“A man of two minds will end up with neither satisfied.” - Plato Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, tells the gothic tale of a curious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, yearning to mimic the life-giving act of Mother Nature. His creature does not turn out to be all that he expected, and the story deals with the conflict between Victor and his creature, and between the creature and society. But nowhere in the story does Victor (or …showed first 75 words of 1308 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1308 total…his instability and loss of touch with reality. The creature in the novel, then, could represent the evil Victor sees in the world around him, separated of himself via stress. This said, the story takes on a new light, namely that “[a] human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or transitory desire to disturb his tranquility” (33), lest one’s bad side be let loose.