The creature in Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein is portrayed as a monster

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Ben Gilkes

The creature in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein is portrayed as a monster.

Consider the presentation of the creature in the novel and the origin of the monstrous behaviour conveyed in the novel.

Frankenstein’s monster is by instinct good but through watching the behaviour of humans he learns from their violent rejection of him, what it is to be human. He learns about the emotions of hate, anger, revenge and does not see the advantages of happiness and love.

The message of Shelly’s novel is that through upbringing and socialisation, humans become monstrous and full of prejudice toward others different to themselves.

Shelly’s trip to the Alps gave her the idea of “the sublime” and granted her inspiration through huge and beautiful surroundings. The competition proposed by Byron spurred Shelly on and the reading of Gothic genre stories gave her a repertoire and inspiration to help her write her novel Frankenstein.

The book Frankenstein was influenced by the myth of Prometheus in which Prometheus “played God” and faced the punishments resulting from this act, Similarly Frankenstein played God by bringing the monster to life. The book Frankenstein was a breakthrough being the first science fiction novel ever published in English, it was greatly inspired by the developments during the “enlightenment” and the new philosophical ideas from Rousseau and Edmund Burke.

As Frankenstein becomes interested in creating life, his enthusiasms as a student start to get out of hand. He describes his research into chemistry as becoming “nearly my sole occupation” and “the stars often disappeared in the light of the morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory,” This is one of the first signs that Frankenstein is disregarding his friends in search of knowledge. Frankenstein has convinced himself that what he will be creating will be “a light so brilliant and wondrous” and he is amazed that he alone “should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.” This links back to Prometheus, as Prometheus believed that his purpose was to create human life. Frankenstein thinks that it is his duty to create a more superior and beautiful life. As Frankenstein sees that it is him and only him that has been chosen he becomes more and more self centred, spending all his time in his lab. He has no time for friends, and he performs his tasks with a supernatural enthusiasm. As Frankenstein’s enthusiasm as a budding student turns into obsession, the reader alters his impression of him from a likeable scientist to an immoral and misdirected madman “I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” He is completely involved in one and only one thing.  Frankenstein’s reaction to what he has created is one of disgust and fear only because of what the creature looks like. He calls it a “wretch.” This is a very bad thing to do to a child according to the philosopher Rousseau. Frankenstein’s creature was a blank canvas and was already being shaped by the horrible treatment he has got from his creator Frankenstein.

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The Gothic genre is a novel designed to strike fear into a reader by using dark and dreary places that only bad things could happen in. Similarly Shelly’s novel is set in a dark room with a low light (the laboratory). The time in which the monster is created is typical of a Gothic genre book; it is “one in the morning”, “the rain pattered dismally against the panes” and the candle was nearly burnt out. All these factors would make the room have many long shadows from all the instruments in Frankenstein’s possession. There is an example of pathetic ...

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