Frankenstein (novel)/Characters

Victor Frankenstein

• Angst Coma: Does this several times throughout the book after something bad happens.
• Byronic Hero
• Character Title: The title of this book is Victor's surname, not the name of his Creature, who actually doesn't have a name!
• Determinator: Becomes totally obsessed with making his creature. It turns out badly. Later, he dedicates what is left of his life to tracking down and exacting revenge upon his creation.
• Final Speech : The majority (about 75%) of the book is Victor relating his back story to Walton, who transcribes the story into a letter to his sister. Victor talks an awful lot for someone about to die from being acutely weakened by coldness and exhaustion.
• Freudian Excuse: The untimely death of Victor's mother coupled with Victor's fascination with the sciences probably inspired him to discover the mysteries of creation and make his Creature.
• Foil: To his Creature. Unlike his Creature, Victor has family and friends who love him, lives comfortably in an upper class lifestyle, obtains a higher education, and has a tendency to isolate himself from the people who care for him. However, both Victor and the Creature are Byronic Heroes.
• Herr Doctor: He is of Swiss descent (hence his German surname) and is obsessed with the mysteries of creation and discovering them through the sciences. However, Victor never receives his doctorate in the book.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Victor cuts himself off from his family and friends while he's immersed in intellectual pursuits such as making his creature.
• Kissing Cousins: With his adopted sister Elizabeth. Well, they're Not Blood Related, but it still counts.
• Loners Are Freaks: He isolates himself from others when he's immersed in freakish pursuits, such as making his creature.
• Mad Scientist: He's a bit too obsessed with discovering the mysteries of creation.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Immediately after bringing his creature to life and realizing how hideous it is.
• Nightmare Sequence: Has one immediately after he brings his Creature to life, involving Elizabeth's rotting corpse.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy - Depending on how you interpret him.

Frankenstein's monster Creature

• Anti-Villain: To the point that many sympathize with him much more than they do with his creator.
• Artificial Human
• Blank Slate: Is born without properly working senses, let alone the abilities to speak or write or any maliciousness towards humans.
• Born as an Adult
• Byronic Hero: Like Father, Like Son.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Essencially a Deconstruction; the creature was not inherently evil, and could had ended up good, but the mistreatment by mankind lead him to become exactly what they thought of him.
• Driven to Suicide: At the very end of the book, he tells Walton he will commit suicide for being an abomination and having caused Victor to die.
  • Self-Immolation / Kill It with Fire: How does he plan to do it? By setting himself afire on top of the Arctic Circle.
• Emergent Human
• Evil Vegetarian: Averted. At first he's benevolent while only eating things like roots, berries, and nuts. Though later when he turns evil, he kills a rabbit so Victor can eat it. It's unknown whether the Creature himself eats animals while he's evil, though.
• Face Heel Turn: Initially is born with benevolent intentions towards humans. Turns evil after humans constantly reject and mistreat him.
• Foil: To Victor. Unlike Victor, the Creature doesn't have any family or friends who love him, is forced to live in the harshness of the wilderness, has to self-educate himself, and desperately wants to associate himself with the humans who reject him. However, both the Creature and Victor are Byronic Heroes.
• Friendless Background: Though not by choice.
• Genius Bruiser: The Creature educates himself very quickly by spying on a girl's lessons through a crack in a wall, growing into a remarkably intelligent, eloquent, and philosophical man. He is also an extremely powerful physical specimen, resistant to cold and injury as well as immensely strong, fast, and agile.
• Gentle Giant: At least before his Face Heel Turn.
• The Grotesque
• I Just Want to Have Friends: When explaining to Victor why he has turned evil against humanity:

"If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundredfold; for that one creature's sake I would make peace with the whole kind!"

• Instant Expert: The creature is a blank slate... essentially a newborn but with motor skills. He learns to speak and read French fluently in less than a year of watching a family teach a foreigner. After just a few months he's already good enough to read Paradise Lost!
• Lightning Bruiser: Of the "Fast-moving Big Bruiser" type. He can easily collect a large pile of firewood without a sweat, and he can easily sprint across an icy mountaintop.
• Loners Are Freaks: No human wants to interact with him, let alone befriend him, due to his monstrous appearance.
• Monster In The Cottage Shed: To observe a peasant family, he hides in their cottage shed so as to not notify them of his monstrous presence and cause them to chase him away.
• Monster Sob Story: The Creature tells his back story to Victor over several chapters to entreat him into making him a mate.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After causing Victor to die of exhaustion by provoking him to chase him across the world.
• Nightmare Face: Apparently his face is this to everyone, including himself.
• No Name Given: Readers may simply know of him as "The Creature" or "The Daemon."
• Obliviously Evil: During the one of earlier moments of his life he breaks into a old man's house and steals his food because it smelt so good. Only later does he realize that taking without asking leads to others' unhappiness.
• Parental Abandonment: By his creator Victor immediately after he's brought to life.
• Reluctant Monster
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Towards Victor for causing his miserable existence.

"Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you curse the hour of your birth."

• Uncanny Valley: Has a human form, yet looks repulsive enough to scare away any onlookers.
• Tortured Abomination: He is fully aware of how much of an abomination against nature he is. In fact, by the end of the book, it causes him to consider suicide.
• Tragic Monster
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Even with his intelligence and (at the beginning) good heart, because of his unnatural birth, his fearsome appearance, and unchecked strength, the Creature is immediately considered evil by not only by his creator Victor, but also by anyone who sees him. Therefore, despite the Creature practically being his child, Victor has absolutely no remorse over his hatred and desire for the Creature to die, simply because the Creature is not really a human (and looks damn scary to boot).
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Not of the entire world, but of Victor's.

Robert Walton

• Determinator: Well, he was, but he agrees to his crew's request to turn back from his expedition, contrary to the plan of Frankenstein.
• Foil: To Frankenstein. While Victor was determined to discover the mysteries of creation, Walton is determined to reach the Arctic Circle.
• Friendless Background: Walton considers Victor his first true friend.
• The Ishmael: The whole novel is his letter, technically, he's the one writing all of this.