“...yellow skin... his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”
After years of painstaking work and toil, Frankenstein imagined his creation to be “beautiful”, a miracle of science. Instead, all his dreams were shattered by an abhorrent and unimaginable horror, the likes of which the human mind cannot comprehend. Frankenstein’s situation and circumstances solicit sympathy from the readers, as we can relate to his feeling of disappointment, but realise that his anguish is greater than anything most of us will ever feel.
However, some scholars and students of literature argue that it is the creature that deserves our sympathy at this stage, and not the creator. When the creature gets imbued with life, it effectively becomes Victor’s ‘son’ with the mind of a new born baby, as
“...he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks”
The creature obviously lacks mental faculties at this point, and therefore needs a parental figure to guide it through its new life. But rather than helping his new creation, Frankenstein cannot stand the sight of it and abandons it, leaving the creature to fend for itself in a new and unknown world. Victor then begins to wax lyrical about how horrible he’s feeling, about how he
“...sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness”
and how he “passed the night wretchedly”. This evidence hints at Frankenstein’s own selfishness, as he does not spare a single thought for the creature that needs the tender and affectionate touch of a parent, but instead makes a plea for sympathy through his own narrative. Therefore, rather than sympathising with Frankenstein because he doesn’t like what he has created, the reader feels sorry for the creature instead and is critical of Victor for abandoning it.
As the reader progresses through the story, sympathy is felt for Frankenstein after the murder of William. Having to cope with the death of his dear brother is hard enough, but this coupled with the appearance of the “filthy daemon” makes his anguish and suffering escalate – he blames himself for the murder:
“I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered my brother?”
To make matters worse, Victor finds that innocent Justine was blamed for the crime, and will be put to death unless he tells the courts about his creation and risk being classed as insane:
“A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty... would have been considered as the ravings of a madman, and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me.”
Because of this feeling of guilt and helplessness, Frankenstein drowns in a pool of loneliness, sorrow and remorse, and seeing him in this depraved state draws sympathy from the reader.
After these events, the reader feels certain revulsion towards the creature, for having murdered such a “sweet child”. But is the way he turned out really the creature’s fault? John Locke’s theory of Tabula Rasa states that a person is born a blank slate, and that this person’s actions and behaviour is influenced by his surroundings. If we accept this as true, then it is not the creature’s fault at all that he turned into a murderer. When he meets Frankenstein for the first time since they parted, the creature says:
“You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me.”
For years he was scorned and shunned by man, so naturally he would have violent and murderous tendencies. He was abandoned by his creator, his father, so he would want revenge. And with no parental figure to teach him about right and wrong, we cannot blame him for wanting to hurt the man that made his life a misery. Though the reader cannot simply forgive and forget, we can understand the motives that drove the creature to commit murder, feel less critical of him, and maybe sympathise with him for the suffering he has been through.
Furthermore, unquestionable sympathy can be felt for the creature for the cruel rejection he suffers at the hand of mankind. This raises one of the important points in the novel – the importance of appearances, for his looks are all that he judged on, rather than his personality. The first and most obvious example of this is the creature’s abandonment; “horror and disgust” filled Frankenstein’s heart so he ran from his creation, without stopping to think about the consequences of his actions. Also, when the creature travels through the forest of Ingolstadt
“The whole village was roused; some fled, and some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country”
The fact that the creature is unremittingly rejected merely because of his looks provokes great sympathy from the readers, as his treatment is grossly unjust and shows the true superficial nature of man.
As the creature progresses through his story, he tugs at the hearts of the readers with the deeply moving narrative. We feel sympathy for him when we understand his longing for a companion, a friend.
“Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded”
This quote from the creature shows just how lonely he feels, as though he “alone” is excluded from society. The reader realises that the creature is destined to live in the shadow of man, never able to interact with anyone else in his life. The creature also makes the mistake of trusting man when he attempts to befriend the old DeLacey, but is harshly and unceremoniously thrown from the house, denied a companion once again.
After telling his side of the story, the creature asks Frankenstein to do the impossible – to create a female companion for him. This ultimate request leaves Frankenstein in an extremely difficult position indeed – he can either create a new creature and run the risk of it turning into a murderer, or refuse, and be certain that the original creature will murder. Eventually, Victor is persuaded when the creature promises to leave the neighbourhood of man forever, as soon as he has a female companion. The reader feels a degree of sympathy for Frankenstein, because he has to carry out this loathsome deed against his wishes, dreading the possible repercussions of his actions. We can also see that it is torture for Frankenstein to set about recreating his “catastrophic” experiment, but he has no other choice in the matter, or mankind will suffer for his cowardice.
“It was indeed a filthy process in which I was engaged... my heart often sickened at the work of my hands... it became every day more horrible and irksome to me”.
Sympathy is also generated for Victor because we can see how repugnant and revolting the work is for him, but he perseveres in the hope of saving the world from the threat he has created.
However, Frankenstein is not the only one deserving of our sympathy during these events. When the creature makes the request for a companion, we realise just how desperate he is for a friend, and witness his absolute realisation that he will never be accepted into society.
“Am I not shunned and hated by all of mankind?”
Only if he has an equal as “hideous” as him can he hope to ever find happiness in this life. He also says:
“For that one creature’s sake I would make peace with the whole of mankind”
This shows that he is willing to forgive humans for all the suffering he has endured if his creator grants him one final wish, the wish that is his life. We sympathise greatly with the creature at this stage, but this feeling is amplified a hundredfold when we see that Frankenstein has committed the atrocious act of destroying his new creation. We cannot even begin to imagine the pain and anguish the original creature must be going through while watching the scene unfold before his very eyes. His only shot at a decent life, torn to shreds. After “enduring toil and misery”, enduring “incalculable fatigue, and cold and hunger”, all his hopes are destroyed. Undeniable sympathy is felt by the reader towards the creature for having to go through this suffering that nothing other can even come close to, and hatred is felt towards Frankenstein for becoming a murderer, and denying his son the right to happiness.
After these events unfold, the creature makes a vow to hunt down everything his creator holds most dear:
“I will be with you on your wedding night”
A short time after this chilling pronouncement, Frankenstein finds himself looking down at the dead body of his best friend, Henry Clerval.
“How can I describe my sensations of beholding it? I feel yet parched with horror, not can I reflect on that terrible moment without shuddering in agony”
Clerval was Victor’s only true friend, and offered him care and affection despite the latter’s frequent wanderings into the realm of insanity. Seeing his benefactor dead leads to Frankenstein’s emotional breakdown: “the human frame could no longer support the agonies I had endured.” Seeing him in such a pitiful state evokes the reader’s sympathy, as we are left wondering what other horrors the creature has in store for his creator.
The final instance where sympathy is felt for Frankenstein is when he witnesses the death of his bride. Before this horrific occurring, Victor seeks only to make Elizabeth and his father happy, whether his own life should be cut short or not. This admirable sentiment solicits sympathy from the reader, but Frankenstein does not understand the true nature of the creature’s threat before it is far too late.
“Suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream... the whole truth rushed into my mind... I fell senseless on the ground”.
Thus Victor loses the last remaining members of his family, for his father dies from the shock soon afterwards. We feel unquestionable sympathy towards him for having to endure such hardship, and for losing everything that is most dear to him.
Though the reader may feel revulsion and hatred towards the creature for its murderous deeds, the creature’s final moments are filled with repentance and remorse. He seeks out Frankenstein in order to apologise for his heinous deeds, only to find his creator lying dead in Walton’s ship.
“It is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless, I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living being.”
The creature confesses his crimes to Walton, and states that
“You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself”
He is physically repulsed by his own doings, and is overcome by remorse for his actions. This final act of regret leads him to take his own life, in order to be free of the agonies that consume him, and to protect mankind from the “unhallowed wretch” that he is. The reader feels enormous sympathy for the creature at this stage – it realises the atrocities it has committed, and is truly and sincerely sorry for what he has done (something that Frankenstein never was).
Overall, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature deserve sympathy as they have both had their lives afflicted by grief, agony and suffering. The creator suffers the loss of those most dear to him, while the creature endures the vicious world and his rejection from society. Both the characters have committed evil deeds as well – Frankenstein abandoned his ‘son’ and later, killed his new creation, thus unleashing the wrath of the creature upon his loved ones, and the creature became a murderer, killing and maiming the innocent in order to take revenge upon his ‘father’. However, where our sympathy really lies ultimately depends on the characters’ final acts in the book, which tell us who they really are deep down. Victor is constantly in denial of his actions, trying to minimise his own involvement in the horrific events, attempting to blame the creature and trying to persuade Walton to kill his ‘son’ when the moment comes. The creature on the other hand, confesses his sins, and is truly sorry for the harm and hurt he has caused. Because we know that the creature is a good person on the inside, we cannot blame him for regurgitating the anguish and suffering that man has caused him unto other people. Frankenstein, however, remains convinced that the fault is the creature’s alone, and does not acknowledge the mistakes he made during his lifetime.
In conclusion, the creature deserves the most sympathy from the reader because even though it committed unimaginable crimes, these were the result of its own vicious treatment, and not his personality. And though Frankenstein suffered the loss of his loved ones, it was his fault in the end for rejecting the creature, and he didn’t seem to have learnt anything from the experience by the end of the novel either.
“He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.”
