Passion in a right place The late eighteenth century’s American author Christian Nevell Bovess quoted, “The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess” which says that passions are good enough to help people o achieve what the want; nevertheless, they can still bring harm or destruction when they are excessive. Successful people usually have had enough passion to make their dreams come true since they knew how to manage their ambitions. However, when people are not able to think of other things because they are overly into one particular thing, passion becomes evilly obsessive. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tries to convey that passion is blinding and perilous when people no longer control their desires over one thing in a reasonable way. A major character, Victor Frankenstein’s powerful passion towards science brings total ruin on his life, putting his beloved people in death of dangers through his creature. As he sees a complete creature, Victor runs away, shocked by its disgusting appearances even though he was filled with joy and delight when he creates it. Irresponsibly, Victor abandons his creature, and the creature starts to become drastically evil, causing deaths of Victor’s family and friend:
Victor’s young brother William, dearest Justine, true friend Henry, his lover Elizabeth, and his father Alpfonse. Ironically, due to the final product of great passions, Victor almost lost all the beloved people. Victor’s strong desires made him blind so that he does not know that his excessive passion could drive him to have horrific mistakes of creating a human being. He should not have started to study “the secrets of heaven and earth” since it was somewhat beyond nature. Victor’s unforgivable behavior for destroying a dead person’s body to create a human being led him fall to the bottom from the top. Because Victor and people despised the creature whenever it tries to communicate with them, the creature’s passions to be accepted by a society and his creator turn to anger and hatred.
As an innocent human being, the creature was too ardent to get along with people at first. Firstly, I can see how passionate the creature was through this quote, “The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures”. The creature still yearned for kindness when he was rejected by some people already, observing the De Laceys and learning their language in the hope of possibility to befriend with them. However, when he was again despised by even the
De laceys, his good passions transform towards all mankind, especially for Victor. Although what made people be mean was the creature’s appearances which was not the creature’s fault, the creature was not strong enough to control its emotions to stay as positive feeling so that his transformed wicked mind later brings disaster on his creator. Robert Walton has passion to see and set a foundation on undiscovered path, sailing up to the North Pole. He was even happy with hardship and dangers of voyage because he was eager to find his glory of knowledge without knowing how his voyage work out for his crew. When he was trapped among sheets of ice, he meets Victor. After he heard of Victor’s story, he changes his mind to go back to England for other people realizing how destructive a self-interest can be. Walton may notice that his eagerness for knowledge would put his crew in danger, even his own life. He abandons his desires for everyone, for greater good, not being selfish any more.
Compared to Walton, Victor was still selfish until his death, asking Walton to continue his unnecessary hatred of the creature. The closest truly friend of Victor, Henry loved Victor with sincerity and enthusiastically had passion for romantic literature; he used to compose heroic songs or write adventures giving his friend Victor joy of life. More importantly, even though he was ardent enough to gain some experience in literature, he made sure that his passion never let it harm his beloved people because he did not want to lose his people definitely while Victor did. If Victor had thought of consequences of what he was doing, he would not have done it. Unfortunately, he did not even try to think about since he was blinded by his own selfishness. Passion has both good sides and bad sides depending on capability what each person can control. In Frankenstein, Victor endeavored too much to get unnecessary knowledge that has not only brought his personal destruction but also the death of people whom he loved. The pursuit of something usually brings growth and make life easier and valuable. However, sometimes, not knowing or learning something is bliss. I think the ultimate purpose of passion is to be happy somewhat and most people do not need something special to be happy. Maybe they would be happy if they have a precious family, a true friend, and enough food to live on. In the begging of chapters, Victor confesses that no person could have had a happier childhood than him. He knew what the happiness was; however, he just couldn’t let excessive passion go away because of only his own ambition that finally led to a tragic end. Even though some kind of passion would be greatest than anything, it would be unworthy and valuable if purpose of passion is achieved through the process that people somewhat need to destroy what he cares for regardless of their intentions. Passion should be on a certain level that can be understood in a rational way.