Sarah Pastore

Tori McFarlain

Kathy Nguyen

Yashna Thakker

Jessica Cain

Rey Velazquez

7th period

Guilt and Innocence

Guilt Innocence

freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil.

the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously.

Relevance

Guilt and innocence play a key role in the novel. Both Frankenstein and the monster start off innocent, but over the course of the story they become guilty. The characters struggle with their guilt and the desire to make up for their crimes.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein's initial goals of scientific achievement were based on earnest curiosity.

However, in his quest to artificially create life, his blind ambition leads him to unintentionally challenge God.

Frankenstein

His first intentional crime was in abandoning the monster, whom he was bound to nurture.

“In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature, and was bound towards him, to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being” (Shelley 185).

Frankenstein

Frankenstein does not feel guilty until William's murder. He feels responsible for his brother's death, but does not come forward to excuse Justine.

“But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation” (Shelley 68).

Frankenstein

In a selfish desire to end his suffering, Frankenstein agrees to make the monster a female companion.

Frankenstein begins to redeem himself by considering the threat the monsters pose to mankind, and refuses to make the female.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein begins to actively pursue the monster. However, this was to relieve his own guilt, and could be considered another selfish act in his determination to exact revenge.

Even as he is dying, he asks Walton to fulfill his revenge.

The Monster

The monster is born innocent and confused. He has no desire to cause harm.

When he meets the cottagers, he admires their virtue and strives to bring them happiness.

“This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained” (Shelley 88).

The Monster

After he was rejected by the cottagers the monster commits his first crime, destroying the cottage.

He resolves to find and punish Frankenstein.

The Monster

Before he murders William his intent was to educate and befriend the child. However when the child resists, the monster feels rejected and murders him.

“ If, therefore, I could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth” (Shelley 117).

The Monster The monster halts his quest for revenge

when he asks Frankenstein to make him a companion, and swears to live separate from mankind.

When Frankenstein refuses, the monster abandons virtue and swears to make all men his enemy.

The Monster

The monster murders all of Frankenstein's friends and family.

The monster continues his torture of Frankenstein, but after his creator's death, he is consumed by remorse. He then leaves to kill himself.

The Monster “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have

murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. ...but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself” (Shelley 191).

Works Cited

http://www.merriam-webster.com/