There are various similarities between Mary’s book and that of the story of Adam and Eve in the bible. It could be said that Frankenstein is taking the place of God when he created the monster. When the monster becomes more intelligent it starts to develop human characteristics however this doesn’t help it, it is in fact the beginning of his downfall. This is similar to Adam and Eve, when Adam ate from the tree of knowledge. With the monsters new intelligence it even managed to blame Justine for a murder it committed. The story even relates to child abuse in that the monster could be said to be a child as it has only recently been created. It’s abandoned and despised by its own “father”.
The authors own life also influences the story. It seems she keeps comparing herself to the monster. She was ignored and isolated from her father in the same way the monster was from Victor. In this way you have more pity for the monster as he is being shut out from his ‘father’.
In the days when Mary Shelley was alive it was frowned upon to have affairs, especially with men like Percy Shelley. This resulted in her having to anonymously publish her novel as she was not socially accepted. Her father who was high in the publishing world would have also tried to stop her getting it published. After her husband committed suicide she may have gained some sympathy but I think a majority of the population blamed her for his death. This may have had a bad affect on book sales.
In the story, Frankenstein is both the victim and the villain, but he only considers himself to be the victim. He’s the villain because he created life and then disowned it to live and learn by itself, which is where child abuse comes in. In some parts of the book you do feel quite a lot of sympathy for Victor. When he was creating the monster, for example he said he suffered from “anxiety that almost amounted to agony.” Victors implying that he was so nervous and anxious that it actually caused him physical pain. He also states “I had deprived myself of rest and health,” meaning that he had worked so hard and long it had effected his health.
When Victor looks for the monster on the frozen ocean he still tries to gain sympathy using language such as “despair” and “I myself was about to sink under accumulation of distress.” Here he is speaking metaphorically; he’s talking about sinking in the sea, as well as sinking emotionally.
With so much talk of self pity, the reader could easily forget that this journey is one of vengeance. Victor sees the monster as his “enemy” and says “his soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery, and fiend like malice.” He also tells Walton to “thrust your sword into his heart, I will hover near, and direct the steel alright.” His hate for the monster is so intense; he thinks that he can help in killing the monster, even in supernatural life.
Even though Victor is seen as an arrogant, self righteous character, we have sympathy for him because he starts a series of events that he eventually has no control over. He creates a monster that kills his family and feels compelled to seek him out and end his life. His desire is “burning within my heart”, and he is powerless not to obey it. Whereas Victor’s downfall could be seen as of his own making, the creature seems to be a victim of circumstance and outside influences.
The creature says, “The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable passion.” He considers himself to have no control over his actions as they are a result of how he was made. He also claims “I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen”, and that “evil thenceforth became my good.”
The monster is looking for understanding for his terrible actions when he says “I was the slave, not the master.” He is trying to portray himself as a victim rather than the villain.
In this passage the creature speaks descriptively to try and make the reader feel sympathy. He says that in the beginning “it was the love of virtue, he feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed.” This turned into “bitter loathing and despair” and it speaks of how its crimes had degraded itself. It compares itself to a “fallen angel” who becomes a “malignant devil.” It considers itself to be more sinned against than the sinner when it says “all humankind sinned against me.” The feeling of self pity continues with “I desired love and fellowship and I was still spurned” and “your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself.” It feels totally “injustice” towards itself with everyone despising it and having sympathy only for Victor. This would make the reader feel very sympathetic towards the monster he has only turned out to be the despised and hated creature that he now is due to the actions of others.
Both characters make convincing cases in an attempt to gain sympathy from the reader. Both are sinned against, (Victor has his family killed by his own creation and his creation itself is abandoned and despised) and it is a matter of opinion who the victim actually is. The reasons behind Victor deciding to create life in the first place could be seen as an important factor. Was he trying to be the first person to create life in this way to satisfy his ego or was he doing it for the good of human kind?
Personally I have sympathy for both Victor and the monster. But if I had to choose one it would be the monster, because it was born an adult and never got chance to learn right from wrong and it had no parents to teach it anything nor no friends.
