Victor's Responsibility In Frankenstein

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How do we truly know that there is a God? It’s a question that has been pondered since the beginning. This question has been asked throughout history, with many given answers. Even thought there is still doubt that God made the heavens and the Earth, a vast majority of the population believe that something has to be responsible for it, and that responsibility has fallen on God’s shoulders. The main responsibility is the creation of the humans that inhabit the Earth. God is portrayed as the all seeing father. However, there are a fair few who inspire to have the same qualities as our eternal father. One of these individuals who search for otherworldly knowledge is Victor Frankenstein. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is seen …show more content…
His constant refusal to take responsibility affects not only his life but the lives of those around him after he constructs and then animates his creature. Victor neglects his own responsibilities and he allows others to assume the responsibilities for his dangerous choices. This lack of ethics results in the deaths of his loved ones, deaths the would most likely be prevented if he had followed through with his own accountability. One of the most blatant examples of the wrongs of embodying passive ethics is seen during the accusation, trial, and then execution of Justine Moritz. It is Victor’s refusal to own up to his unethical behaviour that allows the innocent Justine to be killed for a crime that she did not commit. A crime that Victor is more accountable for. Victor becomes so lost in his own self pity that he distances himself from all ethical propriety. Shelley shows the reader that this form of wallowing escapism does not render a person any less accountable for their actions. Victor relates to Walton that he “remained motionless. The thunder ceased; but the rain still continued, and the scene was enveloped in an impenetrable darkness” (48). This is symbolic of Victor’s life after his refusal to take charge of his own actions, but it is not only himself whom he thrusts into this impenetrable darkness, it is a fate he gives to all of the people close to him. This teaches us that our ethical or unethical actions affect not only ourselves but others as well. However, one of the most unethical moments of the novel occurs when Victor blackmails Elizabeth to enter into marriage with a dark and giant secret looming above them, one that she cannot know until she binds herself to him through marriage. If Victor had been ethical and revealed his horrible secret to Elizabeth sooner, if he had armed her with the knowledge of what he had
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