Which Character does the Reader have the most Sympathy for: Frankenstein, or his Creation?
Frankenstein is a gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in a writing competition between friends. Mary Shelley’s life may have greatly influenced what happened in the text and which character the sympathies of the reader were aimed at. Her mother died because of complications with the birth of Mary, and at 16 Mary eloped with the writer/poet Percy Shelley, together they had four children but three of them died. After the first child died Mary had a dream in which she had brought the child back to life by warming it near the fire. These events in Mary Shelley’s life may have influenced her writing, for example the dream about giving life to the dead child links to Victor Frankenstein’s ambition to create life.
The story of Frankenstein is told through three narratives, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. This therefore enables the story to come from the characters themselves but this can make the story very biased, although this may be true we are still able to see where the sympathies lie. Although we see Victor as a suffering, lonely man we also clearly see that he is egocentric, unsympathetic and irresponsible where as the Creatures violent, unjustified killings are countered by his childlike, innocent approach to the world surrounding him. Starting by looking at Victor Frankenstein and where the sympathy can be placed on him, then moving on to look at the sympathies for the creature, it will be possible to see which character in the story has the most sympathy. The story begins in the remote icy wildness of the Pole; this strange setting prepares the reader for the story that is to unfold.
