Tori Andrade
Toni J. Weeden
Honors Senior English
11/14/17
Sympathy or Hatred Towards Frankenstein's Monster? Victor Frankenstein had not only created a monster but he had also created this being that is full of knowledge seeking and understanding. Right from the beginning of the story, it is misunderstood by the monster's character. Frankenstein judges his creations outer shell and in doing so he neglects his creation making the “monster” feel vulnerable and naked to society. It is said that “No one is born hating another person for their skin, or his background, or his religion.” (Nelson Mandela, October 1, 1999). This quote is important because we must understand that the monster's hatred only comes from his experiences with the lack of connections people want to make with him. His bitterness and anger are because he has
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Diversity means is a range of different things and adversity means difficulties or misfortunes. Although the two have different meanings I feel that they play a vital role in a person or a “monster's” life. The world is full of diversity and in order to preserve, overcome, and meet our goals, we have to be a challenge and depending on how we go about on being taken out of our comfort zone determines whether you float or sink in life. The monster is a good example of overcoming diversity. Instead of lashing out and destroyin everything around him he uses his intelligence to help him survive. He finds himself a shelter, food, helps the cottagers with chores, learns how to speak and read from observing the villagers and also is also learns to become sneaky like framing Justine for the murder of Victor's younger brother and then later framing Victor for the murder of his friend. Although it seems that everything and everyone is against him, the monster finds ways to persevere and go on in life by the skills he acquires. All the odds in the world against him and he turns out to be very
Like most horror stories, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a wretched monster who terrorizes and kills his victims with ease. However, the story is not as simple as it seems. One increasingly popular view of the true nature of the creature is one of understanding. This sympathetic view is often strengthened by looking at the upbringing of the creature in the harsh world in which he matures much as a child would. With no friends or even a true father, the creature can be said to be a product of society and its negative views and constant rejections of him. Although this popular view serves to lessen the severity of his crimes in most people’s eyes, the fact remains that the creature is in fact a cold-hearted wretch whose vindictive nature
I believe that Victor Frankenstein does not deserve the reader's sympathy. The lack of sympathy toward Victor is the result of how The Creature affected society due to his terrible parenting, along with the fact that he doesn't change his actions as he becomes aware of the grim choices he is making. The Creature, without a doubt scarred society. The cold-blooded killing of William Frankenstein by The Creature was the first domino in this line of pain. Victor, though "convinced of [the] truth" (Shelly 93), that The Creature killed William, does not tell anyone.
It always find a way to categorize or place labels on things. Although, some of these placements are accurate, majority of them are misconceptions. People in this society are prejudice toward the creature and often place him in an evil category based on his appearance. They hold disdain for people unlike them, especially for a creature they never seen before. Society wrongly treat the creature on the assumption he is a monster. They torment him because of his forbidding look. The moment he was accused of murder he demeanor took a turn for the worst. “I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (16. 19-20). Neglecting the sunshine and truce, society has brought the monster out of the monster. This led to the mass murder of Victor Frankenstein’s brother and
Victor Frankenstein’s treatment of the monster is the main reason of its hatred toward human kind due to the hate he is seeing from his creator. “you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us” (68), this is said by the creature to shame Frankenstein and reveal to him what had first taken away the pure innocence he felt before discovering of the abandonment by his creator. Even though the creature acted in the wrong way to express his feelings of loneliness and neglect, it had the ability to be purely good and due to the mistreatment of the humans he had crossed paths with, he could not see his true potential for being truly
“Frankenstein’s creation is a wretched, evil creature, which deserves nothing but death”. This is a statement, we people, might make if we base our opinion of this new creation only and purely on his actions. Can the creature’s actions condemn him to a life of solitude and immorality? If we look at the situation more closely and with an open mind, we might indeed find ourselves connecting and even sympathizing with this wretched beast. How could someone consent of such evil actions? Well, the reader does not have to; all the reader has to do is keep an open mind and a soft heart. In order to understand how and why the full presentation of the creation’s character might entice the reader to sympathize, one must first look more closely at the actions seen as “evil” and the reasoning behind them.
In the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley during the romanticism period, we see different characters who struggle with self-understanding and self-deception, as well as those who shift to gain a better realization of themselves and others. Victor Frankenstein’s creation is one example of a character we see shift from being very self-deceptive to gaining self-knowledge and understanding himself in relation to others. In the beginning, the creation’s false expectations, based on limited human interactions and knowledge, lead him to deceive himself by believing humans can accept him and overlook his deformities. But after many negative experiences, he understands the true and cruel nature of humans, vows vengeance on the entire species, and gains self-awareness and accepts his identity as a “monster.”
Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .
The monster that was created by Frankenstein was often angry. He was angry because he was abandoned by Frankenstein. Since he was mad it caused all of his anger to build up and he started killing people. The monster is looked at as evil and sees itself as evil. “I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterness and sensations of despondence and mortification” (Shelley 130).
I feel sympathetic for the creature on many occasions in the fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein has brought something to life that he cannot even look at without being horrified. I believe it was wrong that Frankenstein played God and created something he didn’t understand. Once you are finished with this essay I believe you will agree with me.
On the contrary, the old man from the small hut changed the monster’s perception of life with care and kindness, which allowed the monster to be more human like. For instance, when the monster was observing the family’s actions from his shed, he came to the conclusion that, “They showed such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced” (60). The monster believed it was the norm to be treated poorly, but once he saw the family’s love and nurture, he completely changed the way he sees others. When treating others with kindness and goodness, it changes one’s actions to be for good instead of evil. As a result, when the family
Frankenstein returns home for the death of his brother and realizes that when he arrives at the gates of Geneva that they are shut and locked for the night. Because of this happening he decides to go for a walk in the forest to the crime scene of Williams death. When he arrives he notices that his monster that he had created is lurking around the area. Seeing the monster Frankenstein knows in his mind that the monster was the cause of his brother’s death. Frankenstein had kept silent when he had the chance to confess everything, including his secret of the monster that he had created. He did not want the people to think that he was crazy for making up such nonsense, when in fact it was all the truth. Justine Moritz was the Frankenstein’s family
In addition to being rejected by his creator, Frankenstein’s monster is also treated very violently by humans, leaving him alone and feeling like he did something wrong, even though their reactions are based solely on his appearance. The monster does not want to be thought of as a monster at first, but as he comes to realize from human interactions, no matter what his actions are, people will always judge him by what he cannot control. The monster explains the first interaction he had ever had with
Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1817, is a story of obsession, heartache, abandonment, vanity, and more. This is a fiction with many levels and views for people of all ages, and it was assigned to our Senior English class. The novel is centered around the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation and the many trials and affairs they go through. Throughout the story, both characters make many choices that they shouldn’t. However, when you take into account all of the events that lead to those poor choices, I believe it’s the creation that is most justified. To be abandoned and hated simply because of your appearance, something you had no control over and can’t change, is enough to turn anyone into a vengeful soul.
Monsters are not born, but created. In order to become a monster one must have been previously victimized or have a predisposition to violence. The monster is created because he is exposed to violence and rejection, he then breakdowns and becomes malicious. In the lines “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? (Frankenstein, 124)”. Shelley is showing that by turning against the creature, Victor is deserting him in a strange and uncomfortable world. The creature is miserable and all alone. In corollary, the creature hurts others, because he has been neglected and in turn a monster is created. The creature states that “I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred (Frankenstein, 138)”. I believe that the novel would have turned out differently if Victor had welcomed the creature with
In the story the main speaker is Victor Frankenstein who is the creator of the monster, which he also describes the monster throughout the novel. The first descriptions he gives to the creature are mainly based on the physical features of it; the first impression he has is “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath… his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” (Shelley 58) This shows that the monster does not look anything close to a human being, and this traits represent how his first impression defines his destiny through the story. On the other hand, when the monster tells his story, he expresses himself with “I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.” (Shelley 159) He expresses how he is prejudiced by other people, and they are afraid that the monster might hurt them. The consequence