The creature and Victor have very different personalities and Victor does not always seem to be as intelligent as the creature because his emotions take over. The creature surprisingly can control his emotions and if someone saw the creature they probably instantly would think negative, however this is not the case. The creature controls his emotions and actually expects Victors approach, ‘I expected this reception’. This skill that the creature has also helps him talk to Victor rationally. What ever Victor is like to creature he does not change the fact that he is his creator and the creature respects that and looks up to Victor in a sense, we can tell this because Mary Shelley has purposely put words in like ‘thou’ and ‘thine’ which makes the creature sound more respectfully when talking to Victor. When Victor starts to get emotional the creature tries to calm down the situation, ‘Be calm’. The creature has been abandoned and not wanted by Victor all these years and for the creature to suddenly talk respectful to Victor shows good character skills which is one thing that Victor does not have. The creature also is self educated everything he knows has come from himself with no help from Victor or anyone else. The creature is self educated and this is why he shows some flaws in his vocabulary. Mary Shelley has written about the creature in this way to surprise the reader more than anything, because the initial thoughts of the readers would be negative if they heard about the creature, so Mary Shelley plays upon this and this also makes the reader read on. The reader can either sympathise for Victor or be the total opposite and Mary Shelley has left it up to the reader to think whether what Victor did was right or not to make the creature.
Mary Shelley has included some important themes that are good for the reader to pick up upon. The main obvious theme all throughout this chapter is the introduction between the creature and Victor, up until this point in the novel it had been a mystery to the reader. Mary Shelley had purposely done this to grab the reader and to force them to read on further into the novel. Another central idea is the reader’s response to the creatures rational and calm way of talking, this comes as a shock to the reader and makes the reader think twice about what the creature’s character is really like. The surrounding area is not written about much by Mary Shelley in the chapter but is still a main theme throughout the chapter, ‘thick mists hid the summits of the mountains’, this gives the reader a greater imagination to picture what the surroundings are like. Also the area is very remote and this helps focus the attention onto Victor and the creature, ‘the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene’. Sometimes it can be hard to remember when reading this chapter that the creature and Victor and actually family and this also comes as another theme in this chapter. Victor and the creature have emotional connexions between them and Mary Shelley had shown this all throughout the chapter. Also tying in with the family theme comes the responsibilities of Victor and a role model parent to the creature which will never change, Victor has not carried his duty out towards the creature and the creature feels emotional because of this, ‘ do your duty towards me’.
Mary Shelley has to give the reader signals as to where the novel is going, what the characters are like and also to say what the surroundings are like and she does this by using an original style which is evident through this chapter. Mary Shelley’s style is original because she has not written the novel in such a way that it is like other horror stories with the typical haunted house effect. Her style is relaxed and more gothic and she has done it in such a way that it challenges gothic stereotypes.
Instead of Mary Shelley telling the reader what the characters are like she uses stylistic devices to help the reader understand in more depth. Mary Shelley uses the area and surroundings to help her style, the surroundings are very remote and quiet which is in keeping with the style of the story, ‘the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene’. Victor’s emotions and the creature’s emotions are shown through themselves with the way they talk and the language that they use. The characters emotions and moods are also shown through the weather, this use of pathetic fallacy helps the reader understand the characters moods and feelings in greater depth, ‘the rain poured down the torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the mountains’. The word ‘thick’ and ‘rain’ really show the reader that at this point in the novel the character or characters are feeling sad because the word ‘rain’ is used and it is normally associated with sad and depressing moods. The punctuation used in this chapter also helps the show the moods of the characters, the repartition of exclamation marks emphasis’s the fact that Victor was angry with the creature when they first saw each other. Victor cannot control his emotions and Mary Shelley has used this opportunity to show the reader this using an oxymoronic, ‘vile’ insect’, Victor calls the creature a ‘vile insect’ knowing his physical capability which is idiotic and this just shows that Victor cannot control his emotions. The style Mary Shelley uses is always challenging the reader’s views and makes them think twice. The diction Victor uses to describe the creature is very much devilish; ‘devil’ and ‘daemon’ are some of the words used, because Mary Shelley has used these words Victor seems innocent and the creature seems to be the guilty one because he is associated with the devil. Here the reader really has to think again because the creature actually is not devilish, that is only what Victor sees through his eyes, he is the guilty one and the creature is actually the innocent one. Mary Shelley is showing the reader a moral here and that is, not to judge a person by what they look like, to judge a person you have to dig much deeper into the person’s personality. Victor demoralises the creature by using diction by doing this he also dehumanises the creature, ‘abhorred devil’. Mary Shelley’s has written with Victor in a first person language this technique puts the reader in the same position.
To conclude this chapter in the novel is successful in the purpose that Mary Shelley wanted it be which is to challenge the reader’s responses and to make the reader think before they make any assumptions of the characters Victor and the creature. This chapter is vital in the novel because of introduction between Victor and the creature which the reader has been waiting for all this time. The impact Mary Shelley has made on the reader is that they have to answer the question to whether Victor was right in creating the creature or not.
