When most people think of Frankenstein people usually think of a monster. However when reading the story by Mary Shelley you see that he is not as horrific as he is presented. The monster notices the care and concern the family has for each other, and he senses that there is a mood of despair among the younger family members. The family suffers from poverty and a lack of food. Desiring to keep his cottagers happy, the monster becomes an aid to the family by secretly hauling wood to the cottage and performing repairs, all under the cover of darkness. He begins to follow a routine of daily activity and time passes from winter to spring. When seeing the story through the monster's point of view you can see how he truly feels. The monster observes things in a way that a human would which is absurd compared to how Victor says he is. He sees the way the family is upset and it confuses him. He thinks like any other person does. The monster sees that the De Lacey family has it all, but cannot understand why they seem so depressed. In his opinion, the De Lacey's lack nothing, as they have a "delightful house" and every "luxury": …show more content…
Seeing his reflection in a small pool of water, the monster discovers himself for the first time and now knows that he is hideous to behold. However awful he appears to the world, it cannot stop him from being a good and benevolent creature, even in the face of tremendous adversity. At the time, he does not even understand the compliments that are directed towards him when he is referred to as a "good spirit" and "wonderful" person by the De Lacey family for easing their burdens. He even dreams of one day presenting himself to "his family," hoping that they will look favorably upon his good deeds, not at his outward
Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the
He is oblivious to the fact that his appearance is horrific and has no knowledge of the concept of evil because he has had no exposure to society (Edwards). The monster does not know that civilized man views his ugly exterior as representative of evil within, so he is baffled when the occupant of a hut he stumbles upon produces a terrified shriek and runs away (Shelley, 105). The monster later comes to know good and evil; virtue and vice; due to the fact that he possesses the faculty of "perfectibility man's inexhaustible ability to improve himself ( ) and be shaped by his environment" (Edwards). This quality of adaptability allows for enlightenment to occur, but is ultimately the source of all of man's misery.
In Frankenstein, the monster interacts with the family in a manner that suggests how he understands aspects such as isolation, loneliness, compassion, and family. An assessment of the monster 's character reveals that it has a sensibility to expand and grow its understanding towards a family 's social significance. The monster has a sense of solitude and otherness from the way he seeks to interact for a specific reason. The interaction with family has a major influence towards the welfare of the monster because it develops a feeling of compassion. According to the accounts that take place in the narrative, it is evident that the cottage is situated in a location away from the village, as the monster decided to seek refuge in
Like a baby, Frankenstein’s creature was born innocent and inexperience of how society works. Neglected by his creator, the creature had no one to teach him, this caused him to become isolated. While wandering in the wilderness the creature came upon the De Lacey family. He does not approach them, instead he studies them and becomes accustom to their doings. He uses his isolation to educate himself and gain courage to meet the family. Aghast by the creature’s monstrous appearance, the De Lacey family fled away leaving the
The monster notices that humans are afraid of him because of his appearance, he feels embarrassed of himself, as humans do when they don’t seem to be accepted. He admires the De Lacey Family that lives in the cottage, he also learns from them, and hopes to have companion as they do. The monster is like humans, as mentioned, in the way that he wants someone to listen and care about him. He is discovering the world and his capacities, he seeks knowledge and understand plenty aspects of life by learning how to speak and read. “The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 47). The monster developed feelings and emotions as humans. The creature is different from humans also, since he never got to grow up as a normal human, and
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
The monster is isolated because of his physical features. He is portrayed as ugly and a social outcast. The novel writes, "As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw something glittering on his breast. I took it; it was a portrait of a most lovely woman. In spite of my malignity, it softened and attracted me. For a few moments I gazed with delight on her dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and her lovely lips; but presently my rage returned; I remembered that I was forever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow and that she whose resemblance I contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright” (Shelley 143). The monster is upset that normal people will not treat him with kindness simply because he is not attractive. Therefore, he separates himself from associating with others, which causes him to feel lonely and unhappy. Because of his appearance, he excludes himself from the world and says, “Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with
Rejection by society plays a huge role in the creature’s life. Due to Doctor Frankenstein leaving the creature on its own, it has no creator to connect him to society (Lancaster 135). Throughout this novel, the creature experiences rejection on multiple occasions. One of them being when he is hiding in the shack from the cottagers. One day he got the courage to go over and try to introduce himself to the father, De Lacey, who is blind, but the father rejected 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.
As a result of Victor's neglect and rejection of the creature, society also denies the creature acceptance which creates a life of loneliness for it. The creature, after being rejected by Victor, is left helpless, wanders into a forest, and experiences what hunger and pain are for the first time in life. The creature longs for acceptance, especially from Victor, but is denied. For example, the creature first learns of its rejection from society when it enters the house of an old man that is cooking; it as at the sight of the creature that the man "shrieked loudly" (90) and runs out of his hut. From that moment the creature realizes it is deformed and unlike anyone else. While the creature is roaming through the woods one day it comes upon a cottage. The creature notes the inhabitants of the cottage, the DeLacey family, as being beautiful in comparison to its
For, however badly the monster behaves he was never exactly taught it was wrong; his parent rejected him as soon as he entered the world forcing him to feel rejection and leave the home immediately. Though, he had committed many terrible crimes they were only towards humans had treated him badly enough to hurt him deeply. He set the De Lacy’s home on fire due to rejection caused by looks after he had admired the family and secretly helped them many times. This is a very important thematic moment within the story due to the fact that the blind man accepted the creature because he heard the humanity in his voice and did not see the monstrosity of his looks. This could very well show that if the parent had not rejected the monster he could have been taught how to control his passionate, emotional, and irrational decisions. The creature had many good qualities that could have outshined his bad looks and he could have been used for good instead of evil. Overall,
The creature goes through a rebirth of sorts when he realizes that the De Laceys, despite their kind and giving nature, could never accept him as a part of their family. He bitterly remarks that “from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery…” (Shelley, 95). After this point, with the creature’s hopes and expectations for friendship completely obliterated, the fate of society ceases to concern him. Upon murdering an innocent child, he looks on his corpse with “hellish triumph” (Shelley, 100).
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is a story about how important having a family is to some, but also judging someone based on their appearance. Victor Frankenstein starts the novel by describing his childhood with his loving and supportive family. Family is very important to him because he did not have many friends growing up. While Frankenstein is away at school he starts to become very depressed and you see his attitude towards his family and his life change. Being away at school, he creates a “monster” by using different pieces of corpses and that becomes the only thing that matters to him until he sees how hideous it is. He immediately hates his creation just because of how he looks. Frankenstein begins to abandon everyone and thing in his life because of his obsession with the idea of glory and science, causing the novel to go from Romanticism to Gothic. The “monster” finds a family living in a cottage, by watching all winter he learns how a family should love and accept others. By seeing this, Frankenstein’s creations understand what was taken from him, and will do whatever he has to do to have a family of his own.
In most people’s minds as of today, there is no question to who the monster is in Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein. It is the creature that Viktor Frankenstein created, that murders innocent people. However, when looking beyond the appearance of the creature, it is evident that he did not begin as a monster. Mary Shelley analyzes fundamental and crucial issues in her novel in terms of being able to use science and knowledge for the good of people and not for the satisfaction of personal ambitions without even being able to take responsibility for that. It is also the novel of social rejection based on external looks and inability to accept. It was the extreme misconceptions of humans that resulted in the extreme isolation of Frankenstein’s
The monster is practically human in his want for love and fraternity. Since his creation, he is dismissed and abused by everybody he meets, including his creator. It is his depression and dismissal by the public that makes him so malevolent. The main individual who at first acknowledged him as a helpless being who required comprehension was De Lacey, and it was on the grounds that he was visually impaired and in this way, did not pass judgment on the monster by appearances. "Nothing could exceed the love and respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty with gentleness; and he rewarded them by his benevolent smiles"(page 101) The monster learns good habits with looking these people, and their experiences daily which, then, he has resentment towards his creator, that he is eviler in his behavior than the monster with his appearances.