While Frankenstein is making his monster nothing else matters to him. He has a thirst for knowledge beyond human knowledge. This is seen as evil but it is a contrast, as the experiment did not start as evil it started as eagerness to conquer death, a favour to human beings. But it did not turn out like that as Frankenstein was driven by ambition so he did not notice the evil in the experiment. This a contrast as Walton, at the beginning of the novel, is also driven by ambition to obtain information that know other human would know.
This story is about morality. It explores different ides of good and evil. This is shown in the way that the monster’s physical appearance is supposed to be evil as every one runs form him. But we find out that all he wants is love, someone to love him, and someone for him to love. So this shows that he has a good side. But this example also shows Frankenstein’s bad side as well as good side when he says that he will make the monster a mate he then takes it away and dashes the monster hopes by then going back on his word. This shows a very good contrast between good and evil as this is a terrible thing to do to someone, taking away their only hope to be loved. But also he is saving mankind because if he made a female monster then they would be able to reproduce. So he is undertaking a good deed to mankind, but a bad deed to his own creation.
He is the monster’s creator and he has abandoned his son-like creation. This brings out a sense of evil in Frankenstein’s character as he abandoned the monster to fend for himself not thinking of anyone but himself. If he stopped to think how he reacted then he would realise that what he was doing was wrong, this might have stopped the monster from turning evil.
In the beginning of the novel we see the monster having a good side. We see this by him appreciating the good things in life such as nature. He also tries and succeeds to help a family live, as without him the family would not have had food that winter. We then see his evil side, but for some reason we still feel sorry for him. Even when he kills William, and plants the evidence on Justine we still seem to have some sympathy for him as he says he didn’t mean to do it. And why is this? If we heard on the news that a man had killed an innocent 5 yr old boy we would have no sympathy. But we realise that it is not his fault. He has been turned evil by the way society treated him. When he kills Elizabeth and Henry, we still have a sense of sympathy for the monster. He is evil but only because of the way that Frankenstein and society treats him. He is rejected by society, the family even after he helped them, and by his own creator, Frankenstein. The Monster is rejected by his own father, and therefore wants revenge. Also the monster is never given a name. He is called things such as:
“Wretch” “demon” and “evil”. If our own creator called us this all our life and not anything nice, then we would also feel miserable, as the monster has feelings too, and is looking for someone to blame. We can relate to this and that is why he kills Frankenstein’s Fiancée, brother and friend. We may still think he is evil, but we know why, and we feel for him.
With Frankenstein, it is a different story. He is a good person to begin with just the same as the monster. He is just a medical student with a thirst for knowledge. But he takes it too far and goes for knowledge beyond human knowledge. He wants to make a human race that will live forever, cheating death. Beating all diseases and living forever. But this did not happen, as because he did not like the physical appearance of his creation, he deserted him. This was not done out of evilness, but out of panic. He then wishes the monster dead, and actually tries to kill him. This is out of evilness, as he does not want the monster in his life anymore so he decides the only option is to kill him. We feel a little sympathy towards Frankenstein, as we know that is not what he wanted to happen. But it is his fault and he could have handled the situation better, so this is a contrast between the good and evil in his character; but also it brings out the ideas of good and evil in the contrast between Frankenstein and the monsters character.
In conclusion I think that yes, the monster is evil. But I also feel that it is not his fault, that it is society’s fault. I think this is the point Shelley is trying to put across. I think that Shelley is trying to tell us that the reason that there is evil in the world, because of society in itself.
