Mike M.

Michael Maye

Life Pursuit at all costs in Gothic Novels

In the novel, “Frankenstein,” by Mary Shelley the theme of pursuit of life at all costs is relevant throughout the novel. By having Victor Frankenstein and the monster endure equally extreme conditions Shelley is able to clearly portray this theme in her novel. For example, in the novel Victor Frankenstein devotes over 2 years of his life digging through graves and spending radical amounts of time trying to create life in his monster. Victor Frankenstein even becomes gravely ill from the extreme conditions he endured while creating the monster. Numerous times throughout the novel Victor Frankenstein falls extremely ill due to his treacherous endeavors such as falling ill in the Irish prison, becoming ill after his brother was killed, and immediately falling ill as his friend Henry Clerval comes to visit him at Ingolstadt. A quote from the novel that really envelops this theme of pursuing life at all costs is this by Victor Frankenstein, "I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I deprived myself of rest and health” (Shelley 43). By reading this quote from Victor the reader is able to analyze that victor gave up his rest and health from two years just to pursue the creation of life.

Moving forward, someone in today’s society that has this obsession of pursuing life could be Jack Lalane. Jack Lalane is an extremely old man that is in great shape. At age 60 he pulled 60 rowboats by himself for a long distance. This behavior of staying in almost superhuman strength for such a number of years could be considered an obsession of pursuing life.