Explore the ways Mary Shelley presents the character of the monster in "Frankenstein?"
James Scott English Essay
Explore the ways Mary Shelley presents the character of the monster in "Frankenstein?"
Frankenstein is a gothic novel written in the 19th Century. It is a mixture of romance and horror. In Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" the monster is presented in several ways. Before we see the creation we are given information, which prepares us for the horror and destruction that the monster carries out. The reader's initial reaction is that this monster will be a rotting corpse created from leftovers from slaughterhouses, morgues and graves. We can gather from this that he will be very tall, ugly and will be very repellent and terrifying. The reader during the 1800's would have been shocked at the idea of resurrecting a corpse thrown together with some cotton and to be re-animated by electricity. Victor Frankenstein thought the creation of the monster out thoroughly but after his resurrection his future life was not considered. Victor Frankenstein became so obsessed with being a romantic hero he forgot what the monster's needs would be.
During chapter four the creature is created and is immediately rejected by Victor his creator/father. He is rejected because of his sheer ugliness. We can see the horror in this scene but can feel sadness as the creator or 'parent' can reject his own 'child' just after the newborn is 'born'. During this chapter there is a gesture of love by the 'newly born' creature as he reaches out to Victor but is quickly rejected as Victor thinks the creature is going to attack him. "Breathless horror and disgust filled my heart." As the monster is lonely with no family he picks up Victor's jacket with his journal inside it. The monster at this time would feel lonely, rejected, outcast, depressed, un-loved and un-wanted.
During chapter six Victor Frankenstein receives news that his angelic brother William has been brutally murdered. As soon as he receives this news he jumps to conclusions that the 'monster' has committed this fiendish crime. He then makes his way to his home in Geneva to comfort his father Alphonse, brother Ernest and soon to be wife, cousin Elizabeth. But on his way home Victor comes across his creation, on top of a mountain. Victor is surprised by the great strength and agility of "the filthy daemon to whom I (Victor) had given life".
In that ...
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During chapter six Victor Frankenstein receives news that his angelic brother William has been brutally murdered. As soon as he receives this news he jumps to conclusions that the 'monster' has committed this fiendish crime. He then makes his way to his home in Geneva to comfort his father Alphonse, brother Ernest and soon to be wife, cousin Elizabeth. But on his way home Victor comes across his creation, on top of a mountain. Victor is surprised by the great strength and agility of "the filthy daemon to whom I (Victor) had given life".
In that chapter Shelly expects us to be angry at the monster but we have pity as he may have been playing with little William but the game ends in tragedy.
During volume two, chapter three 'Father and son' meet again and the monster talks for the first time and takes over the narration of the novel. The monster talks a subtle language, is sensitive and gives the reader a lot to think about. "(Then) overcome by fatigue, I lay among some straw, and fell asleep".
From chapter three to eight the monster tells Victor about the pain and anguish he went through when he was rejected. During his time with Victor the monster weeps describing his extremely shot life but with a huge past.
He tells of what happened when he was beaten up outside of Victors apartment, when he was created and when he reached out, he wanted love not abuse but most important of all he wanted a friend not a foe. He then talks about where he presently lives.
After the monster was attacked he found refuge in a hovel. During his day in the hovel he learnt how to speak by watching a three-person family, the De Laceys through a crack between the hovel and the cottage where the De Laceys live.
The monster learns how to create fire, using wood, so in need for desperate love the monster during the night the monster goes and chops down trees for the De Laceys to use as firewood. Doing this he hopes to get the De Laceys love and affection.
After much thought the monster decides to meet the old De Lacey who is not blind. The monster thinks that if he can't see him he will not be prejudiced.
The creature goes to the cottage door and knocks. The old man lets him in and the conversation is going well. Unfortunately, before the monster can hide back in his hovel the family returns and fearing their Fathers safety they beat the monster, because of his huge deformities. Once again a family he thought he could trust has rejected the monster. "A fatal prejudiced clouds their eyes." Mary Shelly creates this twist in the story to make us feel more sorrow for the monster.
Rejected and lonely the monster discovers Victor's journal and begins to read of his own birth. The monster discovers his Father was from Geneva and decides to go and confront his creator. He wants to know why he has been left alone in the world. Finishing reading the journal he curses Victor. "Cursed creator, why did you form a monster so hideous." On his way to Geneva he saves a girl from drowning in the river rapids. The monster trying to act as a romantic hero dives into the rapids and rescues the girl, but once again because of his deformities he is attacked by the father of the girl and is chased and chased. After this encounter the monster feels the humans are too quick to judge and only judge the outside of a 'creature' not the inside.
The monster only becomes evil after this event in his life; the monster at this part of the novel is incredibly dangerous and distraught. He meets Victor and demands a female companion. Frankenstein's monster's demand for a female companion is reasonable as all he wants is a friend. But will the female may be just as rebellious as the first monster. It too may feel rejected. I think that it will feel exactly the same as the first monster.
In Volume Three, Chapter Three, Victor agrees to the making of the monster and travels from Geneva to London then on to a remote island in Scotland. Here Victor makes the female companion, but at the point of re-animation Victor destroys the second monster. After the destruction, the monster promises to be at Victors wedding night, presumably to witness it and kill either Victor or Elizabeth. "I shall be with on your wedding night." At this point I think the monsters feelings would be off the Richter scale as I think he would be very angry and shallow.
In Volume Three, Chapter Four, the reader discovers that Victor's best friend Clerval has been murdered and will come to the conclusion that the monster has committed this devilish crime. The reader feels sympathy for Victor as he has seen his best friend disappear, "there was no sign of violence, except for the black marks on his neck." These black marks are very familiar with the reader as the marks were found on little William's neck. At this point in the novel I think the monster is starting to turn into a devil. Shelly adds Clerval's death into the story to bring out the devil inside the monster. It also makes the reader feel prejudiced against the monster.
In Volume Three, Chapter Six, Victor and Elizabeth get married, and the weather is stormy (pathetic fallacy) so something bad is going to happen. This is exactly what happens as on their wedding night, the monster murders Elizabeth after he breaks in through a window. The monster does this so that Victor, like him, will have no love. "She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across her bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair." Victor decides to play the romantic hero again and then sets out to destroy the monster, before he causes any further harm to others, and says that he will die in the attempt before giving up on his mission.
In Volume Three, Chapter Seven, Victor follows the monster to the North Pole, where Captain Walton saw them.
In the end of their epic chase Victor is too weak to survive and 'the monster' not wishing to harm anyone else, throws himself onto the funeral pyre. Earlier the monster is seen weeping at the foot of the bed of Victor. This is hardly surprising as Victor is effectively his Father.
Captain Walton considers the tragedy of the two men's lives and decides to give up his own obsession of reaching the North Pole by boat and turns around and heads for home in England, learning from the mistakes of Victor Frankenstein.
A reader, during the 1800's would react to Shelly's monster differently to a reader during the 21st Century.
Advances in medicine mean some of what Frankenstein achieved is now possible. The behaviour of the monster is understandable as the brain is taken from a murderer and would, in theory; react, as it would have done when originally alive. The monster seems to take on the worst of Victor and as his 'child' is influenced by the way others he comes into contact with treat him not only by Victor but also. The final rejection by Victor of the monster makes the monster even worse and even angrier and more frustrated than he was before. He did not ask to be created and is trapped within a world that will not accept him.
