Frankenstein - Leonidas Tsirigotis

     In the beginning of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, we get a good origin story of Victor Frankenstein, at this point, a child who is already fascinated with science. His family consists of his mother, father, and Elizabeth, an adopted sister from when his family visited Italy. Luckily for both Elizabeth and Victor, they had a great relationship with their mother and father and their friend Henry Clerval, who is their close friend. It is not all happy moments though, as Victor seems to be waiting for his "fate" or "doom". And upon further reading, it seems like he is predicting it, or can't wait to finally witness it. It is a sort of messed up mentality to have. It is not normal for people to regularly think about their impending doom. To make his mental health worse, his mother catches scarlet fever from Elizabeth. She passes right before Victor goes to university. This is a very sad moment, he states "I need nor describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil; the void that presents itself to the soul; and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance" (Page 24). This sentence right here is proof that it's not that Victor doesn't want to describe what the death was like for our sake, but for his. The pain is completely readable from that excerpt. Victor seems to take all of that pain and hold it in, (which is a very poor strategy) and focus on school. Two tears pass and then Victor makes his internal struggle even worse by cutting off his family and focusing on work. Everyone knows that this negative build up can result in catastrophic events, which correctly align to Victor's prediction of doom waiting for him. 

    The doom does eventually arrive for Victor, when he finally creates his monster. In my eyes, the visuals given in this chapter are imagery and completes the foreshadowing Victor has been giving throughout the book. The monster for example, stands over Victor while he is sleeping. To make things worse, Victor's youngest brother, William is killed and he immediately blames it on his monster. It is later revealed that Justine killed William, but Victor is not convinced. Justine is executed for "her crimes" but Victor is still not convinced. Her execution leads him to extreme guilt, knowing that he indirectly killed his brother and Justine from his creation. This leads to a massive healing Victor desperately needed and towards the end of chapter 8, it seems like he finally gets it. This then gets reversed when he relives Justine's execution and tries to solve his pain by taking a walk in a valley.