Notes

Jordan Zach
Mrs. Bouziden
AP Literature
10 September 2018
Prompt 1

Victor Frankenstein and his Moral Ambiguity
Moral ambiguity is the idea a character's behavior keeps the reader from identifying the character as wholly good or evil (paraphrased from the prompt). In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is a morally ambiguous character as his actions are both good and bad, and often conflict with his previous thoughts. Victor, the flawed protagonist, inadvertently causes all of the horrors be-held against him through his creation of the monster. Mary Shelley develops the character of Victor Frankenstein in “Frankenstein” through his moral ambiguity.

In order for a character to be morally ambiguous, their actions must portray mixed signals of good and bad to the reader. An example of this is when Victor decides to not inform the judge of his creation due to how absurd it sounds. This makes Victor appear unremorseful but he then describes his feelings of “horror and dismay” of Justine's wronged death which contrasts his previous appearance of remorselessness. Victor then exclaims “Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.” which expands on his regret and also exposes his feeling of guilt in their untimely deaths. This shows that Victor’s display of both “profound regret” and impenitence reveals his moral ambiguity.

Victor’s morally ambiguous moments were compelled by impulsive actions that also helped define who he is. This is shown when Victor creates the monster, his passion for creation is an impulse that stems from his time at the university. While creating the creature, he devotes all of his time into it, he experiences “feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time” Victor’s impulses are so urgent to him that his health falls into dilapidation and disregards his friends and family until he completes his task.

Victor’s most evident display of moral ambiguity is desire to exact revenge on the monster that decimated his life. It is ironic that Victor spent an exuberant amount of effort into creating his “monster”, and with an identical amount of effort, the monster wreaks havoc on Victor’s life. The wrongs that Victor committed are bestowed upon him through his greatest mistake, his creation. The death of his loved ones fueled Victor’s desire for revenge, “my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling” which furthermore exemplifies his “bad” side, and with it, demonstrates his moral ambiguity.

Victor Frankenstein's moral ambiguity leads to his development as a character, and to his demise. Victor’s moral ambiguity applies to the novel as a whole as without his ambiguous nature, his impulses would have never allowed him to sacrifice so much to create his “monster”. Additionally, if victor had not been ambiguous, the creation would have had a nurturing environment, and taken a drastically different path, or it would have never existed at all. Moral ambiguity applies to humanity as a whole, it is the paradigm of human nature, no person is all good or all bad, there is good and bad even in the worst and the best of us and in the novel this is shown by Victor when he abandons his creation and forever changes his fate.