Thursday, August 25, 2016

"Although revenge forms a very destructive bond between the monster and Victor, it ultimately becomes their shared link to humanity and gives them...

In one way, this claim is true because, now that both Victor and his creature are totally alone in this world but for each other, they are all that the other has to connect them to anyone else.  In a way, the creature has acquired, in Victor, what he wanted all along: a companion.  Though Victor is hardly the loving companion for which the creature initially hoped, it is true that the creature is no...

In one way, this claim is true because, now that both Victor and his creature are totally alone in this world but for each other, they are all that the other has to connect them to anyone else.  In a way, the creature has acquired, in Victor, what he wanted all along: a companion.  Though Victor is hardly the loving companion for which the creature initially hoped, it is true that the creature is no longer alone now that Victor pursues him.  In fact, the creature even leaves him directions and food when he feels that Victor is losing the trail or growing too weak to continue.  He does not want to lose Victor because his creator is all that he has left.  Likewise, the creature has rendered Victor alone now that he's murdered his best friend, wife, brother, and caused the death of his father.  It seems likely that Victor, in an effort not to have to contend with his own responsibility for their deaths, decides instead to exhaust himself in pursuing his creature.


On the other hand, it seems like a stretch to classify their relationship as a "link to humanity."  As the creature has pointed out, the quality that makes us human is our capability to do both extreme good and extreme evil.  Neither the creature nor Victor is at all in touch with the "good" side of humanity at this point.  Each seeks only to exact revenge on the other, Victor by killing his creature and his creature by torturing Victor in forcing him to feel as alone as the creature has felt.  Revenge is not a sound foundation for life, and it cannot sustain either of them for long (as we see by the novel's end). 

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