Examples Of Narcissism In Frankenstein

Narcissism is a human trait that possesses everyone. It can isolate a person from society, into a world of his or her own. Some are more prone to self-centered ways than others but everyone has times of selfishness. This selfishness and isolation is inevitable among many but it can be fixed. In the novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has a great family who loves him dearly and when his mother dies he leaves his family to go to college. At the university he learns and studies extensively with ambitions for creating new life, one character flaw of his. He also ends up egotistically shutting himself off from the outside world including his family, who loved and cared for him all of his childhood. In Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley utilizes Victor Frankenstein’s character flaws in order to show the tragedy that can be caused by such untamed behavior.
He is healthy and well but when his mom dies he is changed and he leaves for college. Victor deeply yearns to obtain the knowledge needed for the process to create new human life. His yearning is very self-centered. Frankenstein neglects his loving family and he neglects his friends. His one-track mind neglects all but one thing: the satisfaction he wishes to obtain from creating life like God did. “Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the World” (Shelley viii). The task Victor seeks is no small feat but something of God. It may be considered sacrilege to try and produce life like the Creator of the Universe yet Frankenstein puts his heart and soul into it. Victor doesn’t see the harm in any of his goals. He goes after them full force. “What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?” (Shelley 1). As is demonstrated in the novel, all Victor sees is the opportunity to obtain as much knowledge as he