Saturday, March 11, 2017

How does Victor believe he will be regarded by his creation?

Frankenstein deludes himself into thinking that he's creating the monster for the betterment of humankind. In actual fact, it's nothing more than a monument to his own monstrous ego. In modern terms we'd say that Victor's on a power trip, wanting to have the kind of control over others that he can't have in his normal life. In creating the monster he will exercise this power over a new species of human that will look up to him as though he is a god:

A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.

Frankenstein has allowed his ego to get the better of him, and now he's started playing God. He seeks immortality by bringing the dead back to life. But in conquering death and creating a monster, he has personified his overweening vanity and scientistic hubris. His creation emanates directly from his soul, and that soul is revealed to be ugly, monstrous, and incredibly dangerous.

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