The book begins with Robert Walton writing a letter to his sister. The letter describes the first time he sees the monster. He uses the words 'Strange sight' which gives me the impression that he thought what he saw was strange and different and that he has never seen anything quite like it. Also Walton describes the monster as a 'gigantic stature' which tells me that the monster is an abnormal size and that its huge and from there tells me that its powerful, and muscular. 'A savage inhabitant, is what Robert writes to his sister, which gives the impression that the monster is uncivilised, wild and animal like.
In chapter five when the monster first come to being, Victor Frankenstein describes him as having 'yellow skin' which makes a picture in my head that he is disgusting and dead-which he is I think this because well yellow skin is dead skin. Also the book says the monster is like a 'Demoniacal corpse’, which makes me, think he is evil, demon like, ugly and hideous – I think this because demoniacal is demon like, and demons are known to be described as this. Finally Victor describes it as 'A miserable wretched monster’ which says to me that the thing is, sad, evil and distraught. My opinion of the monster is that it is very ugly from what the book says and very different.
When Frankenstein meets the monster on the mountain the monster is described as a 'Man advancing towards me with superhuman speed'. This makes the monster seem supernatural, strong, fast and superhuman and therefore dangerous. Also the monster is described as 'Its unearthly ugliness rendered it too horrible for human eyes'- which shows that the monster is too ugly for him to look at. The monster is made to seem evil by the way Victor refers to him as an evil being. He implies this by saying that the monster is a ‘devil’; the quote make the monster seen evil because devils are always seemed to be evil creatures.
There are things that the monster said to Victor to stop him killing him, they are 'How dare you sport thus with life?, do your duty towards me'. I think this means that the monster is trying to make a point that – Victor shouldn't play with life he can't kill him at his disposal he has no right and he isn't God. The monster then says 'Victor has a duty like a father. Further more the monster describes his situation, he says, 'everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded'. What I think the monster is saying is that he is excluded from love, care, joy, and happiness. Frankenstein's response to this is 'Be gone I will not hear you’. The monster at this point appears honest and willing to be good because he says 'I was benevolent and good: misery made me a fiend. Make me happy and again I will be virtuous'. This is a contrast to how Victor portrays him as he isn't totally evil.
When the monster ran away he ran to the forest and found shelter, where he slept. He wakes in the night and cries because he is alone. The monsters eyes catch the moon and it enchants him. Gradually after days and nights in the forest he starts to distinguish between his senses. He discovers the law of fire and cooks his food. He finds and enters a hut but the owner runs away and the monster eats his dinner. The monster has a love for nature and in real nature his love is the moon and stars they enchant him. But then he has a love for the nature of love, happiness, and family, as he watches one, one in a cottage. From this family he discovers language and learns their thoughts and feelings and understands what the family is saying.
The monster also has a love for literature as he listens to Felix in the cottage when he is reading his books, the monster wants knowledge and to be intelligent. Listening to Felix later brings him to more pain because he learns about life and family, and questions himself about his life and family. My feelings toward this monster are sympathy and I feel that this thing is not a monster as he clearly has emotions and appreciates beautiful things and is made evil by humans.
During the story the monster turns evil because he wanted acceptance from the family he was watching. When the family goes out for a walk he goes into the house and finds a blind man sitting on a stool. The monster sits by him and the blind man feels the monsters face and the monster starts to like the man and tries to talk to him. Then the family comes back and chased him out by beating him. The monster then says 'From that moment i declared ever-lasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who formed me, and sent me forth to this unsupportable misery'. What I think the monster is saying is that the monster chose that after this event he would be evil and seek revenge on the blissful creatures (us) and Victor. This makes me feel understanding and sympathy toward him. Although we still think what he goes on to do is evil, we understand why.
Mary Shelley is making a comment on mankind that we are too quick to judge people by the way they look and if we could see peoples differences we may realise that they are good people.
The monster, in the story does evil things. It kills the people who are close to Victor. Such as his little brother William, the monster then frames Justine with William's death therefore she is hung. Other evil deeds include the killing of Henry Clerval, Victors father, and then on Victors wedding night it kills Elizabeth.
Prier to Victors wedding night the monster threatens him he says 'If you deny me my wedding night I will be with you on yours'. On Victor Frankenstein's wedding night the monster creeps into Elizabeth's room and strangles her to death. The way the murder was described makes the monster appear heartless and sick, because the book says she was “flung” about on the bed – this makes him seem evil because of the word used “flung” makes him seem like he doesn't care, and that he is ruthless to gain revenge and therefore he is seen as evil. Also the part in the book where the monster is described as a “fiend” makes the monster appear evil because the part 'mark of the fiends grasp was on her neck' makes me assume that he has been violent with her.
The story was written in a unique structure. The story starts and ends with letters from Robert Walton to his daughter. The monster's tale is sandwiched between narratives by Victor Frankenstein. Flashbacks are used in the story because the only thing that is happening at present is what's happening in Robert Walton's ship. Flashbacks are used to hear the story from the point of view of the person it happened to. Another reason the structure is important is because it is written in a cyclical structure where Mary Shelley tries to make a point that whatever comes around goes around e.g. when the monster is abandoned by Victor the monster is wronged so the monster takes revenge by going round killing the people who are close to him. Moreover from Mary Shelley's point they both end up dead together so their actions caught up with them both.
Multiple narratives are used so we can see everybody's point of view and to see right and wrong and all the points Mary Shelley wanted to get across. Therefore, when we hear the monsters side of the story we sympathise and understand him because we hear it from his point of view, not Victors and see that he is more than just evil.
Mary Shelley describes the setting where the monster was created in a negative way. She uses phrases such as 'The damps of the grave’; this makes me think that the laboratory is dead grotty, old and damp. She also uses the phrase 'Tortured' which makes us think of pain and suffering. Another term she uses is 'Filthy creation' which makes us think the monster is disgusting and dirty from the grave – (The laboratory). From these terms i think it was a bad idea to create the monster. Mary Shelly describes the laboratory in Scotland in a negative way as well. She uses the word miserable four times, which gives an obvious idea that the lab is sad and desolate. She continues to describe the lab as “squalid poverty”, which makes me think that the lab is dirty and he is working in a mess and is is quite poor. She then describes the landscape as “desolate and appalling” which make me think it's quiet and ugly.
These descriptions makes Victor's task at hand sound horrible and vile, also the feelings of Victor are described as well as Mary Shelley says, 'But now I went to work in cold blood and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands'. This shows he hates what he is doing, and that he had realised that creating life is wrong. Mary Shelley uses setting to reflect that what Victor did was wrong.
Through Frankenstein Mary Shelly is making lots of points about society, she teaches us about knowledge and science. She makes a point that too much knowledge can be a bad thing as Frankenstein says to Robert, 'You seek wisdom as i did' then he says 'it could sting you'. She is also trying to say that sometimes science should be left alone and left to the natural order. She also makes points about prejudiced and equality, she does this by the monster saying 'Fatal prejudice clouds...' he says this because everyone is judging him, by his outside character and isn't being treated equally and people are prejudiced against him. Mary Shelly also talks about parental duties, if a parent creates a child the parents need to look after it. If there isn't any of this the child will not have been brought up properly and will turn bad as the monster did.
One thing a modern reader can learn about this book is that judgement and prejudice based on what people can look like can result in horrific consequences. Marry Shelley has proven this right in the book because throughout history whenever people have been treated badly things have happened like the holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. Mary Shelley was right because in her book the monster was treated badly and it started killing a lot of people. The second thing modern readers learn is about the dangers and misuses of science. Science can be used for good uses like helping the ill and elderly but Mary Shelley warns us not to mess with the natural order of things, and not to use science too much because it could lead to evil events. Although we can not argue about the monster being evil because it killed lots of people and got Justine hung, he wasn't created evil. He was made evil by the way he was treated. There is no pure evil character but Frankenstein did evil things as well by creating the monster and abandoning it so they are as bad as each other. The French philosopher Jean – Jacques Rousseau wrote a book and in the book he argues that men's nature is harm less and that men become evil in society. This is proven to be true in the book 'Frankenstein', because Mary Shelley uses physically a disfigured character to show people can become emotionally disfigured.
