“Are you mad my friend? Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? 

Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy. Peace, Peace! Learn my miseries, and do not seek to increase your own.”(156)

Throughout Chapters 17-24 of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein’s transformation to a disillusioned, guilt-ridden maniac who is only determined to kill his creation is shown in full effect. 

Victor essentially doomed himself to have a lack of humanity as soon as his creation of the creature came to life, and the decision to not properly cultivate this creature to have a humane side to it. In other words, Victor’s downfall to his inhumane state at the end of the novel can be attributed to only his own actions, as he refused to acknowledge his monster as a human and alienated the creature, leaving the creature to be exposed to society’s cruelty all by himself instead of teaching the creature how to act properly first; also, when the creature offers Victor the deal of making it a partner, Victor backs out of the deal, causing the creature to do what it said to do it Victor failed, which was murder everyone Victor knew and eventually kill Victor. However, the focuses of chapters 17-24 do not primarily focus on this aspect of Victor, but rather show that both Victor and his creation are ruthless monsters by the end of the novel: Victor himself cuts himself from society and commits himself to an animalistic obsession to revenge his family and friends by killing the monster, and the monster likewise contains its cold hearted cruelty that it displayed all throughout the novel. As each of Victor’s family members and friends gets slain by the monster, he becomes more and more inhumane; Victor’s transformation from depressed at the start of chapter 17 to willing to carry guns on his wedding night in chapter 23 to his full pursuit of the monster highlights his devolution from an educated scientist pursuing the highs of discovery to a broken shell of a man who wants nothing but for his own creation to be dead.