When Shelley writes about the birth of the monster she uses pathetic fallacy to create a negative and unhappy mood. “It was on a dreary night of November.” This tells the reader that something is going to go wrong. The reader expects the monster now to be perfect “I had selected his features as beautiful.”
When the monster is brought to life, Frankenstein neglects the monster. He calls the monster a “wretch.” Here Shelley is trying to create sympathy for the monster by using the fact that the monster has been neglected by his creator. Frankenstein in some ways appears to the reader as the monster’s mother hence increasing sympathy towards the monster.
The monster is again subject to sympathy when Frankenstein describes the monster. He describes the positives of the monster “hair of a lustrous black” and “teeth of pearly whiteness.” Shelley then subjects this to negative contrast “but these luxuriance’s only formed a more horrid contrast” and she then goes on to describe the way Frankenstein had not hoped the monster would look like. “Watery eyes that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” In the end the negative looks of the monster form a greater part of the monster than the positives do. This consequently puts the monster in a negative light, hence creating more sympathy towards the monster.
In volume one chapter seven of the novel, Shelley tries to destroy the sympathy created for the monster. She does this when the monster kills William and frames Justine for his murder. Justine is consequently hanged. This puts the monster in a negative light as it is clear that the monster has done evil. This act was a result of the monster own actions and therefore no one can be blamed for them.
The sympathy is again destroyed when Frankenstein describes the way he saw the monster. “The deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs humanity”. This shows the hatred that Frankenstein shows towards the monster. As the first volume is written in Frankenstein’s retrospect, Frankenstein’s thoughts and feelings are reflected onto the reader.
In the second volume, the monster narrates the story, He tells from where he left his creator after being neglected from him. This is where Shelley recreates the sympathy that she previously destroyed. When the monster is thrown out onto the streets “cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate”. This labels the monster as an outcast and immediately creates a large amount of sympathy for him. The use of the word “desolate” gives sympathy toward the monster as it almost describes him as a person with no hope at all.
This is further shown when the monster describes himself as a “miserable-wretch”. He also says about the way he was “feeling pain invade me on all sides”. This also creates sympathy using the sense of pain as a tool to do this. When someone feels pain, another tends to feel sympathy towards them.
Shelley also exploits the feeling of pain, this time in the process of the monsters learning. He talks about how he found a fire and “was over come with delight at the warmth” that he felt. However, he also tells of how he put his hand into the fire, and pulled it out again in pain. “In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain”.
In the coming chapters, the monster learns how to speak. The monster has found a hut to live in and finds Felix, Agatha and the blind father. He also find out about the way Frankenstein felt towards him. “My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean?” This shows a way Shelley makes the reader feel sympathy towards the monster. She does this by using his realisation of his negative reality.
The fact that the monster has imprisoned himself in the cottage symbolises his fear to come out and experience the world. This symbolises imprisonment.
The monster gets attacked by Felix when Felix sees the monster trying to talk to Felix’s father. The monster is captivated by this when he realises that Felix’s father does not neglect him and show him violence. However, this is because he is blind and the monster does not realise this. When Felix walks in on the monster, he becomes violent and drives the monster out. “I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion renders the antelope. But my heart sunk with me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained.” Here is another example of the way Shelley makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the monster
In chapter eight, the monster is furious with the treatment he received from the De Lacey cottage. “The feelings of kindness and gentleness, which I had entertained but a few moments before, gave way to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I wowed hatred and vengeance to all mankind”. Finally, all that sympathy created for the monster by Shelley is destroyed. She does this by showing the monster in an evil light.
The monster then talks about when he met William and murdered him. “Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity”. The fact that the monster after knowing this still murders William, continues to make the reader feel unsympathetic towards William and would make the reader feel a certain hatred towards him.
Chapter three of the final volume of the volume is in Frankenstein’s retrospect. Frankenstein is about to get married to Elizabeth. Previously, Frankenstein had promised the monster a companion. If Frankenstein did this, the monster would run away with her and never return. However, Frankenstein had not yet finished this and the monster ended up killing Elizabeth. Frankenstein tells of how he destroyed the companion that he was creating. “The wretch saw me destroy the companion on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.”
At this point, Shelley has created sympathy for both the monster and Frankenstein. This is because both of them have had someone close to them murdered by one another. Frankenstein had his wife Elizabeth murdered by the monster, whilst, the monster had his companion destroyed by Frankenstein. However, this is destroyed by the hatred they possess for one another. “Never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness”.
The novel at this point is written in Frankenstein’s retrospect. Therefore the hatred he posses towards the monster is more apparent compared to the hatred the monster has for Frankenstein. Therefore, it is easier for Shelley to create sympathy towards Frankenstein, at this point, rather than the monster.
The novel concludes with the chapter returning to the beginning of the story. The monster has turned up on the ice where Frankenstein is telling his story to Captain Walton. He shows himself to his creator and then goes away to die.
“But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless: I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat that never injured me or any living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men to misery”
Here, Shelley is finishing with monster on a sympathetic note. The monster has realised his mistakes and feels guilt. We can see the monsters character has changed and gone through many phases but at the end he realises what has happened.
Throughout the novel the monsters character has gone through many different experiences. He has faced exile from society and when he thought that the father of the De Lacey’s was different he was beaten and discovered the “barbarity of man”.
Also, many themes were shown in Shelley trying to create and destroy sympathy for the monster. It shows the idea of discovery and desire – how one mans desire to try and create human life led to chaos and death, and how his desire for discovery led him to extremes.
It focuses on Ambition, how Frankenstein’s ambition drives him to discover great things for mankind and how he nearly ended up destroying himself. It shows prejudice as the monster is frowned upon by society just because of the way he looks. A final theme which is looked upon is the theme of revenge and evil. The way Frankenstein tries to get his revenge by destroying the monsters companion after the monster had murdered his wife on their wedding day. At the end of the novel, Frankenstein becomes just as evil as the monster from doing what he did.
Mary Shelley’s use of words to describe the monster by other characters also helps us to sympathize with the monster. She uses words and phrases such as “wretch”, “the object”, “daemon” and “it”. They help to sympathize with the monster as it procures the monsters sense of identity.
The structure of the novel plays an important part in the novel. It is structured in a certain way. The novel starts with the end of the story then continues onto the beginning of the story and then finishes off with the monster running away to his death. The novel is written in retrospect as to give the reader a viewpoint of all the two contrasting views: the monster and Frankenstein and also to give a ‘neutral’ view: this is represented by Captain Walton’s retrospect.
Today “Frankenstein” is a novel which is enjoyed by many. This is because of its many themes throughout the novel and how they are represented in a nineteenth century environment. The complex characters and the way the author switches the reader’s sympathy from character to character also give the novel and extra edge.
