It is Frankenstein’s responsibility to teach the monster and see it as a friend. It’s because Frankenstein rejects his creature that causes it to become evil. “Oh No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. 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 suck as even Dante could not have conceived.”(pg.49) Each time the monster killed it was a consequence of Victor’s actions.
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.
David Guhl Mrs. Volz British Lit. 5 September 2012 Who is the real monster? There is child abuse going on all around the world, and the kids have done nothing to deserve it. In Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein, The Monster is like an abused child because Victor puts his creation through intense pain that the Monster did not deserve. Victor had no reason to put his creation though such pain he just did it through pure selfishness.
The monster starts to recount the story of his life once they are inside. In this chapter, it is shown that Frankenstein still feels guilty about the murder of his brother, and the execution of Justine. It is shown that he is deeply flawed, and feels isolated. The monster is shown to be more human in this chapter, as he engages in conversation with Victor, and portrays some form of emotion. He states that he was a virtuous and worthy creature until the disdain and ignorance of humans made
Often times, the monster would carry out a good and selfless deed, only to be shunned by the recipients. An example was when he tried to save a girl after she fell into a river, only to be shot in the shoulder by her companion. This was when the monster knew that no matter how benevolent he was, humans would never look beyond his appearance, for they rather let their prejudice rule over their decisions than to face an abomination. In a moment, the monster’s impression of humans changed and he desired revenge on Frankenstein for making him an abomination. If only Frankenstein had given his creation a chance, the unjust treatments would have never happened.
Frankenstein From the moment that man started walking on Earth a question has always been asked, is man inherently good or evil? Is good or evil caused by nurture or nature? Is it a self-conscience decision we make within ourselves? The question has always been asked but, never answered for the simple fact that no one knows. As Frankenstein had finished his creation he saw that what he had created was a horrible monster that he would never want to see again but, the monster was brought into this world similar as infants were, innocent and unknowing.
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
In Ray Hammond’s critical essay, he saw the novel as Mary Shelly’s “means of expressing her innermost fears about life and death in a tangible form (Hammond).” Both Shelly and her mother suffered “birthing horros which are echoed in Frankenstein (Hammond).” Shelly’s novel can be seen as a critique on amoral science, or science without forethought. In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, the character of Frankenstein shows the danger of playing God and the ethical questions presented when man does not consider the ethical questions his experiments present. The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as the good doctor attempts to go beyond anything ever attempted and discover the unthinkable: the secret of life. Frankenstein’s experiment is made with good intentions, as he believes his creation will help humanity. "The accomplishment of his toils" is the creature, created from human body parts Frankenstein harvested from graveyards (34).
The Two Monsters of Frankenstein The main ingredients in creating a monster, in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, are obsession, selfishness, and doomed loneliness. Shelley creates not one but two monsters in the novel. Shelley shows Victor as the selfish and obsessed monster that created a living creature dooming it to forever loneliness. Shelley's other monster is the creature that Victor made that is rejected by everybody due to his ugliness. Victor is a monster by selfishly remaining quiet about the creature as more and more lives are taken.
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.