Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Period & week of 5/13

Please Respond before the end of the school day on May 13th.

Discuss the irony in Victor's statement to the magistrate: "Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"

18 comments:

  1. Victor takes pride in his wisdom when he creates the Creature. After giving life to the Creature, Victor becomes disappointed in the finished product. He did not look at his creation with intentions to care and raise it. Victor wanted the Creature to have certain qualities, but he rejects the Creature after he discovers a feature he considers a flaw. Instead of looking at the Creature as a person, Victor looks at it as a trophy of his wisdom and shuns it when the results of his studies were not pleasing. Victor’s ignorance towards respect for his creation becomes his downfall. Victor becomes upset with the magistrate because the magistrate did not want to pursue the Creation when it is Victor’s responsibility to care for and discipline the Creation. Victor delays telling the public about the existence of the creation because he fears he would be looked at as insane. Victor is more concerned about his pride in knowledge than of the safety of mankind. He proves he is selfish because he does not speak up about the true murder of William. He becomes responsible for the lives of Jinean and William because he has too much in pride in his outward appearance. He also becomes responsible for society’s negative influence toward the Creation because he has too much pride in perfection in beauty and mind. After Victor gives life the Creature, the finished product does not look beautiful and Victor does not want the Creature to act as a representative of Victor’s works.

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  2. The magistrate is supposed to be someone who is knowledgeable, wise and an authority figure who is respected and admired. The magistrate at first did not believe Victor's story, but then he started to pay close attention to Victor and said he would do everything in his power to catch the monster Victor described. The magistrate did warn Victor that he should prepare for disappointment since by Victor's descriptions the monster seemed to be stronger than any man could possibly capture or control. Victor then became enraged and so highly agitated that it seemed like he had gone into a frenzy. Victor said he would sacrifice his life in order to destroy the monster. Near the end of chapter 23, his exact words were "...I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction". Then the magistrate thought Victor was mad because of his frenzied state and did not believe his story. It is ironic how the magistrate, who was supposed to be wise and knowledgeable, ignored all of the evidence and facts because it came out of a mad man's mouth.

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  3. Before Victor’s conversation with the magistrate, the magistrate had said "Be assured, sir," "no pains or exertions on my part shall be spared to discover the villain.” After hearing that; Victor began to tell his story. The magistrate was at first incredulous, but soon became fascinated and began to listen attentively to what Victor had to say. As Victor finished he said “This is the being whom I accuse, and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power. It is your duty as a magistrate.” After Victor had demanded action, the magistrate refused to follow his previously said statement and says that pursuing the creature is to great of a challenge because it posses super human qualities. The magistrate’s refusal deeply angers Victor, making him vow to kill the monster. The outcome is ironic, because earlier Victor refused to tell his secret because he did not want to be seen as mad, but now he is considered to be a mad man not because of his creation but because of his overwhelming desire to apprehend it.

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  4. Victor’s statement is ironic because Victor himself had been arrogant about his own acquirement of knowledge. Victor thought he’d be capable enough and ready for the knowledge needed to create a form of life. Victor was playing God and didn’t think his creation will be his own downfall. The statement is ironic because he’s attacking the magistrate’s pride in his ‘wisdom’. When in fact Victor throughout the novel has been prideful in his ‘wisdom’ and because o f his creation people have died. Just like Chris says, I believe Victor delays announcing what have happened to him out of fear of rejection. Victor was more concerned with his knowledge than the safety of his family and humanity. When the magistrate rejects and dismisses Victor’s claims, Victor is enraged. The magistrate although having heard Victor’s story, he believes Victor to be mad. “V But to a Genevan magistrate, whose mind was occupied by far other ideas than those of devotion and heroism, this elevation of mind had much the appearance of madness. He endeavored to soothe me as a nurse does a child, and reverted to my tale as the effects of delirium.” The magistrate is a person who is supposedly someone who is wise but he like Ambar said ignores all the facts.

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  5. George you bring up a very good point when you wrote about the irony about Victor's madness. Victor didn't tell the secret about his creation because he didn't want to be considered a mad man, but now he's being considered a mad man because of his desire to kill the monster. I had not thought about that, but it is very true. Victor can not avoid his fate.

    Karolina I couldn't agree with you more when you wrote about Victor being prideful in his own wisdom throughout the novel. You also brought up another excellent point I had not considered. Since Victor was so prideful in making a creature so perfect and beautiful, his results were the complete opposite. Maybe if Victor had a little less pride and was less shallow, he probably would have a creation he would be proud of. Since pride is one of the deadly sins and Victor was prideful the monster turned out to be a sinner.

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  6. The irony in Victor’s statement to the magistrate: “Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!" is that he was ignorant to his creation because of his pride. He was in search of his own wisdom and that’s why he is able to understand why the magistrate didn’t want to help him destroy the creature. Victor knows that it’s his fault that everything happened, and that the monster murdered his whole family.

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  7. The irony in Victor’s statement to the magistrate: “Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom” is that Victor himself was ignorant when he created the Creature simply because of his pride of wisdom. I think the whole situation is very hypocritical, especially because Victor never wanted to reveal his creation until this point when all the damage had already been done. I think the main reason for this was his pride; he didn’t want people to know of his failure and much less wanted to be judged by society for his actions. He let his pride get in the way of protecting the people he loved the most and at this point in the novel it is too late to take responsibility.

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  8. I agree with Chris when he says that "Victor is more concerned about his pride in knowledge than of the safety of mankind" because he didnt consider the consequences of his creation. He created something that was more powerful than man and there really was no way to stop it, but instead of taking responsibility for it he let his pride get in the way of doing the right thing.

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  9. I agree with what Karolina said, "Victor was more concerned with his knowledge than the safety of his family and humanity". Victor knows that it's his fault but he just doesn’t want to accept it. If Victor cared or was concern for the safety of his family then he would have tried to do something to stop him. Like befriend the monster and give him the love and companion the monster wanted.

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  10. What is ironic about this statement is that the magistrate was suppose to be the one that was full of wisdom and he didnt believe Victor when he needed to simply because the words didnt come out of the scary scientist.

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  11. The scene between Victor and the Magistrate is ironic because Victor was ignorant when he was creating life which is unatural and went against nature and therefore Victor was ignorant when creating the monster and believung that something that was against nature was supposed to be beautiful when in fact it was hideous. In reality Victor wasn't using wisdom when creating the monster and therefore was ignorant

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  12. Victors statement to the magistrate is ironic because when victor made the monster it was out of his thirst for knowledge. Victor was inspired by the great philosophers that he read about, he lived off his work of his creation for the success of becoming known for doing something amazing and legendary. Victor was ignorant in his creation because he created something unnatural and with no sense of the consequences.

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  13. Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!" This statement is ironic because Victor himself has been prideful when it came to his ‘wisdom’. Victor thought he was wise enough to create new life. He is ignorant though and creates creature. After creating the creature he ignores the creature dismissing him.
    The statement is also ironic because the magistrate is someone of power. A magistrate supposedly is someone who is knowledgeable and has wisdom. Although he hears out Victor he dismisses his claims and believes that nothing can be done. Because of this Victor becomes angry and vows to destroy the monster himself.

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  14. What is ironic is that victor was so obsessed in creating an unnatural life. He believed that since he was getting pieces from other people that was considered "beautiful" really wasn't. He came into the realization that it wasn't beautiful and thus he didn't take care of the creature. So what is ironic is that he says that the magistrate is supposed to be wise but yet victor wasn't when he created the monster.

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  15. Victor's comment to the Magistrate is ironic because he was very ignorant when he was giving life to the monster. When he was creating the monster he thought it was going to be beautiful because he was taking bits from other people but then he soon came to realize that the monster wasn't beautiful and he didnt like what he had created. So he is trying to tell the magistrate to be wise when Victor wasnt even wise himself when he created the monster.

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  16. One goes to a magistrate in order to receive help and guidance. The customers spend their hard-earned money for this reason specifically. When Victor went to the magistrate for his guidance, he was expecting some feedback, not for the magistrate to ignore him and tell him that he was lying. Victor said "Man, how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!" because a magistrate is a person of great power and knowledge. For this specific magistrate to be so ignorant to the fact that victor is saying a true story, gets the creator very upset and leads him to believe that the magistrate is abusing of his power. In other words, the quote means that the magistrate's wisdom is being masked and suffocated by his ignorance. The outcome of this story is ironic because he didn't want to tell his secret to anyone because they might think that he's a mad man. Now that he told the magistrate his story, he is still being seen as a mad man because he can not even control his own creation. Victor is not proud of his own wisdom and has no pride in is creation. Victor had no right in saying that to the magistrate.
    (I emailed this to you earlier..this is just in case anything went wrong)

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  17. Victor goes to the magistrate to help him find this monster after Elizabeth had died. The magistrate is the one that is suppose to help since he is so smart and educated. When Victor starts to tell the magistrate about his story, he does not believe him. Victor begs the magistrate telling him, “This is the being whom I accuse, and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power. It is your duty as a magistrate, and I believe and hope that your feelings as a man will not revolt from the execution of those functions on this occasion.” He is pretty much ordering the magistrate to find the monster and kill it. After all that Victor was telling him, the magistrate refused to help Victor find this creature. It is so ironic how it is the job of the magistrate and a good person to turn to for this problem but at the end he got denied leaving Victor alone to fine the creature and kill it himself.

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  18. p.s. i emailed you too earlier, now that i see it is up i put it on here

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