Victor Frankenstein's Tragic Tale

Victor Frankenstein's life is the central story in Frankenstein. He grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was interested in reading old books about alchemy. These books were all about turning common metals into gold and finding a magical way to live forever. However, these ideas were not useful for his studies when he went to university in Ingolstadt. There, he got really interested in modern science and quickly learned everything his teachers knew. Victor became obsessed with discovering how to create life and, after much experimentation, he actually made a living monster.

This monster looked terrifying and ended up causing a lot of sadness. Even described by Victor poorly, "but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 56). It killed Victor's youngest brother, his best friend, and his wife. It also indirectly caused the deaths of two other people, including Victor's father. Even though Victor felt really bad and guilty about all of this, he never told anyone what he had done. He watched as the destruction from his experiment got worse and worse.

Over time, Victor changed a lot. He started as a curious young man excited about science, but he turned into a man full of guilt, wanting nothing more than to stop the monster he created. Victor tried to step into the role of God by creating life, but he ended up alone, cutting himself off from everyone else. He became obsessed with getting back at the monster.

In the end, Victor chased the monster into the far north and told his story to another explorer, Robert Walton, before he died. The novel, with its different storytellers, leaves us wondering about Victor. Was he a reckless scientist who did not think about the rules he was breaking, or was he a bold explorer pushing the limits of science, who couldn't control what came next?