The Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

It is questioning humanity on how a creation can absorb emotions. How can a mere creation display such compassion? This is outlining the monster is no longer concerned with simply surviving, but more concerned with experiencing and understanding every aspect and quality of life.

One of the first lies told to the monster is the false promise of companionship by Victor Frankenstein. Despite creating the creature with the intent of giving himself a companion, Frankenstein abandons his creation, leaving the monster feeling alone and isolated. This initial act of deception sets the stage for the monster's journey to seek acceptance and understanding from a world that rejects him. Throughout the story, the monster encounters deceit and violence from those he encounters, from fearful villagers to a family he observes from afar. The lies and misunderstandings perpetuated by society deepen the monster's feelings of alienation and betrayal.

From his birth, the monster is abandoned by his creator, in addition to this, him being isolated and rejected by society as a whole leads to his descent into violence. The monster has a constant yearning for affection and a companion as shown in the phrase “you must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being”, the words ‘must’ and ‘necessary’ emphasise just how much he longs for a companion, which highlights the utter loneliness of the monster. The fact that this companion is therefore denied causes the reader to view the monster as a character to be pitied as the thing he desires the most is denied to him by a prejudiced society which neglects him from birth. This isolation continues, as in the extract, the monster articulates his intent to isolate himself in the farthest reaches of the globe, emphasising his desire to spare humanity from the darkness he perceives within

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

I exclaimed in agony. Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?”. The monster has generated feelings and emotions since the day he was created, he never knew why people hated on him and felt left out of this world, knowing what his creator felt as he finished his dream that then became a nightmare, has made a turn on the monster’s emotions and feelings to men kind. After all, God created man beautiful and alluring and the monster knows that, but knowing his OWN creator turn his back on him, it just makes him get revenge and hope for the

The novel Frankenstein is a story just like any other, villain and victim, and many may think that due to all the acts the monster did throughout the novel makes him the villain is looked at vaguely. The story has to be looked at closely to understand whether the monster is truly the villain or the victim regarding the circumstances. Although, looking through the novel is still difficult to differentiate them. The monster was left with no choice but to be a monster, he was never loved, shown what is correct and what is wrong, he was never even given a name. The Monster is a character in the story “Frankenstein” who is brought to life by Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who studies biology. Victor later digs further into his studies and starts working on creating life. He eventually achieves this goal but he is shocked at what he creates therefore runs from his creation and abandons him leaving “The Monster” alone and angry. The monster is the victim in this whole story, every child is taught and disciplined into knowing what is morally correct, but the monster didn’t, he was left alone without being loved or cared for.

The monster exclaims, “I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me, but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me." (171), furthermore the monster explains his intentions, "The human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear."

Initially, the creature has a mind that revolves around idealistic perceptions. These perceptions came into the picture due to the creatures encounters with humanity. Victor Frankenstein for example, abandoned the monster at birth, consequently leading to the creature’s inevitable distress: “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with the smiles and caresses;…All my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing” (101). This feeling of distress was accompanied by the monster’s longing for a family or companion. This sense of loneliness sparked by Victor’s immoral actions is what led to the monster’s first idealistic perception. A perception that regarded the belief that he could mutually and happily coexist with other humans. A symbolic representation of this is exact idea is the monsters second encounter with humanity, an encounter which occurs after the monster has had time to ponder and fantasize about his idealistic perceptions. Confidently and proudly, the monster enters a village full of humans: “But I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked. And one of the women fainted.”(74) expecting his idealistic belief to be the truth he was once again disappointed and so he creature’s idealistic beliefs are questioned. Despite this heartbreaking encounter with humanity, the monster’s idealistic perceptions and beliefs only increase further. He alters his

He neglected the creature, when all the creature wanted was love. Instead, the creature was alienated and no one wanted anything to do with him. This caused the creature start to believe his creator and other people, and started to become horrified of himself. He started to hate himself and his appearance just like everyone around him. Victor Frankenstein died on a ship at the end of the novel. He was lonely, he had no one in his life to love. The creature wanted Victor to suffer just like he did. To do this, the creature kills Victor’s brother William, his friend Henry, and Victor’s wife Elizabeth. These are three important people in Victor’s life, whom he loved dearly. Killing Victor would be too easy, the creature wanted him to suffer in horrible ways. Victor was the person that treated the creature horribly. He wanted nothing to do with his creation, even though he has done something no one else has ever done. His dream came true, he created new life, but he was horrified because of how the creature looked. This takes a toll on the creature, and he starts to hate himself just like his creator does. This is reason why the creature starts killing. He hates the person who created him. Victor got what he deserved. He deserved to die. The way he treated the creature was wrong, and he suffers and died because of this. He has no one to love anymore. His best friend, brother, and wife are all dead. He has no reason to live anymore and he knows that. Victor knows that he messed up in an enormous way. Victor does not fulfil his responsibilities as a creator. He does not treat the creature any better, and he loses important people in his life because of

Originally the monster is kind and wants just to be loved and accepted into the society. However, angry from being abandoned by his creator, the monster murders for revenge which leads to Victor swearing vengeance on the monster. Throughout the story the monster develops human characteristics and knowledge through books he reads and conversations he hears from villagers he watches over. The monster was able to grasp a better understanding of people and the way they act through his observations.

The overall message is deep and meaningful. In the book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s main theme when writing this has to do with the lack of love and feeling of rejection. These feelings are what push Frankenstein, the monster, to act out and harm people. He feels so much anger and resentment towards his creator for making him a non-lovable creature; resulting in loneliness and the intense craving to be loved by someone. Frankenstein wants to plot a revenge so he starts killing people that are closest to Victor so that he too can understand what it would feel like to not be loved.

He begs and threatens Dr. Frankenstein into agreeing to create him a partner. However, after Frankenstein begins creating another of the monsters kind, he destroys her, right in front of the monster. The monster, once again feels betrayed. The loneliness that he feels is now even more prominent, as his only hope for a companion gets destroyed. He turns all of these emotions into anger towards Dr. Frankenstein.

“God, In pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance” And the monster has the desire for family and companions, and the reactions of those have around them, but they shun him and that causes loneliness and irritation and what he wants

Most people think a monster is just that, a monster. When you normally hear about a monster most of the time your instincts are to run and scream. However, you can’t judge a book by its cover. By looking at things from an outside point of view people wont get the full story. However, in this particular story the words, observations, and actions of the monster can change the point of view of the reader about him and give us a better look at who he really is.

Initially, the creature doesn’t recognize that its monstrous appearance terrify people. After rescuing a child from drowning, the adults with the child attacked the creature. It escaped, and silently rages “This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered flesh and bone” (Shelley 142). The adults with the child assume that the screaming is because of the monster, and they shoot the monster to protect themselves. The accident happens quick, and the adults act on their instincts. Despite the "monster" completing a heroic act, they assume that the creature is the villain. The creature feels rage at humans for assuming it to villainous because of its appearance. Moreover, criticism of the book offers “The demon is (sub)human consciousness-in-the-making, naturally benevolent as Milton’s Satan is not, and received with horror and contempt because of his physical appearance ” (Oates 198). The creature is forming a human conscious with kindness naturally in it, but that growth is unseen by people. The people see the creature’s inhuman body and react to it with contempt. The benevolence the creature has means nothing to the people who see the creature’s demon-like body. After the creature murders William Frankenstein in anger, it sees a picture and bitterly remembers “I