GCSE · English Literature · AQA · Spec 8702

Frankenstein: ambition and hubris

The man telling this story is warning you not to become him. So listen closely to how he talks about himself.

Close reading · Chapter 4

Listen to how Victor talks

Victor is describing the moment he discovers the secret of life, and what he did next. Tap each highlighted phrase to see how Shelley makes his pride audible.

…I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised, that among so many men of genius who had directed their enquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.

[…] After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires, was the most gratifying consummation of my toils. […] What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp.

[…] I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler organization; but my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man. […] I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed.

[…] No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.

[…] with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. […] often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1831 text), Chapter 4. Victor narrating; […] marks words left out.

Tap a highlighted phrase: the technique, its effect and what it shows about Victor appear beside the text.

Reading “dizzy with the immensity of the prospect”

Hyperbole (exaggeration)

Effect

He isn't just pleased. He's 'dizzy', and the prospect has 'immensity'. Hyperbolic language exaggerates, and here the exaggeration inflates the discovery, and Victor along with it.

Meaning

Shelley uses hyperbole to characterise Victor as hubristic: his excessive pride shows in how enormous he makes everything sound.

Focused phrase “dizzy with the immensity of the prospect”. technique Hyperbole (exaggeration). effect: He isn't just pleased. He's 'dizzy', and the prospect has 'immensity'. Hyperbolic language exaggerates, and here the exaggeration inflates the discovery, and Victor along with it.. meaning: Shelley uses hyperbole to characterise Victor as hubristic: his excessive pride shows in how enormous he makes everything sound.

Watch out: Victor is the narrator, but Shelley is the writer. Write 'Shelley presents Victor as…', because she chose every image he uses, including the summit metaphor.

The cost of ambition

What did Victor's ambition cost?

Draw the links: which of these led to which? Start from the ambition and follow where it goes.

Ambition consumes him: he pushes past his own doubts and loathing
He breaks natural laws: robs graves and tortures living animals
His body suffers: 'pale with study', 'emaciated with confinement'
His mind goes numb: he has 'lost all soul or sensation' and is isolated
The experiment works, and he feels 'breathless horror and disgust'
William is murdered and Justine dies
Regret: he warns Walton and refuses to share his secret (outcome)

Add a link

This factor……made this happen or worse

No links yet.

Victor's mirrors

Victor, Walton or Prometheus?

For each trait, tick everyone it fits: one, two, or all three.

A Victor
B Walton
C Prometheus

Driven by dangerous ambition
Seeks knowledge and wisdom
Calls one man's life or death 'a small price to pay' for knowledge
Is warned that his wishes may be 'a serpent to sting you'
Steals from the divine
Makes beings of his own
Is punished severely by Zeus
Regrets his actions
Shows no remorse

Science and Shelley

Is Frankenstein an anti-science novel?

A classmate says: "Frankenstein is basically anti-science. Shelley's telling us science is dangerous and wrong."

Which is closest to what you think right now?

They're right. Shelley is attacking science itself, and the whole novel says scientific progress is wrong.Actually, Victor is a heroic scientist. The novel celebrates his genius and what he achieves.Shelley says all knowledge is dangerous, so people should never try to learn more than they know.Shelley isn't against science. She's against science with no limits and no moral responsibility.

How sure are you?

I'm sureI think soI'm guessing

They're right. Shelley is attacking science itself, and the whole novel says scientific progress is wrong.

This is a common misconception

It's an easy reading to reach, and many critics have read the novel as a criticism of the Scientific Revolution: a series of significant events in the 16th and 17th centuries that shifted people's beliefs about nature. Some religious people feared its discoveries because many contradicted beliefs about God being a creator, and some saw the progress of science as limitless, and sometimes immoral and unethical. But Shelley was not opposed to scientific advancement. What goes wrong is not that Victor studies. It's how he does it, and that he never stops.

Actually, Victor is a heroic scientist. The novel celebrates his genius and what he achieves.

This is a common misconception

Victor would have liked that reading when he was 'dizzy with the immensity of the prospect'. But Shelley presents his genius as hubris, and the novel counts the cost in his body, his mind and other people's lives. When he succeeds, he feels 'breathless horror and disgust', not triumph.

Shelley says all knowledge is dangerous, so people should never try to learn more than they know.

This is a common misconception

That's Victor speaking, not Shelley. He warns Walton about pursuing knowledge to its utter limits, and he speaks as a man ruined by doing exactly that. Keep the character's warning and the writer's view apart: Shelley's target is knowledge pursued without limits or morals, not learning itself.

Shelley isn't against science. She's against science with no limits and no moral responsibility.

This matches the evidence

Yes. Society at the time was watching scientists reanimate frogs and make their legs twitch with galvanization. Shelley takes that real science and asks what happens when it is unethical and limitless, and not paired with individual moral responsibility.

Not anti-science: anti-limitless, anti-unethical. The novel is about what happens when science is not paired with individual moral responsibility.

English Lit · Paragraph craft

Build the paragraph

Start with the blank slots and say what you'd write in each. Then switch to the worked example.

Frankenstein · How does Shelley present Victor's ambition in Chapter 4?

Tap a slot to fill or empty it.

Selected slot

Tap a slot above

Watch out: Don't retell what Victor does. Every sentence after the quotation should say what the words show.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge

Victor's pride, in his own words, and the warning Shelley builds out of it.

— Victor to Walton, Chapter 4

What you need to know

Hubris means excessive pride or arrogance. Shelley portrays Victor as a highly hubristic character who plays God.
Playing God means taking control of decisions or interventions that should be reserved for God. Victor does it by giving a dead creature life.
In Chapter 4, Victor's own language shows his hubris: hyperbole, the repeated 'I', the 'summit' metaphor, the 'hurricane' simile and the personification of nature.
Victor's ambition costs him his health, his feelings and the lives of William and Justine, and in the end his own life.
Walton and Prometheus mirror Victor's ambition. Shelley opposes unethical, limitless science, not science itself.

The big picture

Shelley lets us hear Victor's hubris (excessive pride) in his own voice: in Chapter 4 he exaggerates, repeats 'I', climbs a 'summit', sweeps on 'like a hurricane' and imagines a new species blessing him as its creator, which is playing God. The novel then counts what that ambition costs Victor and the people around him, and it sets him beside Walton and Prometheus. Shelley is not attacking science. She is warning against unethical, limitless science that is not paired with moral responsibility.

Key points

1Hyperbole ('dizzy with the immensity of the prospect') and the repeated 'I' ('I alone') present Victor as proud and arrogant.

2'The summit of my desires' is a metaphor for knowledge as a mountain he climbs. The metaphor is Shelley's choice, not Victor's.

3'Like a hurricane' shows his destructive nature and foreshadows the devastation to come.

4'A new species would bless me as its creator and source': Victor positions himself as God.

5Victor ignores his own doubts and loathing; the pursuit leaves him 'pale', 'emaciated' and emotionally numb, and success brings 'breathless horror and disgust'.

6'Learn from me': Victor turns his own life into a warning to Walton about knowledge pursued to its utter limits.

7The Modern Prometheus: like Prometheus, Victor steals from the divine and is recklessly ambitious. Unlike Prometheus, he regrets it.

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Worked example

Problem

How does Shelley show that the cost of Victor's ambition lasts? Analyse this line from Chapter 4: 'My limbs now tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance'.

⚠ Watch out

Writing 'Victor uses a metaphor'. Victor is the narrator, but Shelley is the writer who chooses his words, so write 'Shelley presents Victor as…'. The other trap is retelling what he does (he robs graves, he builds a creature) instead of analysing how the language presents his ambition.

🧠

Memory hook

Climb, storm, stalk, be worshipped: Victor climbs a summit, sweeps on like a hurricane, stalks nature to her hiding-places and dreams of a species that blesses him. Four images, one proud voice, and Shelley wrote every word.

✓

Check yourself

Cover the page. Why does 'Learn from me… by my example' turn Victor's own life into Shelley's warning? Then name one Chapter 4 phrase, its technique, and what it shows about him.

Flashcards

(15)

What does 'hubris' mean?

Excessive pride or arrogance. Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein as highly hubristic.

What does it mean to 'play God'?

To take control of decisions or interventions that should be reserved for God. Victor does it by giving a dead creature life.

'I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect': which technique?

Hyperbole (hyperbolic language exaggerates). Shelley uses it to characterise Victor as hubristic.

What does Victor's 'I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret' show?

Arrogance: he sets himself above 'so many men of genius', and the repeated 'I' keeps the focus on him.

'The summit of my desires': technique, and whose choice is it?

A metaphor comparing the pursuit of knowledge to a mountain he climbs. Shelley, the writer, is responsible for it, not Victor.

What does the simile 'like a hurricane' suggest?

Victor's destructive nature. It foreshadows the devastation his experiment brings to him and others.

How does 'A new species would bless me as its creator and source' present Victor?

As positioning himself as God to the creatures he would create.

'I pursued nature to her hiding-places': technique and effect?

Personification. Victor becomes a predator and nature a victim, showing how relentless and immoral his experiments were.

What does Victor do with his doubts and his 'loathing' in Chapter 4?

He understands the risks and knows the work is wrong, but he ignores both and carries on.

How does the experiment affect Victor's body and mind?

'My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement'. He becomes emotionally numb: 'lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit'.

Who dies as a result of Victor's ambition?

His younger brother William (murdered by the creature), Justine, and in the end Victor himself.

Which Walton quotation shows he shares Victor's ambition?

'One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought' (Letter 4).

What is the key difference between Victor and Prometheus?

Both are recklessly ambitious and irresponsible, but Victor regrets his actions while Prometheus shows no remorse.

Was Shelley against science?

No. She opposed unethical and limitless scientific practices: science not paired with individual moral responsibility.

What was galvanization, and who was watching it?

Scientists of the time used it to reanimate frogs and make their legs twitch, and society at the time was watching.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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Listen to how Victor talks

What did Victor's ambition cost?

Victor, Walton or Prometheus?

Is Frankenstein an anti-science novel?

Build the paragraph

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