Monday, September 12, 2011

Victor's Ego

Victor's encounter with his monster on the glacier and the words he says to his creation upon their meeting said a lot about Frankenstein's mindset. I read this paragraph multiple times, first in wondering how Victor could believe for one moment that he posed any threat to the monster he'd created. After all, he'd just finished describing its "superhuman speed" (125) and had made the thing to be larger and stronger than any human, to include himself!
I realized I needed to look beyond the obvious, so I read the passage several times. There was nothing in the text that gave me the answer, so I had to look at this from Victor's perspective...I had to get into his head and think as he would think in this situation. From the outside, it might look like simple bravery, or that his anger at the loss of his brother and family friend to the monster overcame his common sense and good judgement. But I don't think that Shelley was trying to make that the point here at all.
Victor thought of himself as a god...he'd created life. In particular, he'd created THIS life...the life of the monster. In essence, Victor Frankenstein was saying, "I brought you into this world, I can take you out!" He felt empowered as the creator that he could readily destroy what he'd created. His overinflated ego allowed him to believe that he could "trample [his monster] into dust.(125)"
But not only does he think he can destroy his monster, he also expects the creature to fear him. There should be no doubt in his mind that, even should he be able to physically defeat the monster, there's no way he could catch it if it ran away. Victor is no more superhuman than I am, but his ego at having crafted the creature seemingly knows no bounds.

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