Is Victor Frankenstein really sincere in his regret of making the monster? He seems to be a very selfish person in that the whole reason he wanted to create a “reanimated corpse” is for his own gratification… “wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death” (Shelley 22)! He wants all the “glory” to himself and he wants to be recognized and remembered for something. Victor becomes so obsessed with the plan to become famous (so to speak) that he completely ignores his human needs and his health is even altered… “My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement” (Shelley 32). Later on in the story when Justine has been convicted of the murder of Victor’s brother, William, Victor shows again how selfish he is … “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” (Shelley 52). Victor is more worried about people thinking he is crazy (which he is) than saving a friends life! All Victor can speak about is his anguish and his remorse, but I do not believe it! “The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by the innocence, but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom, and would not forego their hold” (Shelley 54). Again, I believe that Victors sincerity is lacking; he is too selfish of a being.
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