Theme of Guilt in Frankenstein Essay Sample

Guilt is a multiversal emotion that most people share. Guilt is when you or someone else feels responsible or regretful for an action that happened in the past. People can feel guilt in many ways, even though sometimes they don't need to feel so guilty. The only people to feel guilt for fictional reasons are fictional characters. Many fictional characters from our favorite books, movies, and TV shows deal with feelings of guilt.

A main fictional character that feels guilt is Victor from the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. Victor began to feel guilty when the monster he created killed his brother and framed Justine for the murder. In Chapter 8, Frankenstein says, "A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine; but I was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman, and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me." The quote protrays that he feels guilt for the death of Justine, who died due to binging framed for the death of William by the monster. He knew that if he didn't create the monster, his brother and Justine would be alive. This guilt leads to him wanting to destroy the monster on his wedding night but the monster kills his lover, Elizabeth instead while he was searching for the monster. Guilt is a main part of the story due to the guilt Victor feels for his family who died at the hands of the monster. Guilt pushes Victor to get revenge on the monster but doesn't successfully do since he dies at the end, which is what the monster wanted since Victor abandoned him.

Victor is not the only fictional character to feel guilt. He feels guilt for creating the monster which was his dream from the beginning. Due to Victor creating the monster, many of his close family died. Although the monster killed them, he feels that his close family wouldn't have died if he didn't create the monster.  The multiversal emotion of guilt is felt by everyone, including our favorite fictional characters from books, movies, and television.