Frankenstein Case Study - Victor

b) Shelley also portrays nature as a nurturer to us. From here, shows that the monster and Victor both turns to nature for help.

• Victor needs emotional support and nature calms him down. After the sentencing of Justine, Victor takes a trip to Chamounix. “These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving.”
• When boating on the Rhine, it is so peaceful that “Even I, depressed in mind, and my spirits continually agitated by gloomy feelings, even I was pleased… I seemed to drink in a tranquillity to which I had long been a stranger.”
• It is also an irony because the mutability of nature that brings about heavy rain and thick mists at the same time haunts Victor as it foreshadows the subsequent appearance of the monster, which is mysterious – lurking around… being a constant source of danger. “he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths”
• Monster survives on berries, nuts and roots provided by the wild. Takes pleasure in the sound of nature esp. that of the birds. Learn to make fire with wood and was able to cook and keep warm and have light in the night.

Reader’s reaction

• the fact that Victor have used nature in the form of dead body parts to create another being.
• Shelley leaves the readers pondering whether the actions of Victor is morally right.
• Considering the setting of the novel and the time it was written, in the 1800’s, grave digging was seen as a taboo to many. Hence, by using grave digging as a basis for the story, it makes Shelley’s writing more effective in engaging the reader’s sentiments.