During the time when 'Frankenstein' was written, the women were considered much less important than the men. This is also displayed in the book where when Justine was to be hanged. Elizabeth tried to save Justine Moritz although failed to save her and she was then hanged. Victor Frankenstein, however, knew that he could save Justine if he wanted to, but didn't want to for fear of being prosecuted himself, as he would have to reveal that he let a monster, his own creation, into the world. This also shows that men are supposedly higher than women because a woman at this time would give up her life to save a man, yet a man would not give up his life to save a woman, shown here, making the men seem of a higher class than the women.
The narrative structure of 'Frankenstein' is first person, this means that Victor Frankenstein relates his own story; this has both advantages and disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that he does not know what is happening elsewhere, the main example of this being that he does not know what his creature is doing after Frankenstein abandons it. Although it is a disadvantage when reading the novel, this creates suspense in the readers mind, as they do not know what the creature is doing either.
When Frankenstein begins his so called work of genius he fails to realise what he is actually doing. He is so amazed by the work of his hands and the sheer brilliance of it all that he forgets to look at the bigger picture, that of total horror, and to barely touch the surface, stupidity. The way Frankenstein went about creating this being was abominable. He gathered parts of the human body from the deceased without any kind of permission. In doing so he creates his creature.
"His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriance's only formed a more horrid contrast with his 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." Victor Frankenstein
He believes so blindly in what he is doing will benefit human kind that when he comes to take a step back and look at what he’s done he is disgusted at himself. He uses a contrast of beauty against ugliness to describe him. He expects the monster to know everything when he wakes up cool, calm, and collected. But when the monster is awakened, he does not know anything. He sees a world different from what he is used to, which makes him nervous and scared, but it is not his fault. The monster has not removed himself from his environment; Victor has removed him from dead. And the coward that Victor is he leaves it for dead and runs away in self-pity. Instead of facing the consequences, he left out of unjustifiable hate for his creation. He could not destroy the monster because he had actually made the monster better than the human race itself. Instead he was sure that lack of experience in the world would get rid of the monster for him. Here is when I believe Frankenstein moved one step closer to becoming a monster.
In my view there are two types of a monster. One of which is the stereotyped: A hideous creature, being around it is terrifying, it is a monster that cannot do anything about what it is or looks like, yet is not necessarily evil or cruel. The second type of monster is hardly recognisable as what he is to people around him, it, or whatever you might call it. He would appear like an ordinary person like you and me, but it is inside where the monstrosity comes in. This monster’s soul is corrupted by evil and is therefore ruthless and despicable. And it is both of these types of monster that can be seen in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; needless to say which one is which.
The creature was brought to life on a dark night and thrown into the wide world; a world in which he was forced into solitude due to the neglect of his creator and the rejection of all who saw him. For the whole of his life he was spurned by all who lay eyes on his skin-deep ugliness because their judging minds could not see the person who lay beneath. According to the monster, as he tells Frankenstein whilst talking to him,
"You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being".
He refuses to create this being for his monster in effect forcing him to turn on society in blind rage, so selfish is this action that Frankenstein ignores all the impact that this may have on the society and of human sanctity- surely this is evil enough to describe Frankenstein as a monster?
All he wanted was a small amount of love and affection from anyone or anything. This shows he has some human feelings and makes us empathize with what Frankenstein's monster had to cope with. He knows the difference between right and wrong. We can see this because he feels guilty when he does something that is wrong
"No, guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine" (chapter 24). The creation also knows the difference between good and bad. This is seen in his final statements
"Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all of human kind sinned against me?" (chapter 24).
The constant rejection the monster receives in the end drives him to make the ultimate sacrifice, to stop the pain that tears through his body; he wanders off into the snow, where we think he commits suicide. This ends the suffering and enables him to rest easy for first time since his birth.
The monster was born good and free of evil, we see the first signs of this goodness when he recognizes the DE-Lacy family as being one of good and of moral ways. He wishes only then that he could become like them in their goodness. They are in one way like the monster, they are good, and just people but they have been rejected from society for reasons we believe to be of the French revolution (that was occurring during the time when Shelley wrote her novel), this leads him to believe that he will be accepted by the De-Lacy’s as they share a common problem. He uses to his advantage the old man's blindness in that he will not see the monsters grotesque image and only his good and kind soul. It is only once he has been rejected by the De-Lacys that he turns to evil in desperation. His original goodness is hence corrupted and destroyed by the society that created him and from then on he turns to evil for comfort.
Others may believe that the creature was made from body parts of criminals therefore could be nothing but evil. Considering the murders he commits this idea could perhaps be justified. The creature killed innocent people such as William (Victor’s brother). He later murders Frankenstein's father, before utterly destroying Frankenstein's last chance of happiness, killing his wife Elizabeth on their wedding night. At this point he had everything stolen from him, and in a state of despair could think of nothing but destroying his creation. Frankenstein realised the creature had the opposite of the originally intended effect on himself; his life was ruined, the creature being at fault. The conclusion that you could reach from the all his actions is that the creature deserves no pity. Though these may be completely valid points there are other ways to look at it. The terrible things the monster did were brought on by the neglect and rejection he suffered, and not being allowed to have someone to love and care for. These are all things humans cannot deal with, making us feel more pity because of what he was driven to and the human needs and emotions he shows. The book tells a lot about human nature, that people are not made by their nature but their nurture.
‘If people are brutalized, they’ll be brutal themselves’- Mary Shelly
In the 1800’s creating a being was extremely frowned upon and seen as very immoral but in this day and age, even though I still believe it to be immoral, people are more educated about the consequences of doing such things. Today, what seemed like fiction in Mary Shelley’s time now sounds more and more like true fact.
After considering all the corners of this argument I have come to the conclusion that this man created a monster. Mostly for his selfish cravings for power and fame.
Frankenstein had a blank canvas and chose to paint it with evil. A man that can unnaturally create a being then turn it into a monster is surely far from being a saint. Ethically no one should be allowed to play God.
