Often times Victor Frankenstein’s “monster” is often referred to as an evil being. Through reference to Frankenstein’s monsters thirst for knowledge and love for the cottagers, Mary Shelley portrays Frankenstein’s monster as a kind, caring, and intelligent creation who longs to be in harmony with society. The monster demonstrates his intelligence when he states “I improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in two months I began to comprehend most of the words uttered by my protectors.” (Shelley, 99) The speed in which the monster developed the skills of interpreting and understanding the language of the cottagers is extremely rapid. It is very rare that someone, or “something,” in the case of the monster can pick up a completely new language in two months. This also proves that the monster is extremely self-sufficient because he did not require the help of anyone else and entirely taught himself the language in a remarkably short amount of time.
Victor Frankenstein was an arrogant and ambitious scientist that wanted to play with the powers beyond human understanding and answer the ‘secret of life,’ with his “human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanisms of the Creator of the world.” Frankenstein effectively achieved this by “bestowing animation on a lifeless matter.” Shelley throughout the fourth chapter expresses the excited and ambitious scientist during the process of seeking his answers, he thought he was about to create “a new species [that] will bless [him] as its creator and source.” However this is juxtaposed with the decline of the individual which is revealed in the next chapter, “Now that [he had] finished” he realised “the beauty of the dream had vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart.” By answering the ‘secret of life,’ Frankenstein is forced to accept the consequences from releasing the ‘monster’ on the world. Shelley uses techniques of imagery to describe the unnamed monster “I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” Shelley makes constant references to the physical and emotion price paid as a result of the individual, Victor
The monster is introduced to the reader from Victors point of view. This is a technique to influence the readers reaction since we already have our opinions on Victor Frankenstein due to previous events in the novel but later when the narration switches to Frankensteins monsters we read the story from a different perspective and learn that Victor is not a good man at all. The reader is also given a positive image of Victor Frankenstein. One of the first things we read is Robert Waltons opinions of him and from this we know that Walton saw him as a very successful, respected and good man. From the start of Victors narration, we are shown his character in a good light through the account of his childhood - "I, their eldest child, their plaything and their idol, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven" We see from this quote that he's painting the picture that he is from Heaven, that he's such a good man who is of high importance.
Even though Frankenstein feels that his “human nature [did] turn with loathing from [his] occupation” (55) as he is creating the being, he continues on with an “unnatural stimulus” (55). Frankenstein realizes that there must be some issues with his plan, but never takes the time to stop and think about the possible outcomes of his plan. Because Frankenstein chooses to ignore his own gut
He only realises this though when he observes the De Lacey family. The fact that Frankenstein had gone through all of the trouble of creating the Creature would have made the reader think that he knew what his duty of care towards it should be. There is a sense of responsibility that
The creature has infinite potential, but it is Frankenstein’s prideful nature and negligence that makes the creature become “monstrous”. Frankenstein’s selfish pride stems from his unbridled curiosity and obsession. Frankenstein’s curiosity was first aroused as a child after he read a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa (Shelley 39; ch. 2). When Frankenstein’s father explains to him why he shouldn’t continue to waste his time on the reading the book, Frankenstein instead defies his father’s wishes and continues to “read with the greatest avidity” (Shelley 40; ch.
All of these characters shared one thing in common; they were protagonists of their respective stories. But this statement was not true in Frankenstein. It was the antagonist that deserved sympathy. The monster’s pitiless and cruel treatments from others aroused our sympathy, rather than his creator; Victor Frankenstein’s suffering, for he suffered more discrimination and lack
After putting everything together he was very proud of himself and absolutely admired the monster’s features because he specifically hand picked the best of the best corpse as he describes, “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness….” (42). Frankenstein was amazed with this hideous creature that he has been trying to put together for 2 years. Finally it was the spark of lightning/fire that completed this puzzle piece and brought Frankenstein’s monster to life. And upon coming to life from the spark, the creature, “..Was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.”(43). This shocked
In the book, Piggy uses scientific intelligence throughout the novel and impacts the book in three ways: he helped to find a way to start a fire, became friends with Ralph, and aggravated Jack and his followers. First, Piggy impacts the novel by helping Jack and Ralph start the fire in the beginning of the story. In order for the boys to have hope of being rescued and cook their food, they needed to create a fire. Piggy’s glasses become very important as the story continues and eventually symbolizes mathematics and science just like Piggy. “Piggy!
If only Frankenstein had tried to learn what his creature need before he gave him life! He created the creature that he rejected because its worldly form did not reflect the glory of his original idea. Thrown, unaided and ignorant, into the world, the creature began his own journey into the discovery of the strange meanings of the human language and society. The creature was an untamed and extreme version of the free individual. Without the support and shelter of a family, the creature nevertheless gained an education of sorts.