Throughout the story, the creature in Frankenstein develops human-like characteristics which provide for the plot and the occurrences in the story. The creature forms emotions and feelings, intellect, and wisdom from the time he was brought to life, to the time he jumped off of the ship at the end of the book. The creature learns how to speak, converse and feel emotions for certain things from the family he watched for many days. Frankenstein begins to learn things and develop a sense of emotion when he becomes connected to the poor family up in the mountains. In the book, Mary Shelley wrote, “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people; and I longed to join them, but dared not,” (Shelley 77). This provides us with the assumption that at this point the creature feels emotion. He wants friends, companions to be with because he feels alone. What I can also take from this sentence is that the creature had developed a sense of intellect and memory at this point. He knows from previous actions that people shriek and fear him, so he avoids frightening these poor people and watches them, …show more content…
The creature learned to speak by watching the people and he learned their ways. He learned so much, that he could hold out a conversation with Victor, and in the story he was using high intellectual words and speaking intelligently. The book says “‘I now hasten to the moving part of my story. I shall relate events, that impressed me with feelings which, from what I had been, have made me what I am.’” (Shelley 81). This shows me that the creature developed a high level intelligence from not only the poor people, but from his experiences as well. He learned many things and he gained wisdom, which could only be gained from his past experiences. The creature learned all of this is a very short time compared to the normal length it would take a human being to learn such
The creature's violent behaviour causes him to never achieve the sympathy he desires and therefore never achieve mutual
The question of what it means to be human is very prominent in “Frankenstein.” The book has a way of drawing attention to the aspects that define humanity and what exactly has the authority to classify something as human. The ability to feel emotions is a characteristic that many of Mary Shelley’s characters possess, including Frankenstein’s creation, who is often branded as a monster. Feeling emotions, even negative ones, are a very human thing; it is part of human nature. When Frankenstein’s creation gets rejected by Felix De Lacey, a man it had been spying on for months, it feels intense disappointment and sadness. The monster watches in horror as Felix looks upon him with utter disgust while it makes the conscious decision not to tear him
Every encounter the creature had with mankind resulted in violence towards him. His isolation and rejection from society created his violent persona, “[he] is violent, because [he] is miserable” (104). The creatures rejection from society left him - what he believed - one option, to become a plague to the society that exiled him. Rejection from the rest of society is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges a being can face. Interaction is an essential “human” need, as much as food, water, and shelter, and isolation can destroy a person’s psyche. Frankenstein’s creature is a prime example, he lived his whole life in the shadows, afraid of others. He had four conversations with other people! Because society rejected him, he became violent towards them, which only distanced him further from the ones he sought to
Unlike Mike, Frankenstein’s Creature possesses an organic mind and a more human-like limitation on how much information can be processed at a certain time. The Creature proves to be capable of intelligence by learning through education and experience. After Dr. Frankenstein creates the Creature, the Creature does not possess any knowledge of the world and
Although this quote is quite long, it embodies many of the sympathies readers have with the creature. The creature has many questions that cannot be answered because Victor abandoned him after being created. The creature learns through reading books
Say there is someone, someone who acts viciously and commits heinous acts. Now, say that this same someone is just a child, misunderstood and abandoned. Knowing that this once-perceived evil being is just a child who’s been through immense amounts of misery and anguish – the root cause behind the crimes they committed – does that change one’s view of him? Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the character of the creature is first seen as an evil demon. However, there are different perspectives that can change one’s view of him.
In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, describes his adventures in attempting to create life. Using old body parts and unusual chemicals, he was able to successfully create a living creature that stood at 8 feet tall with long black hair, black lips, and yellow skin. As the novel progresses, it is evident that the Creature’s seemingly terrifying physical attributes deterred him from making human companions, despite his amiable personality. This inevitable isolation drew the Creature into a state of loneliness which prompted him in asking Victor to construct a female companion for him. Victor, torn between pleasing the Creature and avoiding negative societal consequences, was faced with a major decision.
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
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells a story about the creation and the destruction of a man considered by society to be a “monster”. In the novel, there is profound meaning to be found in the monster’s self-education. Patterned after the evolution of human learning, the monster’s spontaneous learning proceeds through major stages. First, is the accidental discovery of fire, this is followed by a realization by the monster that knowledge yields power.
In the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelly, the creature's behavior is a result of the cruelty shown by his creator and other humans, not because he was “born” evil. The creature is constructed of random corpuses body parts that Victor, the creator, stole, sewed together, and then brought to life. Although he looks like a monster, he only transforms himself into a monster, personality and behavior wise, after he is continuously rejected by society because they see a hideous creature and expect it to do hideous things.
The creature is a friend. He only wants people to love him for him. The creature is one of the most miserable character portrayed in the entire story. The second he's created his creator abandons him.
A tormented existence can only result in one’s demise. Forming healthy relationships is a staple of human life. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Creature was fated to become a product of his environment. Perhaps one of the greatest influences in one’s life is how one is raised. The Creature is wrongly treated due to his frightening facade. In this novel, it can be made obvious that it is not what is on the inside that counts.
In Frankenstein, the monster undergoes a wide variety of emotional experiences and insightful thoughts from reading Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives, and Sorrows of Werter while temporarily residing at the De Laceys’ cottage. These thoughts and emotions had carried on to the monster himself, influencing his perspectives on both human nature and his own identity, and eventually leading to his evil actions and downfall. Had the monster read other works, his actions and intellectual experiences would have been shaped accordingly, in turn benefiting his courses of action and his general disposition towards himself and towards humanity. Namely, Crime and Punishment, 1984, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin would all serve as catalysts for change in the monster’s
Throughout the excerpt, the creature tells us many of his different observations. He expresses his responses to these observations, which help shape a new idea of the creature in the reader’s mind. Right away, in the first paragraph, he observes the cottagers in their daily lives and longs to join them. He wants to be a part of them but knows it is not wise. He also notices that that the people he is observing are not entirely happy. This fact affects him and gives us insight into the humanity of the creature. He is so invested in the lives of these people, he bases his emotions off of the cottager’s emotions. In paragraph ten it says, “…when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys”. These are just a few of the many observations throughout. They convince the reader
The monster is successfully able to read books that other members of his society have written. In the monsters time observing the family he is able to get his hands on a copy of a few book, one being Paradise Lost. He is eventually able to read the book and become more intelligent. Secondly, the monster is also able to talk in the spoken language that all other individuals around him speak. Towards the end of the novel Victor Frankenstein and the monster talk and the the monster is able to almost perfectly communicate with Victor now that he knows how to talk. Lastly, we are able to see how the monster has learned about heat through playing with fire.“When night came again I found, with pleasure, that the fire gave light, as well as heat, and that discovery of this element was useful to me in my food.” (p.89). He finally is intelligent enough to discover a huge concept all by himself. He also realizes there are some negatives to his new fire creation.“I found that the berries where spoiled by this operation” (p.89). The monster learns that berries don’t go well on the fires that he makes, only giving him more new knowledge. Towards the end of the monsters life he has definitely proven his growing level of