Frankenstein Murderer: Hero Analysis and Careful Study of the Case Essay

While many people may tend to blame the ‘monster’ of the story for the murders that occurred within the Frankenstein family line, it seems clear that the true murderer was none other than Victor Frankenstein himself. It requires only basic knowledge in Florida state law and modern psychology to realize that Frankenstein is guilty of first degree murder, meaning any reasonably educated person would come to this conclusion. Florida law code XLVI provides its definition of murder under Crimes chapter 782; Homicide. Code 782.04 defines murder as “the unlawful killing of a human being … 2) When committed by a person engaged in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate any” of a number of conditions. Frankenstein’s crime falls under conditions (k) and (q). Condition (k) states “unlawful throwing, placing or discharging of a destructive device or bomb” while condition (q) states “felony that is an act of terrorism or is in furtherance of an act of terrorism.” As a careful study of the case will reveal, Frankenstein did knowingly and willingly discharge a destructive device into an innocent and unprepared public in creating and then releasing his monster. He also knowingly and willingly committed an act in furtherance of an act of terrorism in deliberately goading the monster into further acts of evil without finding any means of neutralizing him. As a reasonably educated person, I intend to prove that Victor Frankenstein is guilty of first degree murder under Florida law.

First, Victor Frankenstein deliberately committed an act in furtherance of terrorism in continuing to pursue his line of scientific inquiry. He has received a number of warnings from many of his professors regarding his unnatural studies, but continued to pursue them regardless. According to Professor Krempe at the University of Ingolstadt, “The ancient teachers of this science … promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera” (Shelley, 1993: 40). Victor knew his studies were taking him into realms that would terrorize others if they knew, but admits that he continued in studies that “forced [him] to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings” (45) while “my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature” (49). Despite the warnings Frankenstein had been given about his study and its potential to unleash unlawful havoc upon society, the doctor continues to work on the creature he had started until the living monster stood facing him.

Frankenstein would like us to believe that it was only at this point that he recognized the monster as hideous, but then he willingly and unlawfully discharged this potentially dangerous creation of his upon the unsuspecting world. Without even getting to know what might be accomplished with the monster, as it seems to have originally had a very sweet and gentle nature, Frankenstein rejects it in every possible way, providing it with no means of avoiding trouble. Speaking for himself, the monster has indicated that it lived peacefully if isolated in a shed of the De Lacey home, slowly gaining knowledge of the world it should have acquired from its maker. “My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy” (119). Unfortunately, his experience in this outer world, one in which his appearance continuously and consistently inspires terror and violence, pushes the creature into a corner in which he has no options but to commit the acts of murder within the Frankenstein family. As the creation told Walton on the ice, ”I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my despair. Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature” (239). From a psychological point of view, Frankenstein’s absolute refusal to help alleviate the creation’s crushing loneliness is analogous to igniting the fuse and was every bit as conscious.

Frankenstein, having created something so hideous he can’t bear himself to look upon it, abandons his creation and allows it to enter the world unprotected, uncared for and misunderstood at every turn, thus discharging a deadly weapon into the world. More than this, Frankenstein refused to give the creature any aid designed to neutralize the creation’s deadliness. Knowing that the monster intended to cause yet more destruction in the world and who the monster was likely to target, Frankenstein’s deliberate refusal to do anything to help his creation comprises another instance of contributing to an act of terrorism. Although he had the moral responsibility to contain his creation and the ethical responsibility to ensure it was given proper care and treatment, Frankenstein washed his hands completely of it in full knowledge of its destructive capabilities. This fulfills the definition of first-degree murder under Florida state law 782.04k. Having been warned of the dangerous nature of his creation and creating it anyway and then knowing the intentions of the creation and doing nothing to stop it fulfills the definition of murder under Florida state law 782.04q. Either one alone would be sufficient to convict Victor Frankenstein of murder.

Works Cited

Shelley, Mary. The Essential Frankenstein. Leonard Wolf (Ed.). New York: Simon & Schuester, 2004.