How does Mary Shelley use chapters 15 and 16 of Frankenstein to evoke the readers sympathy for the creature?

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Emma Jones

How does Mary Shelley use chapters 15 and 16 of ‘Frankenstein’ to evoke the reader’s sympathy for the creature?

Frankenstein, a novel full of power, anger and loneliness. Mary Shelley wrote this novel in 1818 at the age of eighteen. The novel is about a scientist called Victor Frankenstein who had always wanted to create life. I think she made the main character, Victor a scientist as that is what her father was. He played a big part of Shelley’s life as her mother died when she was only eleven days old.

Victor’s dream was finally fulfilled when he went to study at university in Ingolstat in Germany when he became good friends with one of his professors. Once the professor past away Victor became determined to finish the professor’s work and create life. He gathered parts of dead criminals and used the brain of his professor so the creature would be intelligent. He spent most of his time sewing the parts together and finally used electricity to bring the creature to life.

Victor was expecting it to look beautiful and ‘normal’ just like him. However, he thought the creature was hideous and wanted to kill it because it looked awful and nothing like he had expected. Although the creature did not die and escaped out into the streets where people screamed when they saw it. The creature finally realised that humans would not accept him because of the way he looked so he fled. Here Shelley uses her own life to contribute to the novel as she fled to Switzerland with Percy Shelley, as her father did not approve of her being with Percy, as he was already married. The creature eventually ended up in a hovel where he learnt everything he did. He learnt from a friendly French family who did not even know he existed. Ass they unknowingly taught him, he did good deeds for them and became known as the good spirit of the forest. After months and months of hiding he became more confident and one day when Agatha, Felix and Felix’s fiancé, Safie were out the creature bucked up the courage to go and see the old blind man. He knocked on the door and went to seek help from him. However, the family returned while the creature was with the father and was beaten until he left.

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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 ...

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