Victor Frankenstein

Doctor Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist of the 1818 novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Frankenstein is a young Swiss scientist who becomes obssessed with the idea of creating life in inanimate matter through artificial means. Assembling a humanoid creature by stitching together pieces of human corpses, Frankenstein successfully brings it to life, only to be repulsed and terrified by its monstrous ugliness. He abandons and flees his creation, who disappears and soon begins a course of vengeance that results in the deaths of several of his family and friends. Frankenstein pursues the "Fiend" (as he calls his creation) to the Arctic with the intent of destroying it; he ultimately fails in his mission, however, and after relating his tale to the captain of a ship that has picked him up, he dies of sickness brought on by stress, grief, and exposure to the elements. His creature, upon discovering the death of its maker, is overcome by sorrow and remorse and ends the novel by vowing to commit suicide.

While many subsequent film adaptations have portrayed Frankenstein as insane (the prototypical "mad scientist"), Shelley's original novel depicts him more as a man tragically driven by ambition and scientific curiosity, unable to deal with the consequences of his actions in "playing God". Some have even interpreted the character as a metaphor for God himself, with his monstrous creature representing humankind.