highest of human responses, than is the doctor himself (Shelley 237-242).
In his pathological narcissism, Frankenstein tries to play God and ends up creating misery and death all around him. He believes he is doing good, or at least following scientific inquiry where it must lead, but his narcissism has deluded him, blinding him to the damage he is doing. If, as with Victor, the power of science leads the scientist to believe that he can do what he desires to do without negative consequences, "creating" powerful forces which are beyond his control, then catastrophe will result. It is not enough that Frankenstein feels remorse, or questions his own power, or suffers greatly because of what he has done in the name of science--it is too late, then. Frankenstein believes himself to be not only an extraordinary scientist but the first to discover the essential secret of "of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter" (Shelley 46). Of course, what Frankenstein has
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