Victor Frankenstein introduces the creature to us. Mary Shelley has set the scene ‘on a dreary night of November’, which means it is dark and cold. The creation is set in a ‘damp and dingy’ basement. Victor’s description of the creature changes. First he is described as ‘beautiful’, but then when the creature reaches out to Frankenstein, he is horrified and describes him as a ‘daemoniacal corpse’ and a ‘daemon’. Frankenstein then runs away from the creature in horror. He has left the creature on its own not knowing what to do in life, as Frankenstein has not carried out his parental duty.
The creature is left on its own to fend for its self, without no parents to teach him. His first experience is when he finds shelter in a forest, he wakes in the night. Cold, alone and cries. This makes us the reader feel pity for him. During the creature’s narrative, we see how he is evolving, he learns about himself and ‘gradually begins to distinguish his sensations’. He starts learning about the world, he discovers fire and tries to cook his food. The creature is like a child, but his progress is much more rapid and at a fast rate. The creature learnt how to speak from the following books: Sorrows of Werther, Plutarch’s Lives, Paradise Lost and Ruins of Empires. ‘Sorrows of young Werther’ make him feel joyous and sad, ‘with its lofty sentiments and feelings’. ‘Plutarch’s Lives’ helped him admire heroic leaders and despise tyrants, as he sees the positive side and the destructive and dark side as well. ‘Paradise Lost’ makes him identify his lonely state with Satan’s banishment from heaven. ‘Ruins of Empires’ shock and disgust him. The tales of war, injustice and abuse of power upset him. He is more pained when he learns about birth, children and families because this leads him to question about his own origin. From these books he learns about human relationships and society. The creature has had encounters with many people. The first was with his creator but he was abandoned, as Victor was devastated to find it so ugly and ran away in horror. The creature then wandered into a village but was attacked by the villagers because of his appearance. When he observed the De Lacey family he grew fond of them and waited for the right time to speak to them but he was beaten once again and the family left in fear. The creature then saves a young girl from drowning and says ‘this was then the reward of my benevolence!’ but is then shot by a man and losses all his human qualities and becomes demonic.
In the creature’s narrative there are many kinds of relationships. The De Lacey family used to be a wealthy family but they were betrayed even though they showed loyalty. They were an affluent French family who had their wealth confiscated by the authorities because Felix had helped a Turkish merchant to escape from prison. The Turk was unfairly condemned to death and as a reward the Turk promised Felix his daughter Safie could have her hand in marriage. The De Lacey family was then banished from France and Safie’s father did not honour his promise to Felix. But Safie ran away from her father and found the De Lacey’s. Felix and the Turkish women, Safie have a relationship of compassion, devotion and sexual attraction as both of them tried to be together and now they are. The significance of this, is how the De Lacey’s welcome her into their family, despite her appearance and culture. The De Lacey family are all loyal to each other and they show kindness and love to the old blind man as he needs a lot of looking after. His poverty has not stopped him from loving his son, Felix, who is responsible for their loss of fortune. He is the only character in the novel who shows the capacity for forgiveness. When the creature speaks to the blind man, he is one of the only people who showed any kindness to the creature, because of his blindness it prevents him from being prejudiced. When the creature found out that the De Lacey’s were poverty stricken, he collected firewood for them. The creature had grown affectionate toward the family as he watched them, as ‘nothing could exceed the love and respect, which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable companion’. He describes them as ‘gentle beings’. There is a thematic significance of the family’s story as the creature and the family, have both been neglected. Frankenstein rejected the monster and the De Lacey family was banished from France. Also Felix found love in his heart for Safie and the creature realised how he does not have feelings for anyone, so he asked Victor Frankenstein for a female companion.
In society, there is a need to belong and be part of a community. The creature tried and wanted to be part of a community or even just to have one friend. Where as Frankenstein ran away from his family and wanted to be alone. The creature would always be rejected from society because of his appearance and Mary Shelley wrote the book in that way, as she wanted to reveal how people are judged in the world. This leads to radicalism, Victor Frankenstein went to Geneva in Switzerland which was a republican country, it was ‘peaceful, beautiful and life affirming there’. The book is set during the French revolution. There was Limited Democracy, as there was no equal society, women couldn’t vote, men under 21 couldn’t vote and people would put their hands up outside to vote. The radical reform in the novel was the product of human inventions, how Frankenstein created the creature. The legal system of Geneva is portrayed, as the laws are broken. Also the creature kills innocent people who were part of Victor’s family or close friends. He does this in revenge and his rage builds up and releases it by killing these innocent people.
The novel ends with Victor dying and we are left unsure if the creature kills himself. Walton meets the creature and it makes us pity the creature as he tells Walton how he has tried to do good deeds and get along with mankind. But he explains that his rejection by his creator was an injustice. Mary Shelley makes the reader notice how important it is to be brought up properly and to have a good relationship with people and to be part of a society that does not judge people by their appearance without knowing what there personality is like. Mary Shelley reveals to us that know matter how kind you are, you can always be treated wrongly and be betrayed by people, who you thought were your family or good friends.
