Explore the ways in which Mary Shelley presents and develops Victor Frankenstein’s character in Volume 1 Chapters 1-5.
Mary Shelley shows us Victor’s life from the very beginning. She uses a narrative style of writing the novel. Victor starts his story from description of his family. He was born in Geneva in ‘family is one of the most distinguished of that republic’. He had passed a happiest childhood because his parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. Also one of the main characters appier in the first chapter – Elizabeth, his more than sister, his present. She is described as something so sacred, very beautiful and perfect. Beauty is stressed all the time through these chapters. His mother is shown as embodiment of absolute femininity and Elizabeth is described as her student. Victor got accustomed beauty and it was one of the main causes of abandoning of creature. He supposed to create the most beautiful creature in the world, yet he created a hideous monster. And he felt absolutely broken. Actually he was seriously ill and he understood it. In this way Mary Shelley has shown that mental illness could caused a physical illness and absolutely destroy a personality. Moreover, illness was caused by his obsession of everything unknown, knowledge and natural science. It started in his childhood when he understood he need to explore, his passion turned to an eager desire to learn. At the moment of getting to the University he was quite knowledgable about science, however in the University he get more and more obsessed about creating something what would adore, idolize him. As a result of this obsession he absolutely isolated himself from family, friends and ignored any attempt of communication. He searched main principles of life proceed in terms of science. He studied a lot, he found a lot about a structure of human beings, science of anatomy. Also he considered electricity in terms of one of the causes of life creation ‘spark of...