In the centuries since Mary Shelley first conceived her "waking dream" on a rainy Swiss night in 1816, the name has become a cultural shorthand for monsters. But for any literary enthusiast, the true horror of the story lies not in the creature’s stitched-together limbs, but in the psyche of its creator: Victor Frankenstein . The Spark of Ambition
What makes Victor a tragic hero—or, as some critics argue, a flat-out narcissist—is his utter lack of foresight. He spends two years in a feverish state of isolation, driven by the desire to "play God" and create a being of "striking beauty". Victor Frankenstein
Victor is often introduced as a sympathetic, inquiring mind driven by a "lofty ambition". Born in Naples and raised in Geneva, his early life was one of privilege and intellectual curiosity. However, the death of his mother when he was seventeen fueled a morbid obsession with the boundary between life and death. This obsession took him to the , where he turned away from modern science toward the "unhallowed arts" of reanimation. The Flaw of Hubris In the centuries since Mary Shelley first conceived
The Man, The Myth, The Madman: A Closer Look at Victor Frankenstein He spends two years in a feverish state
The moment of his "success" is his ultimate failure. Upon seeing the yellow, shrunken skin of his creation, Victor does not feel the triumph of a father; he feels only revulsion. He flees his own laboratory, abandoning a sentient being with the mind of a "blank slate" into a world that will only ever treat it with hostility. A Legacy of "Unmanliness" and Avoidance Lessons in Unmanliness from Victor Frankenstein
