How does Mary Shelley present the monster during this story? How do we feel about him at the end of the novel?

Throughout my essay, I am going to explain and show the ways and techniques that Mary Shelley uses to present the monster through the novel. I will also describe how wee feel about the monster at various stages in the novel, and how our views and understanding of him may have changed. I will begin with a brief introduction to Mary Shelley herself, and how she was brought up, as I think this has had a big influence on her writing in ‘Frankenstein’.

Mary Shelley was brought up by her father since the age of around just ten days old. Her mother died just shortly after giving birth to Mary. I believe Mary Shelley blamed herself for her mothers death, and writing ‘Frankenstein’ was her way of letting out and incorporating her misery and hate through the characters in the book. I think that she is referring to herself as the monster because he only had a father, and although I think Mary’s father did love her, she was still missing something and I think she felt like she wanted to be loved.

The novel is set in Geneva, Switzerland which is a very desolate and isolated country. This gives the feel of loneliness and makes the novel slightly more frightening knowing it is set in a lonely, mountainous area in the middle of nowhere. Mary Shelley tells us the story of how Victor Frankenstein became interested in natural philosophy, electricity, chemistry and mathematics. Frankenstein left for Germany, to attend university. There, his interest in natural philosophy quickly became an obsession. He was particularly fascinated with the human body and the concept of life. After four years of fanatic studying, not keeping in contact with his family, he was able to "bestow animation upon lifeless matter" and created a monster of gigantic size from assembled body parts taken from graveyards, slaughterhouses and dissecting rooms. Frankenstein believed he was making a beautiful being. As soon as the creature opened his eyes, however, the beauty of Frankenstein's dream vanished: it became a horrible creature. He realised he made a mistake in creating this monster and fled from his laboratory. On his return the next day, the monster had disappeared…..

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At first knowledge of the monster, we feel disgusted and repulsed by the thought of what its appearance may be by the use of descriptive language Mary Shelley uses to explain in great detail how ugly and un-human this monster has turned out to be. Frankenstein’s words as he realises the monster he created are, ‘Great God!’. I think Mary Shelly uses these two words because they are so powerful and really make you think what a mistake and awful mess this experiment has become. Frankenstein wanted to create something beautiful and feeling less, to potentially benefit man kind, and hopefully make the perfect being, unable to feel emotions. Although this was a moral thing to want to do, Frankenstein also had other immoral reasons of making the monster. He wanted people to thank him for making it, proving he is greedy and attention seeking. Although we may have been repulsed by the thought of the appearance of the monster at first, I think we also have a very strong feeling of upset and pity for the monster. I think we feel so sorry for him because he has just been born, and his creator, who should love and care for him, is so hating and prejudice of the monster that he runs away and abandons him, just for the way he looks caused by the irrational and obsessive behavior of his. As we learn that Frankenstein then leaves the poor monster to defend society by himself, we become more heartily towards the monster and disgusted by Frankenstein for the cruelty of what he’s done.

The first few days of the monsters life are that of utter confusion, he has only just been born and he is alone and has no one to guide him or tell him what to do. As he goes out into society, people react with hate immediately just because he looks different. I think a lot of people again can feel very sorry for the monster here because society hasn’t changed a lot and people are still judged by the way they look today so readers can relate in a way, or at least understand how the monster is being treated. Mary Shelley uses a lot of emotive language to show how confused the monster is. He can’t understand why people hate him and reject him when they have never even given him a chance to know him.

Later on in the novel, towards the middle, the monster finds himself in the company of a family called the Delacy’s. He becomes quite friendly with the old man, who happens to be blind, therefore is unable to judge the monster by his appearance. This is the first time the monster feels like he has been given a real chance, where someone has looked past the ugliness and seen the real person within the monster, and that is true. The old man takes a liking to the monster and talks to him. At this point I think Mary Shelly makes us feel happy for the monster, and shows us how loyal and loving he can be when he is given a chance. However, when the old man’s son, Felix, meets the monster he is disgusted and drives Frankenstein out of their house. Once again the monster is rejected and again we start to feel sorry for him again. Especially after we have seen how the old man’s kindness and understanding made him feel loved.

The monster at this point had found Frankenstein’s notes on him or ‘the experiment’ as he was. So he now probably knew that he was a mistake and probably felt very unwanted. With the added rejection of Felix and society, the monster snapped and finally wanted revenge on his creator for bringing him into this world where he was constantly abused and hated. The disheartened, confused monster fled from the Delacy’s and went to find Frankenstein. Despised by all who saw him, he wandered the countryside until one day he came upon a young boy - Victor's brother - who "loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart." In bitter rage, the monster killed the boy. Mary Shelly shows us that the monster maybe is not always so calm and scared, and that with the amount of depression he had, was able to do extreme things. Some people may no longer feel sorry for the monster as he has just done such a terrible thing as Frankenstein’s brother had nothing to do with his experiment, and although I agree totally with this point of view, I also still have a slight feeling of understanding for the monster at the same time. He has had nothing but hate shown towards him, and abandonment from his creator. I think its normal for him to want revenge on the person that did this to him even though I think the revenge should have been on Frankenstein, not his brother.

Frankenstein was then to be married to Elizabeth, but on their wedding night, the monster appeared again, killing Elizabeth, who Victor cared for dearly. Now I think people will feel hate towards the monster. Elizabeth was so innocent and killing her was taking it too far.

Frankenstein had a friend, Walton, to whom he shared his stories about his creation with. After Frankenstein came to die, the monster came to Walton explaining his feelings towards Frankenstein. Although Walton was Frankenstein’s friend he gave the monster a chance to explain because he felt sorry for him.

Throughout the novel Mary Shelley helps us make our mind up about the monster by showing him in three different points if view. The monsters point if view of itself of feeling unwanted and hated. This point of view makes us feel sorry for the monster. Frankenstein’s point of view. This view of the monster makes us feel more disgusted, but still we pity the monster because he is unwanted and unloved besides his appearance. Finally, Walton’s point of view. I think Walton’s point of view is really a contrast between Frankenstein’s and the monsters views because although he is Frankenstein’s friend and dislikes the monster for murdering Frankenstein’s wife and brother, he also pity’s him because he has not been brought up to learn right or wrong, so he thinks that its not his fault. The use of three points of view is very effective because it really helps you to decide your own point of view for yourself.

To conclude my essay, I think that Mary Shelley has been very clever in her use of emotive language especially. I think she really shows us how the monster is feeling at all time during the novel, and this shows us his true character. I think our views change of him throughout the novel, but we will always have the slight sense of feeling sorry for him more than anything, even though he does murder. It was never his fault that he was hated and rejected and I think that’s why we have such a strong feeling of understanding towards him.