The creature then lost all Faith in humans as he thought if anyone was going to accept him it would be this family that have done so much for him and he has done so much for them. So once again, he fled. The next morning he returned to find the family gone. I think Shelley uses this as her father wanted nothing to do with her after she left to go to Switzerland with Percy. The one person she knew she could always go back to was no longer there so she may have felt anger towards him and rejected as the creature did when the family abandoned him. He felt so much hatred that he burnt the cottage down. The creature felt all anger towards humans. He wanted revenge from his creator for making him so ugly.
He had read the journal that Victor had left in his pocket that the creature took when he left for the streets. Victor wrote the journal as he created the creature. The creature then went to find Victor. His anger was so strong that instead of just killing Victor, he killed his family and close friends one by one so that Victor could feel the pain that he had had to feel for so long.
Chapters fifteen and sixteen focus mainly on the creature and his feelings. It tells us about how he lived and survived while living in the hovel, what he got up to when he finally left and what made him kill all of Victor’s friends and family. What provoked him and how he was feeling and the thoughts he had while he proceeded through his journey to find Victor. These two chapters are important to the whole novel as it gives us a clearer insight to the creature’s life, which makes us feel sympathy and understanding towards him.
Shelley encourages the reader to have sympathy towards the creature, as she does not give him an identity by calling him ‘creature’ through the novel. She does not name him. He has characteristics of someone who has not been introduced to the world and his surroundings. He does not know what is right and wrong, good or evil. When he discusses the books he found he says, “I read of men concerned in public affairs, governing and massacring their species. I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me, and abhorrence for vice, as far as I understood the signification of those terms.” This shows that the creature has feelings for humanity. However, these feelings change throughout the extract as he finds humans are not what he originally thought. “From that moment I declared everlasting war against the species.” Here, the creature is telling us that he now hates all humans for the way they act towards him. We know he is talking about humans because he uses the word species. The creature feels so isolated from humans that he does not even class himself as the same species. He feels so alone that he is a species of his own.
The creature has many characteristics that show he is not just a hideous thing that everyone is scared and afraid to look at. He is intelligent as he learnt to read and gain feelings and an understanding of the world all by himself. He has also been able to gain his own thoughts and feelings towards other people. He felt safe and loved by the family in the hovel, but when he was betrayed felt hatred. This shows that he is able to think and feel for himself.
His language when he goes to see the blind man in the hovel is very polite and not monstrous. “Pardon this intrusion, I am a traveller in want of a little rest; you would greatly oblige me if you would allow me to remain a few minutes before the fire.” This shows that he does not have the characteristics of a monster. He may look hideous but can be very well spoken like a ‘normal’ human being. “I trembled violently, apprehending some dreadful misfortune.” The creature is worried that the family from the cottage have been hurt. His language here makes him seem kind and caring. It shows that just because people see him, as a monster does not mean that he is a monster in the inside.
Shelley uses many different methods to grab our attention, make the reader think more into the story and how we would feel if we were in the characters shoes.
Shelley uses other characters to evoke sympathy from the readers, such as when the creature finally bucks up the courage to go and meet the blind man, father from the cottage. She does this as because the blind man cannot see the creature he has no problem with letting him into the cottage but as soon as the rest of the family return they beat him until he leaves. This makes us as the reader feel pity towards the creature as he is excepted if people cannot see his face but is hated and thought of as disgusting if they see him. People do not give him a chance and that is why the reader feels sorry for the creature.
Shelley uses negative vocabulary to evoke the sympathy from the reader. Shelley uses many strong words in the same sentence such as desolation, enemy, death, despair, miseries, torment, and destroy. We feel sorry for the creature as it is usually describing him or what he is doing. By making the creature, look bad the reader becomes sympathetic towards him.
Shelley also uses dramatic techniques such as pathetic fallacy. This is when the weather mirrors the emotions or mood of the character. Mary Shelley personifies the weather. Sometimes it is ‘friends’ with the character but sometimes it is the creature’s ‘enemy’. Examples of this are, “as the night advanced a fierce wind arose from the woods” This shows that the character is in a bad mood or unhappy as the wind are fierce. When you are angry, you become aggressive and can be fierce towards others. It is also night time which shows that it is dark. The dark symbolises death or distress in a characters feelings. “My chief delights were the sight of flowers, the birds and all the gay apparel of summer.” When it is light, sunny and summery people tend to be happy and enjoying themselves.