Saturday, February 20, 2010

Frankenstein Response


Hi, class,

Please write a brief response(200-400 words) to this passage, narrated by Victor. It appears in Chapter 24. What advice might Victor be giving to Walton? Please post your response on the blog. 

"When younger," said he, "I believed myself destined for some great enterprise. My feelings are profound; but I possessed a coolness of judgment that fitted me for illustrious achievements. This sentiment of the worth of my nature supported me when others would have been oppressed; for I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow-creatures. When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors. But this thought, which supported me in the commencement of my career, now serves only to plunge me lower in the dust. All my speculations and hopes are as nothing; and, like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell. My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and application were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without passion my reveries while the work was incomplete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! Oh! my friend, if you had known me as I once was you would not recognise me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on until I fell, never, never again to rise.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Self Degradation
Victor reflects upon his misery as he related his story to Walton. Victor was destined for glory. His potential to reach highness was unimaginable, but Victor signed his destruction contract with the ink of suffering. His glory turned to shame as he caused the death of his beloved Elizabeth, his father, William, Henry, and Justine. He dared to break the limits of nature, those which prevents us knowing the “truth.” Humans always want to know the truth but it is crude and we are not ready, we never are yet we seek it until the end of our lives. Everything has a limit, as humans we cannot play or take the role of God, or a role of a creator. Creation is a natural occurrence, which is the creation of human life in this case. Victor tried to disrupt a natural occurrence and he succeeded, but the cost of his actions was his personal suffering. He touched heaven, now he waits at the gates of hell. His obsession led him to his demise, and his imagination betrayed him. Victor tried to create the perfect being, but he only resembled his own imperfections and the rest of the world contributed with the creature’s evil character. Victor advices Walton not to get obsess with discovering a truth which would lead to his demise. He cannot touch heaven because he will suffer the same faith as Victor.
Walter Sueldo
English 102 HR2
Feb. 20, 2010

KINGSLEY IMHOMOH said...

Victor is a victim of an unusual obsession. he had the potentials to achieve greatness, but he felt there is not a real difference he can make if he does not do a new thing; something that has never been done or heard of.
This was also the case of Walton, he embarked on a journey to make new discoveries which has not by chance, any man got to attempt to discover. victor was once in the position of Walton, getting himself employed with a job that will changed his life forever.
Sometimes,we seem so "success intoxicated" that we engage ourselves performing some tasks without first of all thinking about the possible outcomes. we are so absorbed by the quest for glory and fame without bringing the "what if" into consideration.
Victor's story is simply going to make Walton think twice. He had his men on board whose lives were all in danger and as well leaving his sister in bitterness. Walton is going to get himself engaged with the question of "will it be worth it achieving my glory and putting so many people's life and joy in jeopardy"?

KINGSLEY IIMHOMOH
ENGLISH 102 HNRS

Rebecca Williams said...

Hey, Walter,

I pulled a phrase from your response which reads like a haiku (a form of Japanese poetry)--here it is:

But Victor signed his/
Destruction contract with the/
Ink of suffering.

Neat-O!

Prof. Williams

Unknown said...

Victor is expressing to Walton how his current demise surfaced. As an adolescent he wanted nothing more than reaching a peak where immortality could be reached through his work. His attitude was parallel to his dedication.
He thought playing God and creating a "perfect" being would create his legacy when in fact ruined him mentally, emotionally, and physically. Victor's whole life resulted in being on top and it only took a matter of minutes to come crashing down.

Rodney Morgenstond said...

In this passage, Victor is giving Walton a very clear message. Walton, obsessed with the goal ahead, has abandoned love, life and family in hopes of adventure and fame. After informing Walton of the events that led to their meeting, Victor is expressing to him the downfalls of chasing history. While creating the “creature,” Victor was obsessed with the idea of creating life in a way never before seen. He also abandoned love, life and family in his attempt to become immortal in the eyes of men. What he did get in return was the reality that all mysteries of the life are not meant to be uncovered. In a sense, Victor is taking the responsibility of mentor to the younger Walton, who like him, is embarking on a journey of discovery. The message being that sometimes our ambition leads us into an abyss that can, at times, be hard to escape from. Walton now must make a decision based on the information presented to him.

Rodney Morgenstond

Sarah Merrick said...

Victor is advising Walton to not wait until the success is won to decide if it was worth it. There is an emphasis is on the difference between Victor’s opinion of himself in the past and his opinion of his current self. His achievements, while he was striving for them, seemed worthy of his effort and he deemed himself worthy enough to achieve them. But when he was finished, he viewed the achievement as something that hurt him, something that sent him falling deep into hell. So, knowing this, Victor is telling Walton to try to step away from his aspirations for a moment and see where there completion will really lead him. This advice is something everyone who strives for greatness should follow to some degree.

Sarah Merrick

Anonymous said...

Pedro Medina

Victor is warning Walton of the possible dangers that would come as a result having excessive pride. He repeats how misfortune came to his door when he conducted his experiment of creating life. He lost everything he had for overconfidence. This filled his life full of grief and stress, to an extent where he didn’t want to live anymore. He would have never guessed how his once burning passion turned into his worst nightmare. As in the Greek tragedy, Antigone, Creon’s downfall was a result of his excessive pride. He also lost all of his family for acting against the superior power, the gods. Hence, Victor’s message is to warn Walton of his curiosity, of his burning desire for exploring, because it might just lead to his downfall as well.

Kathleen Torres said...

The desire of success runs in everybody´s blood, it is part of human nature, but only few actually succeed. People who are persistent in achieving their goals get to stand out and be part of the spot light. Victor has strong virtues that encourage him to explore new sciences and reach out for his goals. As human beings we are never satisfied with what we have and we search for more and more until we become ambitious and all we seek is fame and glory. It is fine to be adventurous and to be recognized by many, keeping in mind to measure our limits. Victor, on the other hand, got out of control. His mind was more powerful than himself. He led himself to build a creature that like any other living being needs love and care. Victor was selfish and foolish. Those virtues made him blind to not be able to accept the creature. Victor only wanted his personal glory, he never thought that maybe his studies or discoveries would benefit others; as a matter a fact, it harmed others by killing the ones he loved most. Victor learned his lesson late. He learned that glory does not always go the way you plan. His obsession transformed him into a monster. Victor no longer enjoyed his life. As he stated in the text he was chained in an eternal hell. He lived as a miserable being haunted at all times by his “son”. Victor´s advice to Walton is to seek a peaceful glory that will not harm others. Walton should seek for a glory that will give him happiness and happiness to whom are around him.
Kathleen Torres
English 102- honors

Anonymous said...

Victor expresses his hopes for a great future; although situations were not the forecast of things to come, he believed that it was his destiny to accomplish this that was set out for him. These aspirations and goals soon plummeted and cease when coming into the grim reality of the present situation. An illusion of greatness not been accomplished, blinded probably by pride in his own talents of his youth, by using these talents he brought into existence life. With all the accomplishments and all hopes the fall was hard and steep, This words come from a man that has experience the “high” and "low” of life and tell Walton the truth of being over ambitious with his plans and goals. All which is left are memories and not the accomplishment of a broken dream. Victor speaks words of wisdom and illustrates a vivid picture in which he so elegantly paints with words using his life as a canvas. This reflection can tells us in intricate detail of the way Victor influences Walton to make a more realistic overview of his present situation in which may influence his life to a life of misery or glory. My overall take of this passage will be that Victor as a wiser man in life gives an advice to Walton in which en capsules a doses of hope and as well of deception which is an overall view life.
Isabelle Parada
ENG 102 HNR

Anonymous said...

In this quote, victor demonstrated himself as unsatisfied with the "achievements" that he has been reached. Nobody knows what can happen or not in the future. Victor was influenced by greed, ambition and with the fact to consider himself better than others without looking at least the consequences of what would represent the invention of a strange being who was suffering by the rejection by others. The defiance against nature was one of the important Victor's ideas, somehow he achieved it, but instead he got the loneliness, abandonment, and the losing of his beloved Elizabeth and his family. All this was because of the obsession to demonstrate the virtues that he possessed, but Victor only got a great misfortune rather than success. Victor adviced to Walton consist that no human being is perfect, every single individual makes mistakes, but also, all of us get the chance at least to think about the effects of our acts. This does not mean that our lives just depend on logic facts, but think careful before act. This reminds me a great phrase "Do not play with fire because you can burn" And that is exactly what Victor went through.

Miryan Salcedo
English 102 Honors
22 February 2010

TAUHEED said...

Victor, through his recollections, attempts to warn Walton about having the wrong goals. Sometimes in life, we fail to reach our goals, not because we didn't work hard, but because we had the wrong goals. Like Victor, Walton has a goal to becaome great. Victor is trying to tell him to be careful of what he wishes for. Victor never imagined that his dreams would be his downfall. He had a clear vision of who and what he wanted to become in life. He failed to realize that nothing in life is guarenteed. Victor's goal was to be put on the same level as God, a creator of life. A role that was too massive for a human. This goal of Victor's brung him down to a level lower than he ever imagined. By sharing his experiences with this calamity, Victor hopes Walton will think twice about losing himeself in the pursuit of greatness.

Nhat Minh Nguyen said...

Nhat Minh Nguyen
Professor: William Rebecca
English 102
Frankenstein’s advice
Humans never satisfy with what they have. We always want to discover new things in this world which has a lot of mysteries. Discover to be famous; to be a person who everyone knows. Human beings never give up with their fate. As Victor in Frankenstein, he is a young man with a lot of dreams of glory and fame who dedicates his college’s year to find out the knowledge of the body’s anatomy. Finally, Victor’s fruition is a lively being that he has been created for a long time. His research can help him become the most famous person in the world at that time. But everything turns back with him. Although Victor created that person, he never accepts his “son” just because of the ugliness of the creature. Then he – the creator – becomes the slave of his creature. Instead of having a life with fame and glory, Victor becomes depressed with the death in row of his beloved people. His succeed turns back to him. His knowledge disobeys him. He is in the darkness of life which he can never get out. Everything has limit. We will lose if we pass that limit. In the advice which he gave to Walter, he uses his experiences to “calm down” the ambitious in Walter because he knows what this guy is going to do. Like him, Walter is a man with full of energy and curiosity who is trying to discover the extreme pole of the globe. Victor does not want other people to go on his old path which has a lot of sadness and pains. With the experience of a man who suffered a lot of pains of losing his beloved as well as his future, Walter has to consider it again. I think it is not the advice for only Walter but for everyone. As today, the scientists are trying to create robot, research on the body of human as Victor in the story. It is the big benefit for the society but if we do not consider it carefully, we will be in the same situation as him and we never can go back again.

rvice said...

Victor, emotional destroyed, analyses his wretched life. Victor’s ambition for discovering the secrets of life guided him towards depravation and insanity. His path to glory deviated to shame and corruption. Victor dared to break the laws and conscience of nature by creating an abhorrent creature. As a scientist, His obsession for finding the occult, which God guards in the heavens, produced him misery and deception. Victor’s “perfect creation” destroyed his life by murdering most of his family. Glory caused him suffering. Imperfection leads to imperfection, that’s a rule of nature. Therefore, his advices Walton to not get consume by his ambition because this will lead him to self destruction. One cannot go against the laws of nature, its substance is too powerful and complex to handle.

Unknown said...

Victor is pointing out to Walton flaws that he had finally realized were in his character. His blind ambition in his scientific pursuits and ignorance towards any possible negative outcome from his endeavors. In is creation of the creature and distaste in the outcome fueled Victor's blindness to what he truly created. Victor is imploring Walton to not become blinded my his expeditions and be aware of what else is going on around him. He doesn't want Walton to become lost in his pursuits and cause pain and hurt to those close to him, the likes of which happened to Victor.

Anonymous said...

Victor Frankenstein anticipates achieving great things. His creation, as unique as it was only brought him despair. His arrogance and need for superiority led him to labor endlessly towards his goal. Frankenstein triumphed in creating human life but the reward to him was little.
Without considering the outcomes of his actions Victor proceeded with his dream. He paid little attention to those who bore most importance to him. He never thought his invention would have an adverse effect on them.
The ones he loved most; William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth and his father met their end on his account.
Victor with the fear of being embarassed and ridiculed by society, for his hideous concoction chose to reject it.
By relating his story to Walton he hopes to prepare him for possible unfavorable outcomes in his quest. The need for fame comes with sacrifices. Family and friends can be overlooked. Victor sees himself as a totally different person now than when he started his explorations. The high expectations he had only served to bring him destruction. His attempt to play God has landed him in hell and misery.
Frankenstein's need for recognition persuaded him to be the creator with little regards for ethics.

Sharon Sankar said...

Previous comment by Sharon Sankar

Anonymous said...

In this passage, Victor is explaining how he perceived himself. Victor had the confidence to that he could attain anything in this world. He was consumed into his work, made the effort to create a perfect creature, which he describes as a sensitive and rational animal. The creature brought a living hell into Victor’s life, because he was unable to keep his promises and wanted him to suffer as much as he did. Victor should have talked more to the creature instead of rejecting it. When Victor’ realized that creature destroyed his circle of friends, he felt very remorseful and started to question his ideologies about achieving greatness and his system of beliefs. I think that he is sharing his experiences with Walton, because he is lonely and is trying to overcome the deaths of his close friends and relatives. Also, this passage showed me that Victor is as despondent as the creature, and even more troubled than creature. Victor is suffering as a result of his actions, and burden with an unexpected grief. I suppose that Victor is advising Walton to be prudent of what he desires, because he realized that having an intense desire can bring more agony than joy.
JB Armand

Elvin Ames said...

Elvin Ames
English 102 Honors
Prof: Williams
22 February 2010

Victor’s lesson to Walton

Victor was trying to warn Walton about the dangers of over reaching. “…like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.” This line said it best. Like Lucifer, Victor aspired to be God. He did accomplish his goal of creating life, because the creature he created was just a combination of spare parts, which Victor did indeed assemble and cause life to emanate from. Victor accomplished his goal, but at what cost? This cost as victor was trying to warn the equally ambitious Walton about, was too expensive a price to pay for success and glory.
“I believed my self destined for some great enterprise.” That great enterprise cost Victor his brother, wife and best friend it was defiantly not worth it to Victor. Here was Victor at his lowest point, trying to convey a lesson to Walton in hopes that he takes heed. Walton was himself over reaching, placing his fellow sailors in danger. Victor is now saying to Walton look how low I have sunk! I have lost everything! Do you really want to be me? Yes, I have created a living creature like God himself, but that same creation has caused me hell on earth. What creature are you creating Walton? What price are you willing to pay? Because once you have gone too far, there is no turning back.

... said...

Dixie Korley
Prof. Williams
ENG 102
22 February 2010
Frankenstein Online Response
Victor Frankenstein wanted Walton to promise that if he ever saw the creature, he would carry out his vengeance by killing the creature. The first two lines of the paragraph in Frankenstein expresses Frankenstein’s unmistakable urge to avenge his loved ones. He says to Walton, ‘in conducting me to the daemon, allow me the rest to so much desire; or must I die and yet he live?’. With those words I think that it is obvious that Frankenstein might never change. After the murder of William, the creature shows Frankenstein that he wanted love and affection by having a wife. Frankenstein refused, and this led to the killing of his best friend and his wife. Frankenstein refused to acknowledge the creature’s capabilities, and with this ignorance, it led to the deaths of his friend and relatives. Frankenstein’s thirst for revenge is self directed. I believe that he might convince himself that his goals were for his loved ones. But if he really cared for the safety of his loved ones, I think that he should have taken the creature’s threats seriously. All the scientist wants is to destroy the creature for the benefit of mankind, and I also think that he wanted for society to not view him as a monster for creating the creature if they ever found out the truth. By telling Walton to make this promise, perhaps Frankenstein did it in fear of Walton perceiving him as a monster instead of the respected and famed scientist he wished to be.