The creature has typical human characteristics and differentiates from any other gothic - horror character as normally the creature is evil but it is nurture that changes the creature. At the start, he’s a very benevolent creature but, the way people stereotype him and the surroundings he lives in change the type of person he is. The villagers were all frightened off him and treated him badly, just because of his looks. This is an example of how the creature is stereotyped in the novel.
Another theme in the novel is isolation. When you are lonely, it changes the type of person you are. The creature doesn’t even have an identity and no one knows who he is or where he’s from, including the creature himself. He says “who was I?, what was I?, whence did I come?, what was my destination?”. This shows the creature has no identity as he is so isolated from everyone. This evokes sympathy for the creature as he’s abandoned by Victor.
Mary Shelley uses many other ways to create sympathy for the creature. The way the creature is perceived and stereotyped create sympathy as well as the way he is treated like an animal. He says “I quitted the cottage and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel” This makes the reader feel very sympathetic towards the creature, as he has no home to retreat too, and after the way he is treated he has to go back to a “hovel” which he doesn’t deserve to do. This is an example of animal imagery as animals are known to live in hovels.
When the creature meets De Lacey he feels he has made a friend and he is very happy at this time. Shelley hints that they’ll accept the creature but there is a contrast here and they don’t. The creature says “who could describe their horror and consternation on beholding me?” This makes the reader feel very sympathetic because it shows no one will accept him as a normal human and because he’s ugly, he is perceived as being an evil person. This is also a language point which also adds to the sympathy the reader has for the creature. It is a rhetorical question which shows that the creature is disappointed about the way he looks.
Towards the end of chapter 16, juxtaposition is used also, to make the reader feel very sad about the creature’s looks. When he enters the barn after he has committed the murder, and sees the beautiful girl lying there, a major contrast is used to emphasise the ugliness of the creature. Juxtaposition makes the reader feel very sympathetic as the reader already knows that the creature is ugly but when he is put next to this beautiful woman it makes him look even uglier and the woman look even more beautiful. The creature says “blooming in the loveliness of youth and health”. This shows he knows the woman is beautiful and this makes him feel even more upset and troubled, as does the reader.
Mary Shelley uses a 1st person narrative to make the reader understand his emotions and feelings more. The creature says “I wept without precisely understanding it”. If this was written in 3rd person narrative, the creatures feeling wouldn’t be as effective and wouldn’t make the reader feel as sympathetic as it does in 1st person and Mary Shelley wanted to reader too feel very emotional for the creature.
Another language technique Shelley uses is Pathos. This is the Greek word for suffering. This is a good word to describe what happens to the creature as he is very troubled and suffers a great deal throughout the novel. He says “my limbs failed me and I sank to the ground” and “I dared to be happy”. This evokes the reader’s sympathy for the creature as you have to have major problems if you are scared to be happy and it reminds the reader of how the creature has been constructed from many different body parts. He carries this horrific body around, tragically.
“Frankenstein” is a gothic fiction novel although it sometimes deviates from normal gothic fiction rules. In normal gothic novels, where there is a monster, the monster is born evil and it is nature that makes the creature evil but in “Frankenstein”, Nurture makes the creature evil. When the creature was brought to life, he was a kind and affectionate character but the way he is treated (nurture) changes him to an evil character. This makes the reader feel very sorry for the creature as when he was kind and benevolent, he was treated very unfairly and stereotyped because of his looks and the villagers and Victor don’t realise that it is them who have changed the creature and he wasn’t just born evil.
The novel “Frankenstein” is a very sympathetic book. Mary Shelley constantly evokes the reader’s sympathy for the creature by using many different language techniques. The novel is also effective in conveying key themes such as isolation and nurture and how people can change, according to their surroundings. Overall, this is a very effective novel in generating sympathy for the creature.
