Destiny and Frankenstein

“Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.” Victor Frankenstein says this right before telling Walton his story.Destiny played an important role in the book Frankenstein. Victor sees it as the force that caused his downfall. He blames most of what has happened on destiny. At first it was his destiny to build the monster, afterwards he says it is his destiny to destroy it. Victor feltas if some force was making him experiment, that some force was making him make the monster and he had no control over it.

This is why when he was building the monster he shut him self off from everything else and committed himself to his experiment. He didn’t have to do this but something was driving him to, and it might have been his curiosity and his wanting to cheat death, or play god, or do something no one else had ever done before, but also, he may have had those characteristics because he was destined to have them.

Maybe this all happened so he and others can understand that you shouldn’t play god, but then after he built the monster it was his destiny to destroy it.

As a result of Victor’s actions, many of his loved ones died, Elizabeth, William, Justine, and his father. After Victor made the monster his destiny became to be punished for it, but could Victor have prevented all this? Maybe, and maybe not. The answer to that question depends on whether you believe in destiny or not. Is destiny really so powerful that Victor had no control over it? Could Victor’s destiny have been different if he hadn’t built the monster? Could Victor have sustained from building the monster, or was destiny too powerful? How about the part when Victor destroys the female monster, what would have happened if Victor hadn’t destroyed it, or was it his destiny to destroy it? Later on in the book he follows the monster into the cold, what if he didn’t, would he have still died? In all of this Victor made decisions, he decided whether or not to go off to college, he decided whether or not to build the monster, he decided whether or not to build the female, he decided whether or not to chase after the monster, but where these really his decisions, or was it his destiny to end up on Walton’s ship? Victor told Walton his story and showed what wanting to explore into the unknown can lead to, in the end, Walton’s ship turns around and decides not to find the North Pole.

I believe that it was Victor’s destiny for all this to happen because in the end all that he has done was told to teach Walton a lesson. Destiny is said to be a powerful force which determines your future. If you believe in destiny, you believe that everyone was put on this earth for a reason and everything you do is for a reason. Believing in destiny means that when you do something, even though you might think you are making a decision on your own, you are really carrying out your destiny. I do believe that destiny does have a big part on peoples lives. I believe that many of the decisions you make, you make them because it was your fate to make them. There are many examples in people’s lives that can make you think, what would have happened if I had done this differently? Or, was it my fate for this to happen, or just the results of my mistakes.

A couple years ago my aunt died in a train accident, and everyone started thinking, if she had been on a different train, or if she was late and couldn’t get on the train, or if she hadn’t been on the trip, would she still have died? I believe that it was her destiny to go on that train because it was her time to die. Another example of this is about this girl that I know, when she was younger her parents, brother and sister died in a car accident. She always regrets that she stayed home sick on that day and didn’t die right along with them. But I think that she was spared for a reason, maybe she’ll make a difference in someone’s life. Destiny is a very powerful thing. Many people think factors can alter destiny, one being not taking responsibilities for your actions, which is what Victor did. He refused to blame what happened on himself. If you believe in destiny too much, you slack off and don’t try to change for the better, and you don’t take care of yourself because you think, “whatever happens it is going to be the same no matter what I do because it is my destiny and its been already decided.”

In the book Victor blamed most of the things that happened on destiny and didn’t take responsibility for most of them. He refused to blame what happened as his own doing. When he was building the monster, he didn’t try to stop himself, when the monster came to life he ran away, he left Elizabeth alone for a second on his wedding night thinking he was the one the monster was after, he then chased after the monster thinking it was his destiny to do so which caused his death. He believed everything that happened was his destiny and that he could not have altered it. When you believe in destiny you try to do what you think your destiny has planned out for you, and even if you don’t you still do what was planned, even if you’re wrong about your destiny it always catches up with you. Lets say some guy thinks its his destined is to become a doctor, he tries and he tries and he becomes one but later on he realizes being a lawyer is the job for him, because that was his destiny.

Some people who believe in destiny slack of because they think that whatever happens, I couldn’t have prevented it, they might lets say start smoking and think if I die from this its because it was my destiny to do so. Then they die from it and some people think it may have been prevented, but I believe that even if he didn’t believe in destiny he would have taken up smoking because the way he would die had already been decided for him. Lets say someone commits suicide, people always think it could have been prevented, but I believe they died because it was their destiny, if it wasn’t their time to die yet, they may have tried to commit suicide but wouldn’t have succeeded.

So in reality you cant even control when you die, like when Napoleon tried to kill himself with that powerful poison and failed, it wasn’t his time to die yet. So in conclusion I believe that everything that happened to Victor was the result of destiny. I don’t believe that it happened because he gave in too much to his curiosity. I believe it was his destiny to have this curiosity, to look into the unknown and to try to have the power to create life. What led him to this was the death of his mother this made him want to try to reanimate the dead, it was his mother’s destiny to die so that Victor’s destiny would be fulfilled. So it wasn’t Victor’s characteristics that led him to fall, he had those characteristics because he was destined to fall.