Throughout this story, I’ve been
the reader shaking my head at Victor Frankenstein page after page. Why is he
such a coward? Why does he not realize how selfish his actions are? I have been
waiting for Frankenstein to have a revelation about his character, and after
this reading, it seemed as if he almost did
have a breakthrough.
When
Walton’s crew tells him they want to turn around and go back to England, Frankenstein
suddenly has a moment of energy and clarity. He “roused himself,” “his eyes
sparkled,” and “his cheeks flushed” with “vigour”(182). This definitely was not
the Frankenstein I was used to. This was the pre-creation Frankenstein, the
Frankenstein that still believed in passion and science and the greater good.
He turned to the crew and proceeded to lecture them for turning from their
“design.” Of the voyage, he says, “For this was it a glorious, for this was it
an honourable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors
of your species; your names adored and belonging to brave men who encountered
death for honour, and the benefit of mankind.” He continues, talking about
courage and strength, and being “heroes who have fought and conquered, and who
know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.”
This
impassioned speech was shocking to me. It was as if, in a moment of delirium,
Frankenstein projected his regrets about his own experience with his creature
on the Walton’s crew. The way he chastises them sounds exactly like what he needed to hear when he shied away
from his creation out of selfishness and fear. He tells them to continue for
the same reason he wished to create in the first place.
While
Frankenstein never had a clear revelation about how he should have treated his
creature, I like to think this is Mary Shelley’s way of showing that he did
have some sort of breakthrough about his actions. His speech is easily
applicable to his own situation, and it is a shame he did not take his own
advice in the first place.
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