"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has been adapted to a film about the dangers inherent in the quest for personal glory at the expense of all else". Discuss

Essay by HSV_manHigh School, 11th gradeA, April 2004

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a movie simply about the deadly ambition of one man, Victor Frankenstein. Throughout the movie he blatantly disregards the dangers such as consequences of his actions which in turn lead to his downfall in Love, Family, and His sense of community also affecting his marriage/love. Victor playing the role of god trying to create a life in turn results in personal and Social Chaos.

As the film begins we are introduced to an icy, gloomy place where the ship under control of a man called Walton is stuck in the middle of this ice world. He is that determined to get to the North Pole that he is willing to put his crew, himself and anybody else that gets in his way. Walton and Frankenstein are very much alike as we both see there overwhelming ambition for self glory, regardless who it affects or how.

We see Victors over ambition from the death of his mother as she was giving birth; Victor quotes "No one need ever die. I will stop this... I promise", where as Walton's sole reason for being over ambitious is the fact that he has invested his entire fortune in the journey however, when Walton is confronted with the simple question of "how long will we be away" a simple answer in a stern but relaxed tone is "as long as it takes.". Once Victor explains to Walton the dangers of being over ambitious, leading to mistakes that will lead to either your own demise, or leading to the demise of everyone around you maybe even to the greater extent of corrupting society he agrees to turn around and head home as he realizes his over ambition could kill him or even his crew.

Victor was always an ambitious young man;...