Sympathizing With The Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

to make the elixir of life in order to create life. He tries to play

has had a very good start to his life and he has been spoilt beyond

Frankenstein is a classic horror novel, but with a twist of many other genres. Written by Mary Shelley, it was a novel which mixed many exciting elements, such as horror, drama and romance. The story follows a young doctor named Victor Frankenstein, who has an obsession to reincarnate the dead, but his attempts at this fail horribly, and Victor finds himself in deep peril, as the monster stalks him throughout the world. I aim to investigate the issue, however, of who is the true monster in Frankenstein. The monster or Frankenstein himself?

Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Frankenstein for many people is a huge fiendish monster, a brainless oaf with a couple of neck bolts, who is a horrible murderer. This image has been created by Boris Karloff and other television/film images. I also thought like that, believing Frankenstein to be a monstrous murderer, so when I was met with the text I was surprised to find as a mad scientist who creates a monster. This changed my opinion greatly at first.

Anguish, pain, torment and suffering are all a part of our day to day lives. These may issue from a variety of causes such as great deprivation, hardships to emotional and physical loss. Many texts, such as that of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly in the early 1800's, depict unalleviated suffering caused by living within societal norms. However very often, these sufferings are inflicted upon people by one individual and in the case of Frankenstein, this source is Victor Frankenstein. This statement becomes evident when examining the intersecting cultural beliefs of gender, class and ethnicity of the time.

Throughout the many themes portrayed In Mary Shelley’s version of Frankenstein, character motives is the most seen. Character motives gives the reader an idea of what the characters are doing throughout the book, that also have more than one source. It all starts as Victor Frankenstein who grows up falling in love with science and has been fascinated with the idea of creating life. However, after going to school, learning most of what the professors and teachers knew, he wasn’t satisfied. Victor seeked something more. He searches for the “secret to life” and so he starts to experiment with dead body parts and creates his own monster. He could’ve started out creating something small, but he was “too awed by my first success to have any doubt

judged him (Penetrating). But as he grows for the better he realizes that there is something missing in his life, a woman.

The desire to belong is natural in most humans. Even though we understand the struggle of belonging, we, as humans still persecute others who are different. This exclusion is, in itself, a form of bullying. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley exemplifies this phenomenon of human behavior when she shows the maltreatment Frankenstein’s monster receives for his unattractive physical features and how he attempts to communicate with others in order to put an end to his isolation. Despite the monster’s benevolent nature, he is still alienated because he is different. Through the use of the monster and his discrimination, Mary Shelley shows that humans are not that different from the monster in the way we seek others; and those that persecute others are the real monsters.

Within everyone, there lies a side of them that they do not show the world. This side contains the deepest, darkest desires that unconsciously determine how one lives his life. The question remains: will one’s inner monster ever make an appearance or does it stay cleverly hidden? In Frankenstein, the protagonist fights the battle within himself between listening to the devil or the angel. By looking through the lens of a psychoanalytic critic, one can find the monsters hidden within the characters of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, J.M. Hunt’s “The Creation of Man by Prometheus,” and The Holy Bible version of Genesis.

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny” (C.S. Lewis). If these words are true, and it is also true nobody is ordinary, does that then mean that hardships are a form of midlife rebirth? Any form of birth is proof that you have survived something, after all nothing is created nor destroyed merely transformed. Although many people do not believe in past lives, it can hardly be denied that everyone goes through rebirth in their lives and that our struggles shape who we are.

Charlie Chaplin once said that “man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded” (Christensen). Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a true staple of its era, with its sweeping depictions of nature, the turbulent emotions of the sturm und drang style, and a poignant sense of unrest which speaks to the romantic zeitgeist of the time. Frankenstein is the tale of Victor Frankenstein, who, driven mad by his pride and his thirst for knowledge, plays at God by creating a new form of life. The hideous creature, assembled from torn parts of flesh, was to be his Adam, but quickly becomes his Morning Star as they become trapped in an inescapable cycle of torment. Victor’s creature is a killer, seeking revenge on all those whom his creator holds dear. After their conflict is put to an eternal rest, the question of who is truly at fault remains. The monster, being the one who committed the crimes, is often left with the blame, yet Victor was the one who foolishly created this life only to spurn it aside. The impact of his decision cannot be denied, as the society his creature is released into is responsible for transforming the creature into the murderer he becomes by the end of the novel. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein toys with the reader’s preconceptions of monsters through the creature’s inherent goodness, and his bastardization due to his interactions with humanity and the ideals society instils within men,

and in this essay I will explore who the monster is in the novel. The

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become a classic in modern literature. Her tale is full of moral lessons that encompass a wide variety of subjects but one of the most prevalent is the theme of knowledge and its pursuit. Frankenstein, Walton, and the Monster all have an appetite for acquiring knowledge and actively pursue their perspective interests, but it soon turns to the obsessive and proves to be dangerous. Each of the character’s desires demonstrates to be detrimental to them when no boundaries are established. Through the use of consequences, Shelley’s Frankenstein shows that the relentless and obsessive pursuit of knowledge can lead to dangerous and disastrous situations.

In her novel, Frankenstein Mary Shelley explores a great deal of theme dealing with the human nature. The thoughts and actions of the two main characters and others. At the heart of the story there are two main themes one of which being birth and creation, but focus is also places on alienation from society where they lived. The two these is stated to you are even relevant in todays society. Alienation from society suffered by the mister that Victor Frankenstein had created.

The creature was more human because it craved love and support from civilians. The creature says, “The more I saw them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures,” which shows that he developed feelings and emotions towards people (Chapter 15, page 5). In the story, the creature finds a family of cottagers, which he watches from a distance. As he watches the family, he develops and understands the emotions of happiness, sadness, caring, and love. The creature’s development of emotions makes him more human because Dr. Frankenstein never seemed to care about anyone other than himself. Today, the creature would have the same emotions and feelings as other