Is Frankenstein a Creature or Monster? Essay

For many people, the creature was the antagonist of Frankenstein. People don't see him as human, even though he was created with human body parts. Many think simply because he was dead and brought back, the creature must be evil. Many people think he only wants to haunt his creator and make him suffer. However, the creature

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

Several fields have studied the relationship between creator and creation. The most significant aspect of this research considers the difference between nature and nurture. Sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and other professionals have tried to pin down the exact distinctions between these two types of upbringings. In literature, the same questions have been asked and studied using fictional characters, most famously in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in 1667, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in 1818. The complexity of the characters in these texts creates the theme of nature versus nurture before they diverge and arrive at differing conclusions.

At first glance, the monster in Frankenstein is a symbol of evil, whose only desire is to ruin lives. He has been called "A creature that wreaks havoc by destroying innocent lives often without remorse. He can be viewed as the antagonist, the element Victor must overcome to restore balance and tranquility to the world." But after the novel is looked at on different levels, one becomes aware that the creature wasn't responsible for his actions, and was just a victim of circumstance. The real villain of Frankenstein isn't the creature, but rather his creator, Victor.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has several literary devices- such as structure, imagery, and many intricate details. She perfectly places words and puts them in such a way that the passage has a dual tone. Shelley begins with establishing the monster’s nature as being peaceful, because he wanted to reason with Victor. Him wanting to reason shows the importance of his decision to meet with Victor and shows that even though he has been through a great deal, he is still respectable to others. The audience gets to see the creature’s humble nature and makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him. This creates a peaceful tone to the passage. The monster wants to be loved by “any being and if they showed benevolence to me, I would return them hundred an hundred fold” (Shelley 148). The creature’s begging makes it sound like Victor will answer his plea. Using a broad term like “being”, demonstrates the monster’s need to be loved, putting him in a position with the audience again feeling empathetic towards him. Eventually, Victor’s compassion begins to fluctuate. The desperation the creature has looks like the desperation a human might have. This only gives the readers another reason to relate to him which leads to the other tone, impossible. Victor’s unreasonableness heightens this shared discontent as not only has the build up of the creature’s wistful nature made him an utmost identifiable character, but our views are adjusted in such as way that Frankenstein is seen

The Creature’s words and final testament set aside the view of him as a monster and fully embrace sympathy and compassion for his misery. His final words before declaring his death, call out the bias in Frankenstein’s telling as he begins to affirm the benevolence in him: “Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal when all human kind sinned against me?” (214). The Creature pleas for understanding and compassion for his own misery caused by humans, he presents his experiences as being no less of an injustice than his deeds against Frankenstein. His words present a view of him that was previously missing of his monstrosity as a reaction to the misery placed on him by his creator and other humans. Hatch notes the fact that the Creature’s “last words [are] addressed to his dead creator” and thus “the monster's solitude is complete” (7). Without any further suffering or misery, the Creature decides to kill himself, and even after the creature leaves the scene, his disappearance is described as “lost in darkness and distance” as a reminder and final call for compassion for the Creature and his

Easily one of the most notable themes in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the role of nature versus nurture in developing children, recurs throughout the novel with the two main characters, Frankenstein and his creature, believing in opposite sides of this theme. Favoring nature, Frankenstein maintains that the creature was always evil from the moment of creation, regardless of the creature’s experiences. However, the creature, in his narrative to Frankenstein, argues that “[he] was benevolent and good; misery made [him] a fiend” (106). In adherence with John Locke’s concept of tabula rasa, the creature was born with a blank slate, and only through his experiences does he gain knowledge and personality. Struggling to persevere in the human world, Frankenstein’s creature merely wants humans to welcome him as one of them. The change of the creature from looking “upon crime as a distant evil” because “benevolence and generosity were ever present” in him to seeking revenge on Frankenstein results from a culmination of horrible experiences (103). While it may be hard to see the creature as a trustworthy narrator because of how he has acted and his ulterior motives, he does present physical evidence to support his tale. Facing rejection in different forms, he becomes truly evil, giving up hope of companionship as a result of his trials and lessons. From the moment of his creation, the creature encounters abandonment, violence, isolation, and rejection everywhere he turns.

When Frankenstein is the narrator, the mood and tone shift from Walton’s mood of enthralled and tone of meditative to Frankenstein’s horrified tone and suspenseful mood. Frankenstein first establishes his truly horrified tone through the diction that he uses in Chapter V, when his creation finally comes to life. Frankenstein uses diction like “catastrophe,” “horrid,” and “disgust filled my heart” upon the sight of his beast, and even goes further to call his creation a “miserable monster.” The diction in this section of the book is intense, and it creates a tone of horror towards the monster that Frankenstein has created. The diction also creates a suspenseful mood for the reader, because now that Victor’s creation has gone bad, they have no idea what might happen next. In Chapters 8 and 9, Frankenstein continues to establish his horrified mood when he perceives that it was his creation that killed his brother, William, and this in turn causes the death of Justine. When this happens, Frankenstein uses words and phrases like “tortures of my own heart,” “desolation,” and “accursed hands” to describe his emotions about the suffering he has caused. Frankenstein’s emotions are destroyed so badly by the thought of what he has done that he even refers to himself as a “madman.” This diction proves to the reader that the author’s tone is indeed horrified; the fact that the reader once again

In the novel, the readers learn that the main antagonist, Victor Frankenstein, is trying to reanimate life and create a “new generation” of advanced humans. Despite being successful in creating the monster, Victor would abandon his creation which forces it to have and conceive different identities and creates conflicting perspectives for the readers. This technique of giving the monster different identities is used by Shelley to portray the monster as a complex being. In the book, Victor abandons his creation because he is horribly terrified as he sees his creation is dreadful looking and says, “I beheld the wretch

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, is a science fiction book telling about the life of a monster created by Victor Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is studying science in Ingolstadt at University. While there, he decides to create a creature using old body parts from the bodies of deceased others. Frankenstein abandons the creature, out of horror, and the creature goes out on his own without knowledge of the world. We learn about how the creature finds his way in the world, his feelings, and adaptations to human behavior. Through the thoughts we hear the creature has, we may think that is good and intelligent, and may be able to make contributions to society. We later learn through his actions that he is a horrific creature, harmful to society.

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

Frankenstein’s and society’s rejection of the monster, however, drove him to an uneven passionate pursuit for a companion. He forced Frankenstein to create a female monster, and he provided motivation by killing Frankenstein’s loved ones and threatening to kill more of them. The monster recalls in this final scene of Shelley’s novel how his desire drove him to evil. “. . . do you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse?--He . . . suffered not more in the consummation of the deed;--oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution. A frightful selfishness hurried me on. . . .” (153) At that point in the novel, the monster has changed from good in nature to evil in nature. His own desires are more important to him than the well-being of others and he is willing to commit murder in order ensure the fulfillment of his desire.

Likewise, Victor Frankenstein allows his emotional senses to give way to a hatred of the Creature without even giving the Creature a chance. After seeing the hideous creation made by his own hands, Victor refrains from taking responsibility of the actions of the Creature, even when his conscious tells him it is his duty to. On the night of the creation, Victor recalls that the creature, who he emotionally describes as a monster, “held up the curtain of the bed … one hand stretched out, seemingly to detain [Victor], but [he] escaped … catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of

In Frankenstein, the reader can see what the creators thoughts and worries were. And since he was feeling very

Relationship Between Frankenstein and the Creature Gothic novels are written mainly to strike fear in their readers; they also served to show the dark side of human nature. Nature is used often to create atmosphere. It predicts forthcoming events (e.g. the rainstorm on Victor’s wedding night foretells something evil is about to occur).