As with the determination of moral responsibility in a court of law, an attempt to attribute legal responsibility in Frankenstein quickly becomes complex. Although it might initially seem that Victor should be the one held legally responsible not just for the existence of the creature but for the havoc he wreaks, we also must consider that the creature quickly develops the capacity for rational thought, raising the possibility that he may qualify as an actor capable of both causing harm and forming the intention to do so.
Given the sophisticated way the creature develops, by the end of the book he alone might be held legally responsible for the deaths he causes. Victor experiences the two basic meanings of the word responsibility. He creates the creature he causes it to exist , and therefore he has at least some responsibility for what the creature goes on to do. We will turn to these two ideas now—responsibility for and responsibility to. In a very straightforward way, Victor causes the monster to exist.
He builds him, freely and with the hope, indeed the intention, that he will come to life. This creation is no accident. Although many factors can arguably interfere with attributions of responsibility—including compulsion and delusion—there is no suggestion that Victor does not intend to make the creature, despite the frenzied way he goes about it.
He considers the good that might come from his discovery—it might lead to development of a method for bringing the dead back to life—but he fails to consider the future of his initial experimental creation.
Although he is aware that the single-minded pursuit of his scientific goals is throwing his life out of balance, he utterly fails to consider the possibility that the form he has stitched together and will soon animate may go on to cause harm to anyone, including Victor himself.
We might compare Victor to some modern scientists who have stopped their work to consider its potential for harm, such as those who gathered at Asilomar in the mids to consider the implications of research on recombinant DNA or those who recently called for a moratorium on germline gene editing. Victor learns that the creature has killed his young brother William, whose death is then blamed on a family friend, Justine. But Victor knows the truth. But he does nothing to intervene.
The girl is unjustly convicted. He spends his remaining days on earth chasing the creature across the Arctic, intending to kill him. But in this understanding of his responsibility, he is alone—no one else in the novel sees Victor as anything but a casualty of unspeakable misfortune. Even Robert Walton, the explorer who encounters Victor on the ice and to whom Victor narrates his entire story, judges him to be noble, gentle, and wise.
On this question, Victor is resolved. The creature himself makes this argument forcefully when he confronts Victor in the mountains overlooking the Chamonix Valley. The creature relates all that has transpired since Victor abandoned him.
He has learned to find food and shelter. By closely observing a human family, he has learned about emotion and relationships as well as how to speak and read.
By finding a collection of books, he learns the rudiments of human society and history. Yet on each attempt to engage with humans, the creature is disastrously rejected—sometimes even attacked. I started my first job a couple weeks ago just for the summer.
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Even the death of his creator-turned-would-be-destroyer offers only bittersweet relief: joy because Victor has caused him so much suffering, sadness because Victor is the only person with whom he has had any sort of relationship. Ace your assignments with our guide to Frankenstein! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Frankenstein create the Monster?
Why does the Monster want revenge? How does the Monster learn to speak and read?
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