Harold Bloom on Shelley's Frankenstein Research Proposal

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Bloom claims that Victor was a "moral idiot" (Bloom) when he shirked his responsibilities. Victor's actions reveal that he is a completely selfish individual, incapable of being aware of anyone else's existence. The monster undergoes a radical transformation in the novel, from a being with no sense to a being completely aware of himself. He is more aware of himself than Victor could ever be and this allows the reader to identify with him on a more personal level. It is his sense of self that makes him human and Victor's selfishness that makes him seem inhuman. The irony is what brings Bloom back to the Romantic mythology of self.

Bloom successfully proves his points in this essay. He could have used more quotations from the text itself but the essay is strong enough without them. Bloom's examination of the novel in the broader spectrum of the Romantic Movement is interesting and compelling. When we look at the novel this way, we have a greater sense of what Shelley attempted to convey in the novel. While Victor did not set out to do anything bad or create anything evil, he did and evil became of every effort he put forth.

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Bloom compares this to Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost, when he states "Evil thenceforth became my good" (Milton). When Victor tells Walton, "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how happier the man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" (Shelley 38), we know that something has gone terribly wrong. Victor becomes consumed in his own dream and sadly, does not stop to think of the unintended consequences. For this reason, Bloom points out that it is fitting that the monster would survive Victor. He does so because he is the one that "possesses character" (Bloom), according to Bloom. This sense of self is something that Victor never enjoyed and had he experienced it, his life might have turned out completely different and with a much happier ending.

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