How does Mary Shelley make the Reader feel Sympathy for the Creature Frankenstein?

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How does Mary Shelley make the Reader feel Sympathy for the Creature?

        In the first part of the story, Elizabeth (an adopted daughter of Victor Frankenstein’s parents) falls ill with scarlet fever, which a deadly illness around the 18th and 19th century.  Victor Frankenstein’s mother nurses Elizabeth, and she is cured; however Victor Frankenstein’s mother contracts the illness with fatal consequences.  Victor Frankenstein is very upset especially when his mother dies, a very young woman and at the peak of her life.  This event make Victor Frankenstein very determined to study and become a doctor and preserve life.  Victor Frankenstein then goes away to a university in Ingolstadt to study.  He seems to be in two minds about his, “departure for Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events”, because he feels guilty about leaving the house of mourning so soon but he is very eager to study.

        Once Victor Frankenstein begins his study at the university, he becomes interested in the autonomy and bringing people back to life.  He becomes so interested that he convinces himself that he could revive a dead human being back to life.  He thinks, “one of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the human frame, and indeed, any animal endued with life.”

        Victor Frankenstein becomes so interested he becomes.  Victor Frankenstein thinks “After days and nights of incredible labour fatigue, I succeed in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I become myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”  He is so obsessed that he no longer cares about his health. As he works continuously on building a human being, Victor Frankenstein becomes ill.  In this part of the story we feel sorry for Victor Frankenstein.

        The next part of the story is when Victor Frankenstein creates the creature and he tries to put life back into it via electricity.  He describes his actions, “I collected the instruments of life around me, might I infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing.”  Once the creature becomes alive, Victor Frankenstein describes his creation as a “catastrophe” and a “wretch”.  He explains, “ How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? “

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        Victor Frankenstein believes that his creature is evil from its ugly looks and ugly features.  He is very disappointed as he has used beautiful body parts and the finished product is ugly.  At this point we feel sympathy for the creature from Victor Frankenstein’s remarks and opinions.  Later Victor Frankenstein runs away from his troubles and abandons the creature and leaves it to fend for itself, like a newborn baby.  This also makes the reader feel sympathy for the creature especially when it is uneducated and does not know how to do things.

        Uneducated, Victor Frankenstein’s creation is forced to ...

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