Victor Frankenstein- A Gothic Protagonist
A God Complex- The god complex is this need to have great power and control over everything. This idea is what made Frankenstein have the need to create life, in this case, the creature. VF wanted to be “god” and have control over a person or object. There are many moments throughout the novel that alludes to this idea. “It was the secrets of heaven and earth I desired to learn”. This quote represents the idea of the God complex very well because only God himself can know all the secrets of heaven and earth. So V.F’s want to obtain all this knowledge shows he wants the power of god.
A Distressing event earlier in life- Victor has one main horrible event earlier in life. This was the passing of his mother. Before he left for university, Elizabeth caught Scarlett fever. She recovered, however, while nursing her back to health his mother caught the illness and died. To lose your mother at such a young age would be traumatising, and could be the reason for V.F’s want to create life. “She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil”. This describes the death of his mother and how his death is going to haunt him forever. The death is an “irreparable evil”, from which all further loneliness and hurting come from. Because of such a distressing event early in life, it affects Victor as a person completely.
A flaw in their moral compass- Whilst Victor is creating the Creature, he almost never considers is to be a morally or ethically wrong project. He gets too caught up in the excitement of new discovery he forgets that what he is doing is not right. (Need to finish this one”
A moment of recognition or revelation- For V.F, this moment was directly after he created the creature, he instantly snapped out of the mindset that what he was doing was right regretted his invention. “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” This shows immediately how as soon as the creature was brought to life, V.F saw how ugly he was and realised what he had done. It shows how he knew he was ugly before, but as soon as he was lively, he was far more horrific because he had the ability to move. It also implies that he was only physically ugly until he came to life and how now he is, he is immediately shown as ugly from the inside. Even though, we know nothing about him yet.