Frankenstein experiences drastic changes in mood, which can be clinically diagnosed as bipolar disorder. The severe mood changes that Victor Frankenstein experiences are not unexplainable.
At the start of the novel, Victor Frankenstein is a generally sympathetic character with an enquiring mind and an interest in scientific development. However, his ambition leads him to become arrogant and extremely single-minded.
Victor Frankenstein is the first of several narcissistic characters who will occupy our attention, characters who rationalize their empathic failures and seek to escape the consequences of their actions.
Victor demonstrates pronounced emotional reactivity throughout the novel. He is frequently portrayed as anxious and miserable in the face of adversity or misfortune.
From this close examination, perceptions of Frankenstein as a “mad-scientist” have emerged. The “mad-scientist” stereotype is most often a “wild-haired, goggle-eyed maniac pacing around a laboratory” working on some revolutionary contraption that by society's standards is deemed immoral or too progressive.
The language, actions, and characteristics of Victor Frankenstein and the monster suggest that Victor Frankenstein is a paranoid schizophrenic who is battling his alternate personality whom he believes is the monster of the story.
Throughout the story, Victor exhibits the hallmark traits of mental illness which eventually consume his entire being and ultimately cost him his life. Contrary to the blame he places on the conception of his creation, it is the madness of his sickened mind which ultimately causes the greatest devastation in his life.
After realizing that he is horribly different from human beings, the monster cries, “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.”
In Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” Victor Frankenstein experiences self-inflicted seclusion which leads him to depression and further isolates him, whereas the creature suffers from exogenous caused isolation which ends in furiousness and grievance.
In the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein's Monster does not have a specific love interest, although he does wish to love and be loved by someone. However, all humans seem to fear and hate him, so he asks Victor Frankenstein to create a companion, or wife, for him who is also a Monster.
Victor Frankenstein can not only be labeled a monster, but also a sociopath. Being a sociopath does not always mean being a monster, but in today's society the two terms often go hand in hand with one another.
As we reread Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at two hundred years, it is evident that Victor Frankenstein is both a mad scientist (fevered, obsessive) and a bad scientist (secretive, hubristic, irresponsible). He's also not a very nice person. He's a narcissist, a liar, and a bad "parent." But he is not genuinely evil.
He is afraid of what the monster will do, and he is afraid because he doesn't know what it is capable of or if he will be able to control it. He is afraid of what he has created and how he created it.
Victor seeks to use science for the greatest human good: to conquer death, but his tragic downfall is brought about by his all too human flaws, or hamartia. He's ambitious and proud, tampering with forces beyond his control, presuming to violate the laws of nature and the authority of God.
Frankenstein's creature has been interpreted as symbolic of the revolutionary thought which had swept through Europe in the 1790s, but had largely petered out by the time Shelley wrote the novel.
Which personality trait leads to Victor's downfall?
Victor shows signs of being a tragic hero. He is heroic when he decides to follow the monster to prevent it from causing further chaos. We can also argue that his fatal flaw is his obsessive ambition, as this is ultimately what causes his downfall.
Victor believes he deserves to die for creating a dangerous creature and letting it loose to terrorize people. Victor ultimately concludes that to kill himself would be even more selfish because he would be leaving the monster to continue harming people.
Fate: The monster's and Victor's fates are inextricably linked. Victor believes it is his fate to live the rest of his life pursuing the monster, and as the one who brought the monster into the world, is set on destroying him. After Victor's death, the monster feels he must die as well.
Once he learns that Victor is dead, the creature feels that he no longer has a purpose. He both hates and pities Frankenstein and knows that ultimately he cannot live without his creator, no matter how much the two of them hated each other.
The flat-top was supposed to indicate the top of the head having been sliced off – like a boiled egg – in order to facilitate the brain of the freshly deceased criminal cut down from the gibbet. The top of the cranium is then replaced with a flat sheet of metal ( don't ask me how the hair was supposed to be attached ).
I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.
The Monster hates Frankenstein for abandoning him after his creation: “He had abandoned me: and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him.” The Monster is also angry with Frankenstein for making the Monster the only one of his kind: “I was dependent on none and related to none.” The Monster also feels hatred and ...
While Victor feels unmitigated hatred for his creation, the monster shows that he is not a purely evil being. The monster's eloquent narration of events (as provided by Victor) reveals his remarkable sensitivity and benevolence.
While the monster may have not been successful in obtaining his companion, his notion of using severe manipulation by any means to get his end goal suggests the trait inside of him, adding up to be a plausible case for the monster being a psychopath beyond the societal terms and expectations for it.
