Frankenstein - In what ways does Mary Shelley contrast the early life of Victor with that of his creation?

Annabelle McManamey 25/2/03

FRANKENSTEIN:

In what ways does Mary Shelley contrast the early life of Victor with that of his creation?

There are a number of ways in which Mary Shelley has contrasted the early life of Victor Frankenstein with that of his creation. This is evident through the differing tones in each account, the choice of words Shelley has adopted, as well as the contrasting content of each of the characters’ narratives. This strong contrast between Victor and the monster is important, as it reflects Victor’s inhumanity and senselessness of merely valuing someone or something based on their physical appearance.

The contrasting tones of the two narratives help to emphasise the differences between the early life of Victor with that of his creation. The monster’s narrative clearly reflects a number of the preoccupations that characterised the Romantic movement, focusing on the individual and the senses. In contrast to Victor’s narrative, the monster’s account is far more personal and emotional, placing special emphasis on the senses. The monster describes to us his feelings of “light(ness), and hunger, and thirst, and darkness” and how “innumerable sounds rang in (his) ears, and on all sides various scents saluted (him)” (100). A deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature is clearly conveyed in the monster’s narrative as he describes to us the first era of his being. He describes to the reader his first sightings of the moon and how it gave him “a sensation of pleasure” and a sense of fascination as he “gazed (at it) with a kind of wonder” (100). Overall, the reader is given a far more sincere insight into the early life of the monster and his personal experiences, focusing on his passions and inner struggles.

In contrast to that of the monster’s account, Victor’s narrative exudes a far more public and formal tone. His account is highly structured, rational and balanced, ultimately lacking in the spontaneity that so strongly characterises the account of his creation. Frankenstein begins his story by talking about his family and upbringing and high level of education. We can see how Victor’s narrative exudes qualities which are far more structured, ordered, and public, and it is clear to see that he has a certainty about the world and his place in it. To Victor, life is about civilisation, sophistication and art. Whether it is the outcome of a highly indulged childhood, Victor chooses to focus on the complexities in life, over-looking the simple little elements which essentially shape our world. This contrasts with the monster’s narrative, which clearly reflects his deepened appreciation of nature and the world around him. Ultimately, we can see how the monster’s account emphasises that of the individual, subjective, personal, visionary and emotional- qualities which so strongly characterised that of the Romantics, which differ from Victor’s highly formal, almost restrictive tone, which is echoed throughout his account.

The contrast between Victor’s far more worldly and sophisticated concerns with that of the monster’s simple interests, is emphasised further through Shelley’s use of words in each of the differing narratives.

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In the monster’s story, Shelley has adopted a far more simple structure through the use of shorter sentences, as well as choosing much simpler subject matter to discuss and describe. For example, the monster tells the reader how “sometimes (he) tried to imitate the pleasant song of the birds, but was unable. Sometimes (he) wished to express (his) sensations in (his) own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds… frightened (him) into silence again” (100). Shelley’s use of short sentences and repetition of words (in this case the word “sometimes”) emphasises the uneducated, lowbrow nature of the monster’s narrative, which greatly contrasts with that of Victor’s.

In Frankenstein’s account, he begins by speaking of his family, particularly his father. He tells us how his father “passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of the country; a variety of circumstances had prevented his marrying early, nor was it until the decline of life that he became a husband and father of a family” (31). Shelley has used much longer sentences and a much more citified choice of words, which emphasise the fact that Victor is of a very high-breeding and well-educated place in society. By adopting these differing techniques and word choices, Shelley has established a strong contrast between that of Victor’s, and the monster’s narratives, as they accentuate the monster’s ignorance and innocent nature to that of Victor’s far more arrogant and selfish attributes.

Aside from the number of language techniques and differing tones which Shelley has adopted in each of the two narratives, we can see how the actual content in the accounts demonstrates a strong contrast between both Victor’s and the monster’s early lives. From the very beginning of each of the two character’s existence, they grow up under completely different circumstances and influences. Victor, having received a seemingly ideal, but overindulgent upbringing, explains that his earliest childhood memories are that of his “mother’s tender caresses” and his father’s “smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding (him)” (33). Victor’s mother and father respond to his birth as a gift from God, “their plaything and their idol… their child… bestowed on them by Heaven”, “and all seemed but one train of enjoyment for (Victor)” (33), indicating that as a child he never experienced unhappiness to the slightest degree. However, while Victor’s childhood was that of an abundance of love, protection and nurturing, the creature is faced with constant rejection from the moment he is brought to existence, despite his warm and compassionate nature. When the monster is given life, the first thing that happens to him is that Victor, his creator or parent figure, irrationally abandons him in his state of ignorance and vulnerability, as he is “unable to endure the aspect of the being (he) had created” (56). While Victor was absolutely doted on as a child by his parents, Victor, denying his creation of all the love and attention that he himself was fortunate enough to have received as a child, regards the monster as “a wretch” (57), a “filthy daemon” (73) and a “miserable monster” (57). In contrast to Victor, the monster is denied everything he needs, particularly love and acceptance, necessities that Victor has in abundance. Shelley clearly demonstrates that Victor’s seemingly idyllic upbringing sharply contrasts with that of his creation’s neglected “childhood”.

This strong contrast between Victor and the monster that Shelley has established is important, as it reflects Victor’s inhumane attitudes and the senselessness of merely valuing someone or something based entirely on their physical appearance. Possibly as a result of each of the character’s childhood circumstances, Victor becomes a selfish adult who does not understand the consequences of his actions, and the creature’s natural kindness develops into vengeful misery. The creature ultimately resorts to this life of despondency and violence because of his early childhood of neglect and the resulting adult rejection he experiences later on. Although he is seen as nothing but a “wretch”, a “miserable monster” (57) and a “filthy daemon” (73), the monster actually wants to understand people, become apart of the human world, establish relationships and, at first, he reaches out and shows his kindness to others he meets, but gets harshly rejected. This contrasts greatly with Victor’s lack of humanity and kindness. He is blinded by the grotesque physical appearance of his creation and fails to see past this black curtain, which hides the monster’s truly human qualities. Furthermore, the fact that the creation of the monster itself is a selfish act, simply because Victor is so engrossed and obsessed with this feeling of personal glory as a scientist, we are able to see even more clearly how Victor ultimately lacks in these human qualities, contrasting greatly with that of his creation. He is so absorbed in the fact that he may be the one to “unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (47), that not once does Victor stop to consider that there may be ramifications of some sort for the rest of society, or even himself. His reaction to discovering his God-like ability to bestow the gift of life is “delight and rapture” (51) in his own power, rather than concern about the long-term consequences of his actions. In this sense we see that Victor is essentially arrogant and self-centred. It is certainly plausible to think that this outcome is the derivative of a spoilt and self-indulged childhood.

Mary Shelley has adopted a number of techniques, which contrasts the early life of Victor with that of his creation. Her use of contrasting tones between that of the monster’s far more personal and emotional account, and Victor’s much more formal and public account, in conjunction with her use of contrasting sentence structure and word choice between the two narratives, as well as the differing content, all comes to together to establish a strong and significant contrast between the early life of Victor with that of the monster. We can see how this contrast is important, as it reflects Victor’s inhumanity and senselessness of merely valuing someone or something based entirely on their physical appearance.

Contrasts- Victor and Monster Ms Meenahan