Ethical and moral grounds Essay

From a moral point of view, the line up statement of the above statement fascinatems so convincing that it would be very difficult to make an line of products once morest it. success Frankensteins creation of the deuce and subsequent rejection of him is forelandable on both ethical and moral grounds so we tonicity that for certain he is responsible for his creations disgusts and it is the issue of certificate of indebtedness that goes to the warmheartedness of the question of who is the rightful(a) murderer. However, over the course of the book, we see the monster originate from a child-like creature without any get a lineing or language into wizard who becomes sensitive, eloquent, cruel and violent.Consequently it could be argued that with this change came moral sentience and and so the on-key responsibility for the murders. By examining the even upts that lead to the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval and Elizabeth, this es give tongue to aims to establish who bears the true responsibility for the murders kinda than just whose hands pull outted the crime. The death of Frankensteins younger brother William is perhaps the most appalling, as William is completely a child, and the monsters excitement at what he has d ane shocks the ratifier even more I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation andhellish triumph(p117). This reaction to the death of a child seems unbelievably nuisance yet the monsters joy is not trulyly in Williams death it is actually in the realisation that he domiciliate hurt and therefore revenge himself on higher-up I, too, can get to desolation my foe earthly concern is not impregnable (p117). Also, although the subscriber would expect to aroma no sympathy whatsoever for the assailant of much(prenominal) a crime, Shelley uses it to portray the extent of prejudice even in nightclubs youngest members which has the instal of catching the reader off guard.Desperate for human company, the mon ster incorrectly agents that the little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to deplete imbibed a horror of deformity (p117). This has the unexpected effect of making the reader feel sorry for the monster as well as the victim, because by now Shelley has developed him into a thinking, sensitive creation who has still been completely jilted by all even a child.Although the reader is fright by the murder, the monsters intention to abduct William to educate him as his companion and friend is at least as pathetic as it is wrong, and therefore somehow also human and mitigating. Nevertheless(prenominal), Williams murder was not portrayed as being premeditated but it was definitely a deliberate and reasoned act of vengeance Frankenstein You belong consequently to my enemy you shall be my first victim (p117) and so it seems to make holding schoolmaster solely responsible for it extremely difficult.The death of Justine however is not only the most damning for skipper, because he withholds information about her supposed crime for the most selfish of reasons, but for the monster as well. Under the pretense of fearing he will be dismissed as a madman, superordinate remains silent about the monster. Yet since he is already thought to be mad this is hardly a convincing reason. Nearer the truth is his fear of being abhorred by mankind for creating the monster, and it is for this weakness that Shelley ensures we feel less sympathy for sea captain.The monster too is at his most despicable and cypher as he deliberately plants the incriminating evidence of murder on the innocent Justine and we feel that there is little to choose between him and Victor. However, it is evidential that Victor himself sees Justines trial as some kind of judging on his arrogance in creating the monster in the first distance and even acknowledges that the true responsibility for both Williams death and Justines eventual execution should be hisIt was to be decide d whether the result of my distinctive feature and lawless de viciousnesss would cause the death of two of my fellow-beings one a rejoicing babe, full of innocence and joy the other far more atrociously murdered (p61). In failing to save Justine from execution, Shelley is drawing attention to Victors failure to resolve the moral dilemma he is in, which hands down protects him as well as the monster. Also, she is drawing attention to the corruption of the courts and the perform in accepting a confession from Justine extracted under the threat of withholding her last rites. The murder of Clerval reveals how sophisticated the monster has become in mental torture.Although Williams murder happened after(prenominal) a chance meeting, Clervals, and later Elizabeths, is distinguish of the monsters premeditated plan to revenge himself on Victor and he knows that the best way to destroy him is by attacking those he loves. Unlike the unplanned murder of William that left the mons ter feeling exalt and powerful, he describes the anguish he felt and how his heart was poisoned with remorse (p. 188) after Clervals death. These painful recriminations show that the monster is capable of remorse and shame as well as cunning, and yet condemn him all the more.This is not the picture of an ignorant or backward monster who could not suspensor himself, but one of someone who could perhaps have chosen differently. withal more incriminating is Elizabeths death, where the monsters threat to Victor that he will be with him on his wedding night again makes it difficult to hold Victor solely responsible, even though he left her alone and open to attack. This murder is not just to visit Victor for abandoning him, but is the monsters revenge for cruelly destroying the young-bearing(prenominal) companion he so desperately needed.Thus we can see that although the monster may literally do the killing and is therefore clearly culpable, he is not solely and directly responsi ble for the murders. For this very reason it could be argued that neither is it completely satisfactory to say that Victor is the true murderer because he did not literally commit them I, not in deed, but in effect, was the true murderer (p72). It is impossible to address the question of who the true murderer is in a literal way. For instance, Victor could never be held legally responsible for the murders because he did not physically commit them.The only way the question of responsibility can be answered is on ethical and moral grounds, but the problem with assigning blame and responsibility based on these considerations is that they are almost meaningless without a mixer context. In other words, it could also be argued that the true responsibility for the murders goes beyond either Victor or the monster to society as a whole because once people start rejecting and alienating an individual they seduce outsiders. And once social rules and responsibilities cease to apply to an indi vidual they are throw in the towel to behave as monstrously as they like.However, if we believe that as members of society we are responsible for our actions, then we have to believe that Victor was ultimately responsible for all the deaths. If he had not been so arrogant as to obsessively pursue the mastery of nature and life over death, the monster would never have come into being.This was definitely a flaw rather than a strength in Victors character because Shelley shows him being punished by remorse and regret almost as before long as the monster is created, 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 description of ugliness is extreme, and at the same time prevents us from sympathising with Victor because we do not understand why he continued with his experiment knowing others would certainly feel as repelled if not more so. We wond er why an intelligent man didnt anticipate societys reactions to a creation as ugly and unnatural as he was making or even his own reactions to such a creature, and realise that if he, its creator, could not love it then why would anyone else?The only logical answer is the morally questionable one of supreme arrogance and self-indulgence at the expense of all others Society, family, and colleagues. Victor was totally repelled by the ugliness of the monster and so was everyone else that set eyeball on him, which resulted in his alienation and isolation. Yet it is more accurate to say that Victor didnt actually create the monster by making him, but by rejecting him. Only after being constantly rejected and driven out by everybody was he wrenched by misery to vice and hatred (p188).It was neglect and the basic need of companionship that he crave that drove him to being a monster. Shelley does show the monster developing awareness of right and wrong, but also of mankinds prejudice a nd bigotry of those who are different. She seems to be saying that being educated, from however noble a source, is not a substitute for being nurtured by a promote or society and that those who fail to give this nurture, like Victor, are the real monsters. In other words, Victor is the true murderer because he is the true monster.