The writer’s use of pathetic fallacy through “rain pattered dismally against the panes” and “glimmer of the half-extinguished light” reflects on the dull, macabre atmosphere surrounding the event of Victor trying to “infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing”. Shelley’s use of negative words such as “dreary” and “toil” implies to the reader that the act of giving life that Victor is about to carry out will have an adverse conclusion. When Shelley describes the monster, her use of colour imagery incites the image in the reader’s mind of this abominable creature Frankenstein has erected. One would expect that since each of the monsters features were so carefully selected, the monster would be the “beautiful” being Frankenstein had previously exclaimed about. However in fact, the monster’s “hair [was] of a lustrous black” and his “teeth of a pearly whiteness” in contrast with his “dull yellow eye” ,“yellow skin” and his “shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” evoke the opposite effect on the reader.
He tells him ‘do your duty towards me and I will do mine towards you,’ and if Frankenstein refused, he threatened him by saying he would ‘glut the maw of death’. This shows how the Creature’s abandonment and lack of nurture leads him to become a murderer. Further proof of this is when, during the Creature’s tale he tell Frankenstein ‘I could not conceive how one man could go fourth and murder his fellow’ showing that he was ‘benevolent and good’ and had Frankenstein full filled his duty he may have remained so. The Creature admits to Frankenstein ‘misery made me a fiend’ implying that Frankenstein’s actions, or lack of action, lead to this misery. Primarily it is not Frankenstein who has to suffer the consequences of his creating life, it is the Creature.
To the reader, it seems that Shelly consistently reminds us of the lack of responsibility on the part of Frankenstein, and the monster’s inherent innocence, who is only made evil by his circumstances. But like the reader, Shelley too, is unclear about whose behaviour is most unjustifiable and unpardonable. With reference to David Punter’s essay “Gothic and Romanticism”, Victor Frankenstein can be compared to the ‘Wanderer’, the Wanderer’s essential characteristics being that he is hero and victim both, who defies God by crossing the laws of mortality and dares to touch the untouchable. The Wanderer is never satisfied with the restrictions placed on him by an ordered society, and he ultimately suffers for his disobedience. Victor clearly fits the description of the Wanderer, as his obsessive need to create life and be its sole creator has a hint of an unnatural desperation to satisfy his ego and attain gratitude.
It is said that the monster’s ‘hideous looks’ represents Victor’s abnormal personality. The theme of isolation also represents doubling between Victor and the monster. Although Victor appears to be surrounded by a loving family, he ‘shuns the face of man’ and decides to become isolated from his family and the world and is trapped in a bubble of science and galvanism. Similarly, isolation is shown through the monster. He is rejected by the De Laceys and Frankenstein and ponders the question: ‘Am I not alone, miserably alone?’.
Victor waves his fist around and threatens to attack the monster, but is able to avoid Victor with his speed. The monster claimed to be a virtuous creature, until the actions of humans made him miserable. “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” (Vol. II Chapter II, Page 117).
Shelley portrays the desire of knowledge as lust which, if left unhindered, can drive a man to peril. Although Frankenstein's initial intentions were to exceed the boundaries of science the over ambitious nature led him to be 'hidden in darkness' and 'locked up from nature' leading the monster to Frankenstein's peril. A feature of the gothic genre is Victor's psychotic nature which emphasizes the dark side of the human psyche in emotional and physical form. Some critics such as Rebecca Wallis have argued that the 'dark Sid elf the human psyche' can be found within victor's sexuality. The point in the novel which this critic focuses on is the moment before intercourse between Victor and Elizabeth when Victor states ' this night is dreadful, very dreadful'.
In Frankenstein, Victor continually refers to his creation as ‘vile wrench’, ‘abhorred devil’. This uses of epithet illustrate his immediate repulsion towards the creature and his recklessness towards conformity of life he has bestowed. Despite this, the creature gladly desires Victor’s acknowledgement on his behalf - ‘Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed’. Juxtaposition between two biblical allusion, ‘Adam’ and ‘fallen angel’ suggests us the contrast in Victor and God. In Bible, Adam was the first male with gifted creation from the God’, but the creature rather refers himself more of ‘fallen angel’, ‘devil’ who plunges the eternal war against God.
Prometheus' creation of the human race during the creation of the universe was for the sake of humanity, Victor's creation of the creature was for his sole knowledge to only better his curiosity. Some may say Victor Frankenstein does not portray a modern Prometheus. Although he may not be a god, he is to the creature. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus. Victor seeks for enlightenment and power, in which, Prometheus does as well.Victor does something forbidden; creating human life.
At first, Victor sees the creature as an amazing breakthrough created by defiance nature, but soon after the creature’s creation, he realizes how truly awful the creature is and rejects him. Victor is in bed asleep, and suddenly wakes to see “the wretch the miserable monster”(Shelley 56) he had created. The creature opens its mouth as if to say something, but only sounds, not accurate words, come out. Frightened Victor escapes from the creature, before it can detain him with the filial grasp of a child towards its parents, and runs down the stairs still horrified by the creature. After escaping from the creature and learning the mischief the creature got into, Victor begins to realize how he must take responsibility for the creature, like a child takes responsibility for his/her puppy.
Frankenstein wanted to recreate his mother, but instead he made a creature comprised of the socially repressed elements of Frankenstein (the monster) and his wish for his mother. Frankenstein's creature comprises all of the unacceptable traits of humans, those we usually suppress. These traits may actually be a representation of those traits that Frankenstein wishes he had. Mary Shelley tries to humanize the position of the impossible monster to imagine what it would be like for a monster to sustain personhood when everybody around him treats him as an utterly outcast to society. Shelley is trying to show that the creature is not inherently monstrous, but