I have a few questions after reading Frankenstein and I don’t know where to ask them. So hoping some people can render light to these
- Why did no one ask Victor Frankenstein who the murderer was, when he told them that he knew who the real murderer was and it was not Justine? I understand why he didn’t want to tell them it was the monster he created but no one even asked him “Well who is it if it’s not Justine?”. They were just happy he knew and continued to feel bad for Justine.
- Victor advises Walton to stop his ambitious pursuit of knowledge and narrates his entire story as a warning to him. Why the does he encourage the sailors to go north when they say they don’t want to? He talks about honour and valour to them but continues to take lessons on how taking care of your loved ones is the best thing you can do. Is this to show that victor is self-serving or an oversight from the author?
- Why did Victor think the monster was coming to kill him on his wedding night? The monster told him that he’ll make him feel the same loneliness he feels. So it was obvious he was going to target his wife Elizabeth. Was this another way of telling Victor’s lack of empathy to the monster’s life or was it just a plot device for a 19th century plot twist?
Would be so glad if someone could answer these questions.
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It’s been a while, but I believe there’s a good possibility he said this more to himself than the room. He’s a little delirious by this point anyway. Maybe he did say it to others and they did not believe him? Just accepted his crazy
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The expedition to the north pole? I think Victor knew the monster was after him alone, and would not do others harm. So, beyond that end, he being selfish. But maybe not if you consider… I forget why he was going to the north pole. Was it not to find and kill the monster?
So kinda selfish kinda selfless.
- Victor has always been very concerned about himself and his own image. Of course he was too narrow sighted to realize the monster was going to kill his wife, he’s intelligent but he’s not that intelligent. Of course a large part of the theme of the novel is about man’s ability to create without ability to predict the repercussions of his actions. “Man” and “his” are a bit gendered: such is to say that humans do not have the intelligence that they think they have, nor were we ever meant to play god. It’s a theme that’s been more and more supported since after its publication: all kinds of technologies have been produced since the 1850s or whenever the book was published that the inventor could not have possibly fathomed the fall out of such inventions: to be really lazy, AI, the internet, and the automobile.
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Not sure about 1 and 2, but as for 3: I think this just illustrates that Victor’s mind cannot establish even the most primitive empathetic connection with the monster. He intuitively doesn’t see it as a feeling creature. It doesn’t cross his mind that the creature wants to inflict on him something that it itself is feeling, because he can’t comprehend that it feels anything. The monster to him is an abstractly dangerous non-person. He is scared of it, but in the way you are scared of a raging fire or a stalking tiger. You would never think to yourself “hang on that fire isn’t going after me, it’s going after my wife”. So I think this is purposeful, to really drive home just how completely Victor misunderstands the nature of his creation.
Yea he comes close to realising when the monster finishes narrating his tale but then dismisses it as him trying to manipulate him.
- This is an interesting question! It might be worth looking into the social mores of the period. It could be that such a direct question is frowned upon in polite society. This is all speculation by me, but it could also be showing how polite is callous and cold, and it is the kind of society that creates monsters like Victor did. They are all too preoccupied with decorum to get real justice.
- I think Victor is definitely “all talk”. He’s the time to spout wisdom, but the second that wisdom presents itself in reality, he freaks out. It’s like CEO’s who say things like, “We respect our works” while at the same time cutting jobs left and right while taking a massive bonus. This ties into number 3: Victor is incredibly self-centered. He is definitely of the type that thinks the world revolves around him, and everyone else is just a prop. It’s that narcissism that makes him contextualize literally everything around himself even if the logic doesn’t follow.
Good questions! I love thinking about stuff like this, so thank you for asking!
Thank you for answering. You gave a unique insight to question 1 which I didn’t see before.