Unlike Adam though who had ‘come forth from the hands of god a perfect creature’
Frankenstein’s creature is hideously formed.
It is obvious from the birth of Victor’s creation that he is not happy with what he has created. He calls his own creation a ‘grotesque image’ and an ‘abhorred monster’
Through using this emotional language, Mary Shelley creates sympathy for the creation by the way she uses this emotional language when Victor is talking about his creation. Frankenstein describes his creation as a ‘devil’ and a ’vile insect.’ This makes the audience feel sympathy for the creation because Frankenstein doesn’t even give him a chance.
Mary Shelley uses this sort of emotional language when Victor is talking about his creation to create a barrier of hatred between Frankenstein and his creation.
When Frankenstein’s creation came alive he was scared of what he had done and he left.
‘I escaped and rushed downstairs.’
Overcome by the horror of what he has done, Victor Frankenstein abandons the ‘miserable monster’ he fathered in his laboratory. The next morning when he returned to the ‘ workshop of filthy creation’ the monster has escaped. Abandoned by Victor Frankenstein, the monster finds himself ‘ wretched, helpless and alone.’
Victor’s parents brought him up well and took care of him. Victor fails in his role as a parent as he abandons his creation at birth because of the way it looks. The reader feels sympathy for the creation because he is not being given a chance.
Mary Shelley gives Victor’s creation feelings and intelligence. Fatherless and motherless, the monster struggles to find his place in human society, struggles with the most fundamental questions of identity and personal history. On his own he learns to speak, to read and learn new things just like a young child. However he suffers the loneliness of being one of a kind and having no one else like him that he can talk to. The barrier between himself and society is his physical ugliness, nothing else. We see the creation surviving by himself in the open world. He has no parents to teach him and no one to tell him what is right or wrong. He starts to become sensitive and familiar to his environment. He first discovers light and dark and shows a great deal of amazement when he discovers the moon.
‘ I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly.’
However he has to learn everything from experience and sometimes suffers from his mistakes. When discovering a fire he places his hand in the fire to see what it is. Here he is gaining experience by suffering the consequences. The creation enters a nearby village and gets mistreated. ‘ The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me…’
The monster was created with innocence but the way he is mistreated by society turns him into a monster. Mary Shelley has got the idea of this from the book Emile she was reading at the time. In their Jean-Jacques Rousseau says “ men are made evil by society. Men become monsters by the way they are treated.”
Mary Shelley shows us that the creation is born good but becomes wicked because people abuse and reject him. Worst of all, his creator, Victor, refuses to grant him his natural rights of freedom and equality.
The creation only has what he taught himself about people and society to rely on. He had no one to guide him on what was right or wrong. Some of his actions are childlike. He tries to imitate the birds ‘ sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was unable.’ This childlike vulnerability and innocence endears him to the reader.
The creation suffers rejection and prejudice from society because of his ugliness. No one sees him for the way he acts. His one chance to make an appearance to some one is to the blind man of the De Lacey family. He helps the De Laceys, in secret, with their everyday jobs and continues helping them for a long time before he decides to reveal himself to the blind man. When the creation finally plucks up the courage to speak to the blind man the De Lacey family attack him.
Felix darted forward…he dashed me to the ground and hit me violently with a stick’
Through this the audience can feel sympathy with the creation because he is being attacked due to his physical ugliness. He has not been given a chance to explain himself to the cottagers.
The reader feels the creation’s deep distress and sadness at the reaction of the cottagers to his appearance
‘ Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me’
The rhetorical question reveals the creation’s depth of emotion, his pain and torment as the people he has grown to think of as his friends have totally rejected him and the closest feeling he has felt to love quickly disappears. Mary Shelley continually gives the reader clear insights into the creation’s torment through his own words:
When the creation comes across William in the forest, he tries to become friendly with him as he thinks that children so young will not be prejudiced against him. He is wrong and William is scared of him and screams. The creation tries to tell William that he isn’t going to hurt him but William tells him whom his father is.
‘ Hideous monster! Let me go. My papa is a syndic – he is M. Frankenstein – he will punish you.’
At this point the creation’s anger towards Frankenstein grows and he kills William as revenge towards him. The only reason he kills William is because he is upset and annoyed of his mistreatment by society including his own creator, Victor.
‘ My heart sank within me as with bitter sickness ’
The creation suffered great physical hardship. He has to learn everything by experience and teach himself all that he needs to know. He takes to the icy land. Mary Shelley uses the background of the ice to emphasize that he is on his own and has to make his own living by scavenging for food. He is isolated. When Frankenstein is chasing the creation on the ice it is an unusual sight for the sailors on the boats in the middle of the arctic. They find it unusual to see anyone on the ice, as it is a quiet, desolate, uninhabited place. So when they see the creation wandering around aimlessly they find it most unusual. Also when they find Victor stranded amongst the ice and take him on board they are amazed to know that he is searching for his creation in the middle of the arctic.
The reader can understand the creation’s rationale, and realises the anguish the monster suffered by killing others – Frankenstein left him no option. In the story, Mary Shelley uses the myth of ‘Prometheus’. Victor is referred to as “the modern Prometheus” as he creates an unnatural man. Also she uses the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau that inspired the French revolution:
‘ Men are made evil by society. Men become ‘monsters’ by the way they are treated.’
She applies this phrase into her story “Frankenstein”. The creation is born good and is a helpless creature. He turns wicked because of his rejection. He turns to killing people simply just to get revenge on Victor for making him suffer alone. Throughout the story he suffers a great deal of pain and hatred and believes revenge will bring him relief. He kills William due to the fact that he is related to Frankenstein and he sees anger and fury at the sound of his name. He knows that Frankenstein, his own creator rejected him and hated him.
He desired things that normal human beings took for granted. One of the main issues of the story is that he searches for a friend. All he wants is a friend like any one else has, someone to talk to and share memories with but he cant due to his physical ugliness. He almost gains a friend with the blind man. De Lacey accepts him for what he is but when De Lacey family return they hate him before they even know what he is doing, all due to his looks.
Like any other person, Victor’s creation has feelings of love and other emotions. He orders Victor to create him a female companion:
‘ You must create a female for me with whom I can live…’
It is his only request to Victor. He knows that he isn’t going to be able to love and cherish any normal human being so wants Frankenstein to create someone like himself that will no be prejudiced against him. Frankenstein agrees with his creation and began to create a female companion for him but stopped half way through as he decided it was wrong. All the creation wants is companionship, as he cannot get this with anyone else. Victor promises but doesn’t for fill because he was frightened. He destroys the female he had begun to create due to the merciless killing of Clerval.
The creation never had anything that he needed. He was rejected from birth and didn’t have any fun or happiness. He had no friendship, no partner, no education and no warmth. He didn’t have any of the basic essential needs that everyone else takes for granted. On page 215 we hear the creation’s last speech.
‘But soon…I shall die and what I feel will no longer be felt…my spirit will sleep or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell’
He is a romantic, tragic hero. His hope for a female companion was denied because of his tragic error in killing William and framing of Justine, acts which he later despises. He destroys himself after living a life of emptiness. The vision he has of his own suicide is exalted. His pain of rejection and lack of love was greater than what Frankenstein felt. He feels remorse and is sorry but has a strong feeling of self-esteem knowing he is doing the right thing, dying. The readers’ sympathy intensifies for the creation because we see him have glimpses of what he wants but he can only observe it and not live it.
In conclusion to this essay, I think that Mary Shelley is successful in creating sympathy for the monster. The emotional language she uses when Victor is talking about his own creation makes the reader feel sympathetic with him due to the thought of a parent abandoning and rejecting his own child. My feelings of sympathy grew stronger when the creation was asking Victor for a chance and he denied him it. Victor does not take on the responsible role of a guardian, therefore the creation has to experience life by himself, lonely and miserably he learns new things only by experience. He is denied the chance to feel true emotions and live how any other human being is able to live. He is simply just an experiment to Victor and a lifetime dream that failed. He doesn’t care about the creation’s feelings and emotions as he pretends he doesn’t exist. This made me feel sympathy with the monster because he is living, and wishes to be able to learn and do normal things just like he sees everyone else doing. The creation’s final speech made me feel sympathetic with him as he is showing remorse but also he knows he is doing the right thing killing himself. It shows that he has self-esteem and made me feel respectful to the creation but also sorrow for his pain and anguish.