The monster could be seen as a Noble Savage for many reasons and why does the reader have sympathy for the monster? The monster tells the reader about how he had to hide from society because of his appearance also because mankind would not accept his ugliness. He tells the person who reads how he was isolated by the creator also how he had been through a lot when he was just like a little baby and had to figure things out for himself because of all the incidents he had been through he curses his creator. The reader has sympathy towards the monster as he has just been given life and is isolated plus left to survive on his own. The monster lives a miserable life in the woods also he is poor we know this since he says “I know that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. The monster talks about his deformity and how he hates his figure plus he talks about how he is not the same nature as a man we know this because he says “I was besides, educed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome, I was not even of the same nature as man”. The reader feels pity for the monster as he is turned into something he hates. The monster talks about how he is the one and only so hideous and he is searching for someone like him but unfortunately there is no one like him we know this as he says “When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me”. The reader has sympathy towards the monster as he is odd and cannot find a mate. The monster goes through many incidents and he is the victim like he says “I had hardly placed my foot through the door before children shrieked, and one of the women fainted” even though the monster hasn’t done anything the villagers attack him beating him up with sticks as if he had done something bad. This is another reason why the monster could be seen as a noble savage also the monster once again gets hurt by what mankind did he tried to help a girl who slipped into a stream and after he helped her something terrible happened he says “I hardly knew why but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired”. The reader feels sorry for the monster as he tried to help mankind but mankind gave him nothing in return apart from hurt and injuries. After William’s death this is what the monster asks and says to Frankenstein “I am alone and miserable man not associate with me but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create” the monster wants Frankenstein to create him a companion just like him so he will have someone to share things with. The monster starts to hate mankind but at the start it was a different matter the monster says “I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure” but later on he says “the mildness of my nature had fled and all the within me was turned to gall and bitterness” this tells us the monster didn’t want to be bad but he had enough, he had been pushed to far. Another reason why the monster could be seen as a noble savage is because towards the end when Frankenstein died he also paid for his deeds and was sorry for all the terrible things he had done and is grieving over his creator.
There are many reasons why Frankenstein could be seen as the monster as well as there are many things he does wrong but why does the reader dislike him. Victor Frankenstein wanted to create life for the wrong reasons. He wanted to be famous, popular and well known. Here is a quotation telling the reader how Frankenstein wanted to be famous also blessed by his species “A new species would bless me as its creator and source many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me”. Frankenstein talks about how everyone would owe their being to him so even though he has not yet created life he is acting proud. Frankenstein decides to take the wrong decision he says “I doubt at first whether I should attempt the creation of being like myself, or one simpler organisation but my imagination was to much exalt by first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man”. Frankenstein thought about whether he should attempt to create something big as himself but he had high expectations so he decided to make a man instead of something smaller. Here are some reasons why the reader starts to build up hatred for Victor Frankenstein he never thought about how this man would think and react. Frankenstein never considered what a big impact this would do to the society and he let lose a monster and let it run wild. So Frankenstein endangered the society which was not a good option. Frankenstein could be seen as a monster for doing such a terrible thing to make his creation he took people’s body parts from their grave to complete his creation. Here is reason why Frankenstein could be seen as a monster after he has given life to the monster he ran away in the room and says “I threw myself on the bed in my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness”. Frankenstein does not do a good thing here he creates life without thinking about the effects and consequences. Here the reader dislikes Frankenstein because he abandons the monster and runs into his bedroom and tries to forget about it like a bad dream but why make it in the first place. Frankenstein falls ill, faints also runs away which are all qualities of a gothic hero. When Frankenstein falls ill he does not bother to tell anyone close about what he had done and he also never had made any plans of what he should do next after what he has done but instead he decides to go back to Geneva and make happy wedding plans. Victor Frankenstein could be seen as the monster since he let Elizabeth’s friend Justine take the blame over William’s death plus she was hanged for the guilt over William’s death. When Frankenstein knew along that the real killer was the monster he made. After William’s death Frankenstein meets his creation and starts to insult his creation by calling the monster nasty names like “miserable monster, wretched devil, hideous and ugly” these are not nice names to call someone and Frankenstein made him the way he is then upsets him by calling him horrible and cruel words. Frankenstein made one mistake after the other. He was selfish, obsessed and determined he never listened to a word the professor said about making life could be dangerous. The reader builds up hatred for Frankenstein for all the mistakes and things he has done. Mary Shelly want the reader to dislike and like Frankenstein so she makes the reader build up hatred for Victor and then she builds up this sense of him being a hero. This is how a middle time gothic tales would show the hero with negative and positive qualities.
The monster could be seen as the villain for many reasons but why does the reader dislike him. The monster could be seen as the villain because when the monster was born Mary Shelly is trying to create a gothic setting by setting the scene at night and in the scene she is trying to create fear so she associates things related to gothic stories like full moon, thunder and lightning. The monster could be seen as a villain by his appearance he was hideously deformed. The monster had “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath his hair was of a lustrous black” this is how the monster is described and he is also described as ugly, gruesome, scary, creepy and terrifying. The monster could be seen as the villain as he killed the poor little kid William and framed Justine for William’s death. The monster in anger burns down the De Lacey’s cottage when he finds out they had moved away. The monster blackmails, threatens and forces Frankenstein into creating a mate. The monster could be seen as the villain as he tortures and makes Frankenstein and his family suffer. One by one the monster kills all of Frankenstein’s family also his friends and Victor was left with nothing at the end. The reader hates the monster for all the bad things he has done. The monster is intelligent and clever and should have known better than to kill innocent people. Middle time gothic tales would make the reader feels sympathy for the villain.
What we learn from the novel is that you should think about your actions and the consequences. It gives you a warning about playing god and creating life. The reader also learns the out comes of hurting people’s feelings and that society should accept people for what they are even ugliness. The important message the reader learns is that you should not prejudge anyone by how there appearance. They also give a warning about not to hurt people’s feelings and that not to make people suffer. The message given to the audience is that don’t play with people’s lives and feelings. They also tell the audience not to play god and think about your actions and consequences cause you don’t want to get your self into a mess. They are giving another important message and that is to give people a chance to show the good side of them because if you don’t they might just turn bad. The themes are about isolation, alienation, creation, death, madness and revenge. At the end you feel as neither of them got justice because it was both of their faults and they both paid for it in some way. You feel kind of sad because Frankenstein is dead and the monster is miserable. Frankenstein told the story to Walton and he was crying and upset towards the end as he maybe felt no one really was to blame and felt sorry for the monster. The message Mary Shelly was trying to get across to the society was that people should take responsibility and should accept things ugly, new and scary.
Of the two main characters I think the true monster or villain was neither of them because they both made their mistakes and they both paid off for their mistakes in some way. They both had good and bad points about them selves. I think Frankenstein was grieving and shocked over his mother’s death and that’s how his obsession started and that’s when he took the wrong path. I think the monster took the wrong path when he got too tired of the society being cruel and abuse towards him and when all along he tried to be a good person. I have come to the final conclusion that neither of them was to blame as they both had their faults. So really I think in Frankenstein there is no true villain.
By Lukveer Behal