The Real Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Besides, the creature was the kind of person that if someone taught him beautifully, he would pay back by admiring and loving this person. By this media, the creature learned to admire people's grace, beauty, and delicate complexions. The creature understood one language, which was French and quickly he could say some words like sister, brother, fire, milk, etc. This language was taught to him by a French family who he loved: "The French family was the school where the creature studied all the science that he knows and learned history as well." Also, the monster thought this family was the most kind and excellent in the world; but, the same family also taught and showed him how humans could be hurtful, when the family refused to become his friend. On the other hand, the knowledge and education that the creature received from the French family, was not enough to prevent his bad attitude in his personality that came within his creation. The creature was not a great person all the time; he was someone who could murder anyone at anytime, just because he was making revenge against Frankenstein. Besides, the creature was someone who felt alone in earth by the fact that he did not have friends and relationships; he was questioning why he had no father watching him when growing up or a mother taking care of him. "The creature thought his past life was a blemish where he did not distinguish anything."

Frankenstein follows Victor Frankenstein’s triumph as he reanimates a dead body, and then details his guilt for creating such a thing. When the creation realizes how he came to be, and is rejected by mankind, he seeks revenge on his creator’s loved ones. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein as the true monster of the story through the use of literary devices revealing the characteristics that Frankensteins and monsters share, and shows how Frankenstein’s irresponsibility leads to his monstrous labeling.

“I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings…” (Shelley 54). As he reads the books he found, he begins to compare his life and himself with others, and shapes his opinion and point of view of himself, since now he wants to be accepted for who he really is, because he knows that mankind rejects him. He feels lonely and miserable, and what he most want in life is a female companion. “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (Shelley 63). The monster feels that he is miserable because mankind hate him, and that is what make him malicious. It is possible that the monster would actually fulfill his promise and leave humankind in peace. We can assume that he has the potential for good as well as evil. As he is being aware of life by reading “Paradise Lost,” he compares himself to Adam, because he was left alone on earth by his creator, and also to Satan, because humans are afraid of him, and he is threatening and

Listening to the monster’s story for the first time, it becomes evident to both the reader and Frankenstein that the monster initially lacked knowledge and experience with the world, however it adapted through trial-and-error and adjusting its actions based on newfound knowledge. This is especially proven when the monster was incapable of even being able to discern between its senses; it took him “a long time before [he] learned to distinguish between the operations of [his] various senses” (Shelley 70). Shelley shows that, despite having a fresh slate, the monster had a developed body and brain. After being abandoned by Victor, the monster had to get accustomed to bright and dark, cold and heat, and hunger. Just as a child would, the monster learned about the world from making mistakes. For example, when he “found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth [he] experienced from it,” and “thrust [his] hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain” (Shelley 71). Probably the biggest parallel between the monster and a child would be with learning how to communicate. While learning about the world, the monster found that humans fear it, and run away from it. As a result, the monster stayed away from humans and found refuge near a cottage. The monster tries to learn the language by listening to the group of cottagers converse. He “found that … people possessed a method of

“I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept” (Shelley 91). In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Mary depicts a hideous, macabre, creature as one of the main characters, who seeks to discover and connect with the unknown world that it has been born into. The creator, Victor Frankenstein, studies life cycle of human beings, ultimately learning the secret of creation through unnatural means. These experiments result in a monster, who must to learn and grow in consciousness, much as an infant would awaken gradually to life. He is, at first, overwhelmed by new sensations, experiencing hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. The monster begins on a clean slate, starting in his adolescence, but experiences continuous vulgar abuse from beings who show to be quick to judge. Though the monster proves to have a positive heart initially, maltreatment gradually changes his response to people and causes him to react negatively to negative stimuli from experiences and necessity. The creature’s response to society is constructed through the mistreatment by Victor Frankenstein, the DeLacey family’s rejection, and his first meeting with Victor Frankenstein in the Alps.

In Mary Shelley´s Gothic novel, Frankenstein, the Monster once claimed, “The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” Frankenstein, since the 1910 film adaptation, has known a series of several adaptations that changed drastically, not only the plot but one of the main characters, the Monster, from stealing its creator´s name to being portrayed as a cold villain. Though, in the original storyline, the biggest threat to society is the creator itself, the one pretending to play as God, Victor Frankenstein. This essay will discuss the nature of the main characters of the novel and conclude who is the “real monster” in the end.

Shelley uses the structure of the novel to explore human nature, clouding the reader’s perceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, man and monster. By creating multiple unreliable narrators, she establishes that nothing is certain, positioning the readers to question their own ideas about who is really in the wrong throughout the novel. Frankenstein and the creature are seen as opposites on a scale of good and evil, master and slave, god and devil, however these positions change throughout the novel. Frankenstein wants the readers to see the creature as a monster, but through the characters narratives and reflections, we see that Frankenstein did not actually create a monster. Frankenstein made a man and turned him into a monster, and the

The monster is in need of help from his creator, for he is new to the world and does not know anything about living yet, but instead, he has nobody and is forced to figure life out by himself. Readers understand the monster’s emotion because he says “I sat down and wept”. By understanding his emotion, it will cause readers to feel sympathy for him. This also proves one of the larger themes of the novel, that people should treat others with empathy, because as his creator, Frankenstein should have been able to understand and share his feelings, for he was often alone and left to teach and fend for himself during his studies. Frankenstein’s reject to his creation is what caused the monster to feel so alone, and ultimately, what led to both of their destructions.

Throughout the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the creature is subjected to countless acts of violence and rejection. For a monster to develop, one must have been formerly exploited either by an individual or their society. The creature is not only a physical product of science, but his atrocious behavior is also an explicit result of Victor’s actions toward him. The creature was not born a monster, but slowly morphed into one as he experiences violence and rejection from his society.

You may have heard the saying that beauty is only skin deep, but how many people actually believe this? Society oftentimes defines someone's worth or popularity based on if they are attractive or not. In this classic novel by Mary Shelley, the antagonist the Frankenstein monster, has his character judged based on his appearances shortly after the moment he comes to life. While this is the case, the monster also made choices to do evil. He falls into their thinking and acts out because of being an outcast due of his looks.

How is a monster defined? In Frankenstein, the author, Mary Shelley depicts Victor Frankenstein as the true monster by emphasizing his irresponsibility, hostility, and isolation. Accordingly, Frankenstein starts focusing only on his work and chooses to stay isolated when his family reaches out to him. However, immediately after he creates this creature, he shows hostility towards it and abandons his creation. After Frankenstein’s mother’s death, he starts living a more isolated life away from his family and friends to focus on bringing his creation to life. His strong desire to create this creature eventually leads him to become very unhealthy psychologically and physically. Even Frankenstein himself admits that,"Every night I was oppressed

The audience sees the effects of the Creature’s sympathy from the mouth of the last person they would expect. Later in their conversation, Frankenstein says that, “His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, and sometimes felt a wish to console him” (Shelley 271). The Creature’s ability to express his feelings and experiences allows him to forge bonds with others, or at least get farther in his attempts than previously. Before he could speak, the Creature attempted to connect with people, but they were frightened by this appearance and the seeming mindless groaning.

He watches a family from outside their house and quickly learns the “science of letters as it was taught to the stranger; and this opened before [him] a wide field for wonder and delight” (Shelley 84). The creation is so engaged in learning something new and does not consider the consequences beforehand, much like Frankenstein acts before creating him. Because the monster is able to learn the letters of the alphabet, he also learns how to communicate. His communication skills ultimately lead him to ask Victor for a family.

He learns from what he sees and hears, so by learning like this he is almost a slave to the things he does not understand. “They were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food, and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions.” (124). One of the first things the monster was able to study was this family. He did not want to approach them, though, because he did not want to scare them off like he did Frankenstein.

One characteristic that was described of Victor was his temper, and the violent nature in which it took over him. Victor classified his temper as not being meant to hurt people, but how he envisioned his ability to learn about heaven and earth (Chap. 2). Victor became infatuated with the work of Cornelius