Preview

Comparing Frankenstein's Obsession With Playing God And Cheating Death

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
439 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing Frankenstein's Obsession With Playing God And Cheating Death
Frankenstein’s ever growing obsession with playing god and cheating death stems from the earliest parts of the film where Frankenstein’s mother dies this the characters first time being exposed to death and like most human he believes life should be immortal and why should people die. “The only way to cheat death is to create life” This quote expresses that this state of mind of Victors was not passing faze Victor devoted the rest of his life to figuring out how to re-create life and end all death. This is not only one of the most frightening aspects of the film it is also the most disturbing because Victor’s insanity and ability to give and take life as he pleases disturbs the audience because of his lack of morality, despite his upbringing

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my opinion, the conflict between morality and science is lesser than in the story Frankenstein. Reason being is that if scientists try to make a living creature, its most likely going to be contained so it can’t run around spreading diseases or wreaking havoc. Nobody out there is trying to bring humans back to life. Scientists are looking for ways to make stem cells that can grow and grow so if you get paralyzed you can walk again.…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Politics vs Frankenstein

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Power is needed to control and organise society. Without a superior control, there would be no economy, no laws and poor safety. In Frankenstein, Victor used his power to help mankind by furthering scientific knowledge. He discovered a much wanted secret - the secret to life. Frankenstein’s issue of parenting became a great obsession with power.[i] The need of power led Victor to create what he thought was going to be one of the greatest human beings.[ii] But Victor clearly failed to see that creating life with human body parts didn’t necessarily mean that his creature was going to be accepted into human society.[iii] He was “roused from his dream of pleasure.”[iv] He was inspired and motivated by scientists who “acquired new and almost unlimited powers”[v]. Victor used this unlimited power to play the role of God.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor Frankenstein has been studying philosophy and chemistry, which has become his occupation. His destiny is to recreate life again and has been taught by Professor Krempe. At the end of two years he has finally made some decisions on how to recreate, ”I made some discoveries in the improvement of some chemical instruments, which procured me great esteem and admiration at the university.”(Shelley 18). His attraction was the structure of the human frame. Also, as he states in the writing, “ I revolved these circumstances in my mind and determined thenceforth to apply myself more particularly to those branches of natural philosophy which relate to physiology.”(Shelley 18). He would have to recourse to death so he can examine the cause…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor Frankenstein’s first and greatest mistake was experimenting at all. What’s dead should be left to the grave. Frankenstein even admits to himself that he was scared when he realized he had brought life to the lifeless mesh of a body that lay on his table. “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 (pg. 228).” He immediately regrets playing God when he realizes that what he has created was far from what he had hoped.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the original text Victor Frankenstein, whose name in the movie was changed to Henry, was never guilty of abusing technology to become god. He tired to revive life, in which he party succeeded. From the speech in his deathbed, Victor tells Walton that his intentions were only to help life, and he hoped that others would succeed where he has failed. Hollywood has disregarded this crucial part of the story and turned Victor into a mad scientist.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, She brings up some important issuies, which are still very, if not more relevant today. Playing god is one of these issues in Frankenstein. Playing god is still very relevant today as we are at the technological age where creating man can be done by the idea of cloning, and experiments have already been performed on sheep. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it tells you that terrible things can happen by creating man and gives Mary Shelley's views on the idea of creating life. Frankenstein also known as the modern Prometheus; tells the story of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein whose ambition takes him to create man which has dramatic consequences for him and his family. In Mary Shelley's ‘Frankenstein' the creator, Victor Frankenstein feelings change throughout the novel towards the monster, in this essay, I will explain and expand on what Victor feels about the monster.…

    • 2012 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor Frankenstein's upbringing in a perfect society ultimately led to the destruction of his life which coincided with the lives of those emotionally close to him. Victor was raised in an atmosphere where beauty and physical appearance define one's quality of life. This superficial way of life results in a lost sense of morals and selfishness, which in turn produces a lost sense of personal identity. This can cause a feeling of failure and resentment in the later stages of life which, in Victor's case, can be externalized into a form of hatred directed toward himself.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    For my paper, I have chosen to write about the theme of playing God throughout the book of Frankenstein and how it ultimately affects the person doing it. Throughout the course of the story, Victor and his creation try to take on the role of God, especially through the creation and destruction of life. I will mainly be speaking of Victor’s creating of the monster as his role as “God.” The monster’s role as “God” is mainly fulfilled through his murders, or his destruction of life. The eventual demise of both of these characters is directly stemmed from their attempts to create and destroy life. Not only are the two individuals killed due to this toying with life, but also the journey leading up to their death is all but pleasurable. From the moment that Frankenstein’s monster’s eye opened, the rest of both of their lives consist mostly of depression and pain. This pain eventually leads to a pursuit of one character after another. The two chase each other in a pattern, beginning from the creation of the monster. The monster chases Victor for a period of time, and it is not until Victor’s wedding night that the roles of the chaser vs. the chased are switched. These ideas will help with the main construction of my paper. The two main sources through which I will be drawing information to help me type this paper include Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and “What is a Monster?” by Peter Brooks. However, I do plan on going back to the databases and looking for help if I get stuck in my writing.…

    • 2301 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It was with these feelings that I began the creation of a human being”.(40) Victor Frankenstein devotes most of the years of his life to create this creature out of body parts but he does not think about the consequences of what could happen after creating this creation. Victor’s obsession with controlling life and death is a direct challenge to the power of God. Creating life to Victor seems to be prodigious and during the period of time in which this book was written it could be considered just as inane too. For victor creating life could also give him massive amount of pride and confidence.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells a ghastly narrative of horrendous ramifications when man exceeds the boundaries of life, and manipulates nature itself. The young scientist plays God while learning the consequences of creating life, and the potential of permanent damage it can conflict on others. Mary Shelley, in her young adulthood, challenges both society and the individual to ponder the eternal question of whether being able to do something gives us the right to do it. Just because we have the potential to break science, and play the role of God; Should the consequences of endangering the world or society be worth it?…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Limits In Frankenstein

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    While figuring out the cure for death Victor has to “work for nearly two years”(43) to “[infuse] life into an inanimate body” (43). The supernatural has taken up a huge portion of his life, casing him to stop speaking to his friends and family back home in Geneva. The Creation is the embodiment of supernatural, he is larger than a normal human, stronger and faster. Victor purposefully made his creation this way, once while in the mountains he sees “the figure of a man… advancing… with superhuman speed” (85) this figure is The Creation. The knowledge that Frankenstein acquired was how to undo death, a supernatural…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Victor knows his desire is forbidden, this is evident by the fact he hides what he has done and the existence of the creature. Victor himself is incredibly shameful of his actions, he is “unable to endure [any] aspect of the being [he] created,” and he runs away from the newly created creature (Shelley 58). In addition, Victor like Laura, is suggested to not be in control of his desire, he states that, “[he] seem[s] to have lost all soul and sensation but for [that] one pursuit” (Shelley 55). This furthermore emphasizes that social regulations are created to helps individuals to control their desires. The reader understands that Victor’s desire is against social regulations and dangerous, for several reasons. For instance, M. Kempe, a professor at Ingolstadt, dismisses alchemy, the area of Victor’s interest, saying Victor has “burdened [his] memories” with his studies of alchemy (Shelley 47). Furthermore, the creature is created from death; Victor gathers the pieces of corpses from, “charnel-houses”, “dissecting room[s] and the slaughter-houses”(Shelley 55). By working with death, Victor is pushes boundaries of the unknown; this allows the reader to perceive him as ‘playing god’, something which is socially unacceptable. Death is a realm that no mortal can truly understand because mortals are living. Therefore by creating life from death, Victor is playing god, by doing things that only God is allowed to do, thus its not a surprise when Victor’s creature creates…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, conveys a tale about Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a creator, who produces an existence outside of love. If Dr. Frankenstein had believed in God, he would have known not to produce a being outside of natural law. The creature’s life would have been significantly different had god been involved. Frankenstein, the creature, is missing out on a creator who loves him, a creator who is forgiving, a creator who makes a companion for his creation, and a creator who sacrifices for his creation.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ‘Daemon’ is the term Victor Frankenstein uses to refer to his monster. However, I believe the real daemon is Victor himself. Firstly, I think his obsession with playing God in the beginning of the novel can be associated with a common belief that ‘playing God’ is an act of the devil. This belief is often found in religions as it is believed that God is the only and ultimate creator and to take upon creating new life into your own hands is evil. Victor explicitly posses this trait as, mentioned before, it is what drives him to create his creature. Furthermore, Victor rejects his creation once he is no longer fascinated by it. Although this behavior is not a direct correlation to the devil, it is cruel and unright. Moreover, Victor’s relations…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The church teaches that there are seven deadly sins and pride is one of them. By going against the church and nature these characters had sealed their coffins. Both of these men were swallowed by their own pride and were too egotistic to admit it. Till his death, Victor did not regret trying to kill his creature, however, the creature had remorse for killing Victor’s family and ruining his life. Macbeth, cared only for himself, even when his wife died he was angry as to why she had to die at such an inconvenient time for him, “she should have died hereafter”. His obsession with power led him to get involved with witches, which ultimately secured his death. Since Shakespeare was writing this play for James I, the witches and the evil undertones throughout the play seemed fit, as this fascinated James. Shelley, on the other hand, was brought up knowing that how you treat a person can influence how that person treats you and society. This demonstrates how even though the creature was tormented and rejected from society, he still had the decency for apologizing to Victor, even though Victor had no remorse for him. It shows how ambition has made Victor into something inhuman, a monster even. Shelley discusses how we must be wary of science and the arrogance associated with knowledge. Victor Frankenstein illustrates exactly what happens when man tries to play God. Just because we have the…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays