Creature or Monster? How does Shelley's presentation of the Creature

Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the nameless creature in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, displays countless characteristics of physical monstrosity; he is described as “ugly”, “demonical” and a “hideous… wretch” (Shelley 36). However, the creature expresses that his only desires are acceptance and love, but he is seen as a monster regardless of his true intentions. When the creature is abandoned by Frankenstein, he is forced to find acceptance on his own and eventually comes across a cottage in the woods. As an attempt to gain approval, he waits to approach the home until the only character home is a blind man, to whom he explains his desire for friendship. The creature says that he is afraid to become “an

What is a monster, really? Is it really a Creature that has three eyes instead of two, with pus seeping out of every crevice in his face and an abnormally large form? Or is it someone with a mind so corrupt it rivals that of Satan? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story within a story that centers on the tale of a man with an immense thirst of knowledge and a fetish to imitate the Creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a lot like the Greek mythological tale of the Greek God, Prometheus, and his brother, Epimetheus, who were assigned the task of creating man. The story captivates the theme of monstrosity. Mary Shelley wrote the novel in a form so the reader’s opinions never stray far from sympathy for the monster and apathy for Victor

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley emphasizes that Frankenstein’s Monster was a sad and extremely lonely creature. At the beginning of the book, Frankenstein’s Monster tried to communicate, connect, and socialize with people; however, the whole village was terrified of him, and even his own creator ran away and left him

“I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept” (Shelley 91). In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Mary depicts a hideous, macabre, creature as one of the main characters, who seeks to discover and connect with the unknown world that it has been born into. The creator, Victor Frankenstein, studies life cycle of human beings, ultimately learning the secret of creation through unnatural means. These experiments result in a monster, who must to learn and grow in consciousness, much as an infant would awaken gradually to life. He is, at first, overwhelmed by new sensations, experiencing hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. The monster begins on a clean slate, starting in his adolescence, but experiences continuous vulgar abuse from beings who show to be quick to judge. Though the monster proves to have a positive heart initially, maltreatment gradually changes his response to people and causes him to react negatively to negative stimuli from experiences and necessity. The creature’s response to society is constructed through the mistreatment by Victor Frankenstein, the DeLacey family’s rejection, and his first meeting with Victor Frankenstein in the Alps.

Whereas in the 1931 film adaptation, it states that his condition is largely due to the mistake preformed by Fritz, who provided a defective brain to be placed into the creature’s head. The implication that the monster's brutal behavior was inevitable arguably weakens the novel's social criticism and depiction of developing consciousness. The film therefore emphasizes the idea that the creation exists as an inherently evil, manufactured being. The creature in the film lacks incentive, despite Shelley’s monster’s craving for love and his “ feelings of revenge and hatred” (Shelley 139). Essentially it was the creation of a new character, Fritz, which allowed the film’s plot to shift away from the novel’s original story of Frankenstein. The addition of Fritz reveals that Frankenstein’s creation had innate anger, and allows the audience to associate him to a monster.

Shelley uses the structure of the novel to explore human nature, clouding the reader’s perceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, man and monster. By creating multiple unreliable narrators, she establishes that nothing is certain, positioning the readers to question their own ideas about who is really in the wrong throughout the novel. Frankenstein and the creature are seen as opposites on a scale of good and evil, master and slave, god and devil, however these positions change throughout the novel. Frankenstein wants the readers to see the creature as a monster, but through the characters narratives and reflections, we see that Frankenstein did not actually create a monster. Frankenstein made a man and turned him into a monster, and the

In “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley tells the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature within the story the question of what makes a monster? Frankenstein and the creature often show these possibilities of being a monster as they struggle through their lives in the world where society won’t accept them. Shelley uses different points of view/mind sets and diction to show the making of a monster isn’t by how a person is born but who that person is and their choices.

may lead to a life of violent crime or murder. The Creature, as we see

After the creation of the creature, Frankenstein had abandoned him leaving him as ‘a poor, helpless, miserable wretch,’ (71) who was clueless about his sense and how to survive. When we found a farm he stayed there to gather food however ‘children shrieked, and one of the women fainted,’ upon seeing him in which some attacked him.(74) He later found a place to stay aside to the DeLacey family’s cottage, however he didn’t enter due to his last experience. He lived outside for months observing and learning. The creature learned knowledge of feelings. However this ‘increase of knowledge’ only made him discover ‘more clearly what a wretched outcast’ he was. (93) He was once again rejected which led his rage to increase towards his creator, Frankenstein, because he had created a monster who wasn’t accepted in society. (97) His first action was the killing of William because the creature had ‘sworn eternal revenge,’ upon Frankenstein.(102) This is significant because after learning what society consider ‘normal’ he started to have an inferiority complex leading to build rage towards his creator for his deformity . Seek of revenge is further emphasized when he asked Frankenstein for a woman companion and is denied of one.(121) Once Frankenstein had agree to create a companion he then rethinks about the negative effects which later causes him to destroy the female creature. This builds on the creature’s rage leading him to threatened Frankenstein indicating he will be there with him on his wedding-night. (139) On the day after of Frankenstein’s wedding he noticed that he held in his arms ‘had ceased to be the Elizabeth,’ who he had ‘loved and cherished.’ (145) She was killed by the creature as an act of revenge because Frankenstein had denied him to a female companion. In the end, the creature cried out ‘I shall die and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be

Many of Mary Shelley’s ideas came from nature. A storm similar to this one was seen by victor. She uses this storm to describe how Victor sees the creature. Victor thinks the creature is violent at times and beautiful at others. In addition, the creature causes destruction like an avalanche. Shelley writes,

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is very much a commentary on the Enlightenment and its failure to tame the human condition through reason. The human condition can be defined as the unique features which mold a human being. The creature is undoubtedly a victim of this predicament. He grapples with the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, and the awareness of the inescapability of death. These qualities and his ceaseless stalking of his master conjure up the metaphor that he is the shadow of the Enlightenment. Indeed, the Enlightenment is represented through Frankenstein whereas the creature is the embodiment of everything it shuns. These include nature, emotion, and savagery. The two characters are understood as counterparts and yet strikingly similar at the same time. The creature is considered a monster because of his grotesque appearance. Frankenstein on the other hand is a monster of another kind: his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienate him from human society. He is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation. Both characters also commit primordial crimes. Although rationality pervades through Frankenstein's endeavours, it can be argued that he becomes less human the more he tries to be God. The secret of life lies beyond an accepted boundary from which none can return. By creating life Frankenstein ironically sets the stage for his own destruction as well as that of his family. The

In Shelley’s text, the scene consists of a few

Although the Creature in Frankenstein is often referred to as Frankenstein’s Monster or simply, The Monster, he is not necessarily a truly monstrous creation. But rather the true monster is determined by the reader as Mary Shelley raises the question, “Who is the true monster?”. Although this question is never directly posed to the reader, it is something that one thinks about while reading. Upon beginning the novel, the reader believes that they already have the answer to this question as it has been popularized that the creature is the truly monstrous being due to his portrayal in popular culture. However, Mary Shelley offers many answers to this question throughout the book through many subtle statements.

The monster has such a gruesome and horrifying appearance, that Frankenstein is automatically scared based on the monster’s looks and therefore flees from his creation. The creature then goes out into a world that he knows absolutely nothing about and has to provide for himself without any knowledge of how to do that. When the creature scares the humans in the village and the farmer he is only trying to find food and never once thought of harming them. The monster shows many acts of kindness in his early stages of life. For example, when he is observing the family, he realizes that they are poor and he has been stealing their food. Once he understands that he is hurting them, he stops stealing. He cuts up firewood and leaves it for them in hopes of making their life easier. These actions show us that the monster does not start out doing bad things only things that might benefit the family. The creature has a desire to learn like a child does, he is fascinated in everything the family does and says. “I shall relate the events that impressed me with feelings which, from what I was, have made me what I am”(Shelley 135), this quote

In most stories that you read you can easily find who the monster of the story is without thinking too hard but in Frankenstein it makes you think. When you’re reading it it tells you who the monster is but the thing that Mary Shelley does really well is that she makes you question it, when I was reading the story I was questioning it without even realizing it because that’s how good of a job she does with this story. From reading this story I believe that even though they say that the “Creature” is a monster I believe that he is just a lonely person who just wants a family because he doesn’t want to be alone. I believe that Victor Frankenstein, his creator that abandoned him, is in fact the real monster because he created him, left him alone, and then attempted to kill him.