Friday, November 21, 2008

Frankenstien

In the book “Frankenstein” Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates a Monster who, through a long chain of events, develops a hatred for his creator. Striving to make Victor suffer as much as possible, the creature kills everyone from Victors family, sparking a hunger for vengeance within Victor. With feelings of vengeance and a responsibility to rid the world of the monster he brought into existence Victor starts to chase his creature. After many months of being but a few days behind the monster Victor obtains a faster dog-sled and begins to gain ground. Gaining quickly, Victor is merely hundreds of feet behind the monster after just one day. Yet when he has finally gained the hope that he may overtake the Monster the ice breaks around him, leaving him to float to his death on a small portion of ice. Victor has lost all hope when he sees a ship. He is saved. They take him on board and there he meets the Capitan after having been somewhat nurtured back to health. It is under the care of this Capitan that Victor spends his last days. During this time do they benefit from each other? Are they friends? How do their personalities compare? And most of all, why does this matter?

While Victor and the Capitan have some similarities they are, for the most part, different. Victor took on the task of creating a being and giving life to it. A being who's actions Victor is indirectly responsible for because he created it. All the deaths it caused were his fault. When Victor had finished crafting his monster and had given it life he went into shock from the sight of his monster, showing a very weak resolve and resulting in the allowance of a whole chain of painful events. Events not only hurtful to him but also for many others. Events that could have otherwise been avoided. On the other side of things we see the Capitan, however, who was exploring new lands. He was not creating something that would have terrible, lasting consequences or cause innocent people to die. The only people he put at risk were himself and his crew, and his crew came willingly. Both the Capitan and Victor have very different personalities and pursuits.

Despite their differences, though, both Victor and the Capitan could help each other. Victor helped the Capitan by giving him his story that he might learn from Victor's mistakes. He also gave the Capitan and his crew valuable encouragement even if it didn't cause them to press on in their explorations. The Capitan also helped Victor, primarily by saving him from death but also in a few other ways. For instance the Capitan was a friend to Victor in his last days when victor had no friends. He also recorded Victor's story so that it wouldn't be lost. Through all of this Victor and the Capitan mutually helped each other.

During Victors brief stay with the Capitan they become friends. They take an immediate liking to each other, Victor because the Capitan saved his life, and the Capitan because Victor had travel as far as he had, only on a dog-sled. It didn't stop there though. As they got to know each other better Victor came to like him because of how courages he was and the Capitan was in awe of everything Victor has been through, admiring his determination to destroy the monster, among other things.

These two men though somewhat different, were mutually helpful to each other and even became friends in the little time the were together. Through the chance meeting of Victor and the Capitan, Victor's story was preserved and the Capitan carried on the important lesson that was to be learned from Victor's mistakes as well as the model of determination to do the right thing that the Capitan saw in Victor.

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