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Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
him, William and Henry. These deaths could have been prevented if Victor had supported Krempe's efforts to kill the monster before it kills anybody. Definitely, Victor is to blame.
What is very interesting is how all the stories have different endings which relate to who is to blame. The different endings clearly show that the director or writer of each piece of work had a different view on Mary Shelley's original version. In Mary Shelley's version of Frankenstein, Victor loses the monster; the monster wanders off or runs away, and he has to go on a worldwide search for his creation. This shows that Victor is not responsible enough to watch over something he really cares about. In the play Frankenstein, Victor gets diverted and does not pay close attention to the monster. The monster encounters William and Henry and kills them. When Victor finally realizes that he has made a mistake by giving life to a dead human, he searches for the monster, equipped with a gun. In the forest, Victor sees the monster, and right before he shoots him, says, "I shouldn't have created you in the first place," thinking that he has killed him. The monster comes back after Victor gets married and begs Victor to help him, saying, "You made! You hurt me! Why?" With the guilt of creating the monster and the tragedy clear in his mind, he kills the monster, along with himself. In the movie Young Frankenstein, Victor also tries to "normalize" the creation, but fails to do so. The cause of this failure is that an abnormal brain is put into the monster. Instead of sending Igor to get a brain, he should have gone himself, to minimize the field of error or decrease the possibilities of something going wrong. Even though Victor yells at Igor for getting the wrong brain, it is ultimately his fault for sending Igor.
Finally, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is believed to be the real monster. He should be blamed for the events leading up to and eventually the death of the monster. No blame should be put on the monster because he is an experiment gone wrong. Victor is the master-scientist behind the whole operation and he is supposed to have his creation under control all the time. In fact, it isVictor's over-ambition to be famous that gets to his head, blinding him of all the possible consequences of his action. Dr. Victor Frankenstein is, therefore, the architect of this magnificent plan, but has turned it all around to something of madness and destruction. The monster is just Frankenstein's guinea pig and has no choice in the matter of the experiment, so he should not be blamed, only Victor Frankenstein should take the blame.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A play by Nick DiMartino, Direct. Moses Goldberg. Narr. Professor McNamar. Global Stage Production. WLIW21 Presentation. Class Movie. HSS 101-005. Fall Semester, September 7, 2001.
Bibliography
Shelley, Mary. "From Frankenstein." The Example of Science. Ed. Robert E. Lynch and
Thomas B. Swanzey. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, [next page]