Wretched Passion
Written as an assignment in a Literature in the Western World Course. The prompt was to connect a theme from Mary Shelby’s novel Frankenstein to the excerpt, “All men hate the wretched.”
In Mary Shelby's novel Frankenstein, the creature created and abandoned by Victor Frankenstein in response to accusations of murder proclaims that “all men hate the wretched.” His statement aligns with the recurring theme throughout the novel that insatiable passion often leads to people being enslaved to pursuits with a tragic and self-destructive fate. Victor, having a passion for the creation of life, the creature, and being loved, leads them to be chained down to a never-ending cycle of destruction.
In multiple characters, Mary Shelby shows that passion for something always seems to lead to neglect of another thing that seems inferior to the beauty of the “greater” thing. From the very beginning, Walton expressed his desire to achieve “some great purpose,” and in the process, he stated that his education had been neglected. Victor neglected his social life, family, morals, and health while he pursued his passion for creating the creature. In chapter 4, Victor justifies the neglect of his life by asserting that “if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved, Cæsar would have spared his country, America would have been discovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.” He insinuates that great things are built on disturbing the tranquility of life. Even though both Walton and Victor have great passions, the trait that differentiates them is that Walton gave up his passion for traversing the North Pole for the safety of his crew. Victor placed his passion for creating the creature over everything.
Victor even tells Walton, “Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it be only the innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed,” showing his regret in the outcome of his feverish passion that led to the creation of the creature and the eventual death of his family.
The creature asserted his revenge on Victor by stating, “No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.” This rampage started simply because of his passion for acceptance. Blaming the fate of everything that would come to be on the fact that he was wretched. Leading to his statement “All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!” deflecting the cause of the murder of William to his alienation and his abandonment.
In conclusion, the creature's declaration, “All men hate the wretched,” aligns with the recurring theme throughout the novel that insatiable passion often leads to people being enslaved to pursuits with a tragic and self-destructive fate. This leads to the eventual unhappiness and death of both Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
Shelley, Mary. “Frankenstein.” The Project Gutenberg eBook of Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1993, www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.
