Frankenstein And The Act Of Playing God

Victor Frankenstein is a young man in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and plays the role of God throughout the entire book. Victor had a relatively good childhood, which can cause one to wonder why he became this way. He starts to think as if he is God when he excels in his studies in college. Throughout the novel, a common theme of self-centeredness continually arises. Victor becomes self-centered, thinking he is supreme in the sciences, and that he knows the secrets of life. These thoughts cause terrible events to happen to him and his family. Victor’s act of playing the role of God brings him a horrible creation, death of the innocent, and madness of the mind.

            The first time Victor plays the role of God was with the creation of his human being, which turned out to be a complete horror to him. It all starts when Victor becomes fascinated with natural philosophy and chemistry. He begins to think of how an animal is provided with life. Victor starts creating his human being, and works endlessly until one dreary night in November; his human being takes its first breath. After seeing his creature Victor says, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe?” He becomes self-centered and thinks he knows everything. Victor plays the role of God by creating a horrible monster. Now he has to face the devastating results of his long awaited toils.

           Again Victor plays the role of God when the death of his brother, William, occurs. Victor reads of his brother’s death through a letter from his father, and travels back home. He is very troubled by his brother’s death and Victor knows the truth now; his creation has murdered William. When he gets back to his house he learns that little Justine has been accused of the murder. She will die for it unless he speaks up. He acts as if he is God and makes the decision to be quiet about what he knows.Again he becomes self-centered in the situation and thinks he has the right to be quiet, not realizing that humanity demanded that he admit his faults, if only for innocent Justine’s sake. Victor, in playing the role of God, brings more horrible results; it causes an innocent girl to be put to death.

            Now we are toward the end of the story, and Victor still plays the role of God, which brings him madness of the mind.Victor thinks of how his friends and family are dead and how he lives, and their murderer lives. He thinks that he alone can destroy the demon. He becomes self-centered and acts like he is God in making the decision that he alone will destroy the monster that plagued so many people. It comes to the point where it drives him to madness, and he becomes obsessed with the destruction of the monster.Playing the role of God can have horrible results on the physical as well as the mental aspects of a human.

             As one can tell, playing the role of God can produce horrible results, which one can learn from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Playing God is a continuous state of mind for Victor in the novel. He remained self-centered, one of the characteristic a person portrays when playing God. Victor does not realize his faults, and keeps the state of mind that he alone has the right to do the acts he commits. The results of Victor Frankenstein’s toils produce a horrible creation, death of the innocent , and madness of the mind.

Victor’s attempt to create life is an attempt to play God. Whenever an individual assumes a god like role, he or she steps beyond normal boundaries and must pay the price. For Frankenstein the price was loss of those he loved the most and eventually of his own sole.