences. A laboratory is a place of scientific experimentations and investigations which is an element of science. The fact that science exists is the very reason why Victor chooses to set his laboratory in a "solitary chamber" (Shelley 52). The nature of science entails continuous construction and discovery of new knowledge and insights into existing knowledge. Looking at the nature of the life that Victor lives, it is manifestly evident that it is science-oriented. Since his suffering occurs as a result of the life he leads and as a consequence of all his actions, then it can be concluded that Victor's downfall results from science and all aspects of science.
Education, which is the pursuit of knowledge for life contributes to the suffering of Victor. In the novel, Shelley presents Frankenstein as a classically educated model who consistently displays his struggles as he tries to cope with the nature and complexity of knowledge because of his intense and overwhelming desire for scientific knowledge as well as his great mental acuity. A reader going through Victor's encounters as he pursues knowledge easily concludes that it is his extremism in attaining the education that leads him to create a terrifying creature which later amplifies his suffering and intensifies misfortunes. Although Victor represents an ideal knowledge seeker, he is also depicted as a warning against to those individuals who do not complete their education. The goal of education of an ideal education as described by Shelley (Holmes 490) is to impart learners with complete knowledge. Had Victor purposed to complete his education, he could not have found himself in the misfortunes that befell him. A complete education would have made Victor conversant with the...