Frankenstein calls his life long dream a catastrophe, when he sees the creature come to life. He then goes on to describe it, he says ‘beautiful-great god! His yellow skin scarcely covered the works of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing, his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriance’s only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.’ Mary Shelly has created contrast in this quote to show all of the work wasn’t a complete failure and a misuse of time.
Various techniques are used to illustrate Frankenstein’s emotions towards the creature throughout the novel. We witness the first when Mary Shelly uses pathetic fallacy to describe Frankenstein’s feelings towards his creation. This is when authors describe the settings from the point of view of the character, which tells the reader the feeling of the character.
At the moment of the creature’s birth, the creature is entirely benevolent. The so-called newly born being affectionately reaches out to Frankenstein, but Victor’s mistake violently abandoning him resulted in many consequences. Despite his frightful appearance, he is as innocent as a newly born child. The reader now starts to recognize the unethical character of Frankenstein.
Frankenstein for told the future by imagining the creation of one would lead to the death of another. ‘I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt, delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips they became livid with the hue of death.’ This shows the Frankenstein’s disgust at his creation, and now he realises that the way in which he has changed nature could have devastating effect. When Frankenstein was returning home he bumped into his best friend Clerval, to whom he was overjoyed to see. When he took him back to show him the creature, he had disappeared. Frankenstein was over the moon. ‘I clapped my hands for joy, and random for Clerval’. Now that the monster had gone he had returned to his normal self.
Chapter 7 begins with Frankenstein telling the reader that William (Victor’s younger brother) is dead; now Victor feels guilt and his thought is spilling into another. With Frankenstein arriving back at Geneva (home town) to see his brother, the novel demonstrates a few characteristics of a Gothic novel. The lightning storm that greets Victor is a clip of Gothic narrative. ‘It was a dark and stormy night...’ This also reflects the state of imbalance and chaos in which Victor finds his family. Victor's hatred of the creature reaches an almost hysterical pitch in this chapter, as is indicated by his speech, he refers to his creation as a ‘deformity,’ a ‘wretch,’ and a ‘filthy demon.’
Chapter 9 informs the reader now that Justine was dead Frankenstein was feeling so much guilt he was torturing himself ‘and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures’. Frankenstein was calling himself an ‘evil spirit’, but was also feeling a sense of accomplishment, in that he had created life. .
Frankenstein was experiencing mixed feelings through out this chapter. He feels upset that he didn’t even want his mind to be at peace. ‘Wished peace would revisit my mind only that I might afford them consolation and happiness.’ This shows that Frankenstein would rather be tormented by something to keep reminding him of the deaths he had caused them let him forget about them. At this point the only way the he would gain happiness would be to kill the creature that he had created.
Chapter 10 to 17 is when we witness Frankenstein meeting the creature. They meet in the icy mountains he was filled with ‘rage and horror’ when he realised it was the creature, and his first word to him was ‘devil’. I think Frankenstein was trying to show that he was the stronger of the two by starting off by saying this. The creature didn’t respond with the same tone but simply said ‘ I expected this reception’ in a calm voice. This shows that the creature wasn’t all that Frankenstein thought he was, and had learnt new skills by himself.
As Frankenstein jumps towards the creature, it easily avoids him and warns Victor that he wouldn’t attack him because he was his creature, but the creature had made himself more powerful and would defend himself because life is precious. ‘Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful than thyself; my height is superior to thine; my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I’m thy creature, and will be even mild and docile which thou owest me.’
As the novel progresses, we become more and more uncertain as to who is truly human. As Mary Shelly creates the creature's first-person narration, it reveals both his own humanity and his creator's hidden monstrousness.
The most important feature of chapter 17 is the way in which the creature convinces Frankenstein to comply with his request as creature proposes of a female companion ‘You must create a female for me’. Then almost as a threat said ‘I demand it of you as a right’. Frankenstein immediately refused saying that there is no way in which I will bring another creature into to world causing more devastation. Once again the creature showed his adulthood and instead of threatening him, he reasoned with him. He began with threats, ‘I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear and chiefly towards you my arch enemy.’
In chapter 20 the audience witnesses the second meeting. As Frankenstein is complying with the creature’s demand of a female companion, Victor has second thoughts of this creation. Victor's decision to abandon his second experiment fills the reader with shock. While he seems to be motivated by his civilized concerns, it is also clear that he will expose his family and friends to grave danger if he does not comply with the creature's request. The similarity of Victor destroying his female creation is the equal to the creature destroying Elizabeth.
Chapter 23 is when death concerns Frankenstein and the creature. With Frankenstein telling the reader how he was feeling every night, at the threat of the creature attacking him. ‘Every sound terrified me’. He knew, or he thought, that his death would come soon and didn’t want to die in front of Elizabeth, especially being killed by some one she had never seen before.
The reader knows that it is Elizabeth, and not Frankenstein, who will bear the force of the monster's wrath; there is thus great pity in Victor's horror at his mistake, when he leaves Elizabeth in the house by herself, he had made a huge mistake. As he searched for the creature he heard a scream from Elizabeth’s room. As he rushed back he found her lying dead, and instantaneously knew it was at the hands of the creature. ‘Murderous mark of the fiends grasp’. As he looked up he saw the creature, and shot at him as if it were the only thing left to do. ‘A grin was on the face of the monster’, ‘ drew the pistol from my bosom, shot’
I believe the creature killed Elizabeth, as Frankenstein didn’t grant him his wish of his own female friend. Also, all the creature had wanted was happiness and now the main source of happiness for Frankenstein had was gone as well. The creature equalled the odds.
Events in this chapter have caused Frankenstein to make a thought of killing the creature a reality, and the creature’s anger is shown by the death of Elizabeth. Frankenstein shows great courage in trekking all the way to the north to locate the creature and destroy him. This shows the reader how determined and devoted he is to kill the creature. Almost as determined and devoted as when he created it. This gives the reader a feeling of what will happen, the first time he got involved in one big thing it had disastrous effects, will the same happen here? This is when May Shelly produces an atmosphere of rhetorical questions for the reader.
The chapters end with Frankenstein telling us, or Walton, how he had reached the boat the story then concludes in a serried of letters, just like the story began.
In conclusion I had felt sorry for the creature, throughout the story because he had to go from being something that had been created to something that had to learn to live with humans. Also the creature had only demanded one thing from Frankenstein who had promised him this, but then abruptly changed his mind. Frankenstein should have made more of an effort to see the creature’s point of view and how he was feeling. Mary Shelly generates the relationship between the creature and Frankenstein as dramatic and as interesting for a modern reader, because it is similar to a modern relationship between 2 people. There are always ups and downs, lies and promises that are broken.