With Particular reference to chapters 5 and 11, compare and contrast the Authors portrayal of Victor and the creature in "Frankenstein".

With Particular reference to chapters 5 and 11, compare and contrast the Authors portrayal of Victor and the creature in “Frankenstein”

Contained in the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, is the twisted substance of greed, the character Victor Frankenstein portrays the element of control. Felling the need for this he ‘builds’ an entirely new breed of creature, without thinking much for the consequences. During the time in which this novel was written, there was a great surge in the realms of science. Many new discoveries were made and scientists were taking more and more dangerous risks in the hope of opening the door on the unknown. In my view, Shelly had written this novel as more of a warning than a story. I believe that she was trying to impose responsibility upon the scientists for what it was they were meddling with and also to try and persuade them to think before they act. Shelly demonstrates these emotions through two characters, Frankenstein and the creation. Each character gets the opportunity to express their feelings and tell their stories in the novel.

The first character that has the opportunity to tell their story is Frankenstein, in chapter 5. Shelly sets the scene with close attention to the weather, “It was on a dreary night of November” here Shelly is using pathetic fallacy to reflect the mood. The same is evident in chapter 11, when the creature is telling his story, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also” These descriptions of the weather and the environment around them reflect their moods. Frankenstein feels worn down and tired as is reflected by Shelly’s use of the word ‘dreary’. The creature on the other hand feels cold and alone as reflected by ‘dark’ and ‘cold’. This contrast shows us a big difference in their relationship. Frankenstein remembers the night as being tiring and an effort, the creature however feels a child-like sense of isolation, as if he was without love or companion, this is adverse to practical thought, one would normally perceive that Frankenstein would adore and love his creation after all the effort and hard work he had gone through to create him.

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Frankenstein spends much of chapter 5 talking about himself and only himself, “I rushed out of the room”, “I had desired it”, “I had finished” and “I had created”. The vast majority of his story begins each sentence with the personal pronoun, ‘I’. This gives us the impression that he is very self obsessed and does not give much thought to other events happening around him, in particular the creature. He describes the creature, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe” but he never gives any thought to mortality or the aesthetics of the creature or the responsibility it will impose upon him. It is as if he feels the creature will owe him a life time of gratitude and service and that the creature will be his possession to command, this relates back to Frankenstein’s craving for power. This is much the contrary to the creature’s account; he spends the bulk of chapter 11 describing his surroundings and what is going on around him. “I gazed with a kind of wonder” despite he still uses the pronoun, “I” in this quotation, he is describing the world around him and is not describing himself. It is also filling the creature with joy, much unlike the when Frankenstein describes the creature, “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath”.

One obvious similarity between the two chapters is that both characters are aiming to persuade and both use persuasive language as much as possible. Frankenstein uses it to justify his actions, “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance” whereas the creature uses it to provoke sympathy, “poor, helpless, miserable wretch” and “I sat down and wept”. Whilst Frankenstein knows that his actions in creating the creature were wrong, he is trying to justify his actions following the creature coming to life as being acceptable, the creature is trying to make Frankenstein feel responsible for creating him and then abandoning him so he is trying to make Frankenstein feel guilty. This is all moving towards the creature’s ultimate aim, for Frankenstein to create him a companion to fulfil his need for love and compassion.

This is very interesting, the creature just wants someone to love and be with and Frankenstein wanted someone to rule and have power over, when you look at the events of the first night when the creature is brought to life, you cant help but wonder that if the prevailing events had taken a different course and the creature and Frankenstein had stayed together, then both characters would have had their needs fulfilled, Frankenstein would have had his power and the creature would have had his companion and would not be alone in the world.

The following morning the two characters find themselves in two very different situations, Frankenstein walks out into his town, ‘‘Ingolstadt’’ where he meets his long-time friend, Henry Clerval, “I perceived Henry Clerval” who inspires joy to Frankenstein, “I felt suddenly, and for the first time during many months, calm and serene joy” it is as if Frankenstein now has a huge weight off his shoulders and can return to living a normal life, “I sincerely hope, that all these employments are now at an end and that I am at length free”. The creature on the other hand is left very alone, with very little knowledge about what is happening around him, left to learn the ways of the world by himself, “I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew out again with a cry of pain” here the creature shows the vulnerability and intelligence of a small child, but without someone there to tell him not to put his hand in the fire he has to find it out for himself.

However quite deservingly, it is not the creature who suffers the most in these early days of the story, it is Frankenstein. After meeting Clerval, Frankenstein goes home expecting to find the creature there, “the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in the apartment might still be there”. This he does not but he does fall very ill. “This was the commencement of a nervous fever which confined me for several months”. During this time Clerval nursed him back to health. The creature on the other hand does much better for himself, out in the wild he finds himself a fire, food (berries which are not very nourishing) and water from the stream. Nonetheless he survives and seems content, until he first encounters men.

The difference in the two character’s relationships with humans could not be more dissimilar. Each and every one of the creatures encounters with humans result in him being attacked, “grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons”. Frankenstein however has a very different relationship with humans. His account of his upbringing shows how spoilt he was by his parents and as previously stated it is his friend, Clerval who looks after him when he is ill. The creature is deprived of all this.

The reader’s sympathy for the characters shifts with each narrator, this making it difficult to remain unbiased. Until the creature tells his story he receives no sympathy, yet after, the reader begins to recognise the injustice of Frankenstein’s actions, his absence of conscience and how ultimately, he completes an experiment which threatens mankind.

In conclusion, Shelly has created two very extreme characters that given different circumstances could have flourished with one another, yet quite the contrary happens with them leading to each others destruction. It asks many questions about the morality and ethics surrounding science and inspires responsibility above all else upon the scientists both to think about what they are doing and also why they are doing what they are doing. Answering the why can sometimes be very much more difficult than answering what.

By Andy Lawson 11I