The creature is the nameless product of Victor’s ambition and curiosity, and desire of knowledge. He remains anonymous right up to the end of the novel, and is referred to as a “monster”, a “demon”, a “devil”, “abhorred monster”, “miserable existence” and many more. It is ironic that one refers to him as a “monster” or a “demon”, when he starts out more innocent and humane than many of the other characters.
Half way through the novel, when the creature confronts Frankenstein and tells him his tale, is when I and many readers begin to feel emotions of pity towards the monster and the initial feelings of fear disperse. His tale of learning to communicate, and learning the language of humans, and of the De Lacey family evokes these feelings, and by the end of his tale and the novel, we have gradually learnt to pity him more as we learn of his “miserable existence” and of his constant loneliness due to being rejected from anyone he meets.
By the end of the novel, we have learnt all about the creature and we know of everything that has occurred leading up to this point. There are many reasons which cause me to pity the creature in the end. Firstly, he was abandoned immediately when he came into existence by his ‘mother’/creator Frankenstein. From the novel we learn that the creature is like a human in everyway apart from his appearance. He has the same feeling that all other humans do: love, sadness, anger, hatred and so on. When talking of the De Lacey family the creature says: - “…when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys”.
The only thing that distinguishes him form other human beings is the way he looks and the way he was created. The story shows us what can happen to human nature when it is deprived of all forms of communication and love from others. The creature’s motive may have been because it was denied basic needs of communication and love from others, so it resorts to evil doings. Also because he was abandoned and was never taught morals or values, we can maybe understand why he chose to act the way he did, or one may even begin to wonder if he felt he had any choice at all. But because of this, pity is evoked upon us by the creature.
Another reason which causes us to pity the creature is the fact that the monster has no companion, no friends and no family. Early on we realise that ‘family’ plays a very important role in the novel. Frankenstein’s family was incomplete and missing the main female role, a mother. So maybe Frankenstein created the monster because of this absence and tried to fill in the role of the missing family member. However, the monster is shunned away and rejected as soon as he is animated.
In the later part of the novel, we hear in the monsters tale of how he wishes to be part of the De Lacey family, but again he is rejected. The existence of this family in the novel emphasizes the importance of a family, and how being in a close family can make everyone happy.
Near the end of the novel, the monster requests that Victor makes him a female counterpart: - “You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being”. This signifies that the creature wants to be included in some kind of family situation as he has observed before and he wants someone to share feelings and problems with etc… But when Frankenstein destroys the female monster, we feel pity for the creature as once again he has been deprived of a family or a loved one. Then the monster starts killing Frankenstein’s family members one by one, trying to make Frankenstein contemplate the idea of what it’s like. The monsters intentions are to make his creator realise the need for family.
Not only has the monster been rejected by Frankenstein and the De Lacey’s, but from all forms of society. Mary Shelley puts forward in this novel the way that society acts towards ‘the different’. Unfortunately the monster fell victim to the widespread way of judging a person by his or her appearance. When the monster ventured into a town he “had hardly placed [his] foot within the door before the children shrieked and one of the women fainted”. Here we feel a huge sense of pity towards the creature as the way he looks is not his fault and people do not even give him a chance to prove them wrong and to show them that their views on him are unfair and unsubstantiated.
The creature’s unfortunate circumstances force him to use his aggression against people. How can he be expected to respect or love people when they show him no respect and loathe him? It is only then that he uses his strength, and becomes inflamed by a desire for vengeance.
By the end of the novel in Walton’s last letter, we see the poor pathetic being that the creature has become, who has stooped so low as to murder innocent people in order to inflict revenge upon Frankenstein, and we cannot help but pity him. Also because we know what he has been through and endured, such as rejection and deprivation of companionship. We do not fear him, but pity this wretched creature for all that he has been through. And in the end we know that the monster does regret putting his creator through the torment that he went through.
