This was the first reaction the creature had ever been exposed to; this was his first encounter with mankind. From the beginning of his life the creature is met with horror and disgust as man’s reaction toward him. As he firsts escapes the laboratory and goes to the village where he is again met with hatred, disgust and insults on his own appearance. He then flees to the country where he finds an old blind man living with his children, he stays hidden nearby. Using their books and observing the family the creature slowly develops communication skills and the ability to read. He begins to secretly do chores and such for the family as a way to pay them back for his learning and after he observes their struggle to get by as a family. Once he decides to meet the family he has been around secretly for so long all is well at first, the blind man and creature have a pleasant talk and all is well. But when the children return and the creature is exposed to their sense of sight he is once again met with horror as the children react violently to the creature. Being once again chased away the distraught creature vows revenge on his creator in a rage. Just by chance he meets a man in the woods who turns out to be Victor’s younger brother upon discovering this the creature chokes the man to death, planting evidence upon the sleeping Justine’s lap thus incriminating her for the murder.
Once the novel introduces the creature from his own perspective the reader is now able to sympathize with him unlike before. When the story is described through originally Victor’s eyes the audience is met with a biased opinion of the creature. Once the story is told through the creature’s point of view, the audience is given a whole new idea of what is going on inside the mind of the “monster”. For one, the reader may now know that the “monster” is not a “monster” at all but just a confused creature trying to understand, a creature that is pretty much an underdeveloped human being. Readers are exposed to him trying to understand the world with his attempts at learning to communicate and learning how to act normally by observing this family. The fact that someone is trying to learn from the people around him and that he is met continuously with horrific reactions and hate, is enough to drive any person to do the things the creature might do, he doesn’t know any better. Any monstrous qualities the creature exercises are there because his creator did not take the responsibility of teaching the creature, and it is clear to the audience that the “monster” is willing to learn and understand.
After Justine is convicted of the murder of Victor’s brother, Victor is tortured by his knowledge of the real killer and began wandering the Alpine valleys. Which brings another question, how does a man, with such a conscience to not be able to stand the fact his creature murdered his brother and framed his friend that he must flee his home, let a “monster” he created escape without knowing anything about the world? If Victor had not fled and talked to his creation would he have ever hurt anyone? Probably not, the creature was driven to his violent ways by being brought unwillingly into a world he did not belong and given no skills to help him along the way. While in the valleys Victor is confronted by his creation, who tells him everything that has happened. The only things the creature wants from Victor is for him to create a female like him to accompany him so he is not alone in this world that Victor forced him into, and if he is given a companion they will never harm anyone again and live in isolation. Victor agrees and feels that the request is fair, so he returns to England to begin his work on the bride for the creature. While in the process Victor begins to think about the outcome of this, though the right thing for the creature is to create another the horrors of two of them begin to get to Victor. He wonders about them mating and breeding many of these creatures, this puts Victor in a tough spot. When the creature comes to Victor to check on the progress of his companion Victor destroys this creation and refuses to help the creature, once again the creature vows revenge on Victor. He tells Victor that he will be there on the night of his wedding.
Once again the audience finds the creature in tremendous emotional pain caused by the human race that declares him a “monster”. Once again the reader finds our “Prometheus”, Victor, angering his creation and putting people in danger. Victor marries Elizabeth well aware of the creature’s threats and expecting to be killed that very night, instead the creature kills Elizabeth. And once again Victor loses a loved one because of his creation, but not only his creation him as well. The creature is only exhausting his revenge toward Victor by devastating him in the worse way, not by harming him but by harming the people he loves. The creature has no one and was brought here to this world by Victor to have no one, so Victor shall have no one as well.
After the death of Elizabeth and his father Victor has nothing left but rage toward the creature and begins to pursue him all over. This leads Victor to the arctic region, where he meets Walton and tells him everything. For fear of his death and his need to exact revenge upon the creature he asks Walton to kill the creature if he does not make it to do so himself. Soon after Walton’s ship is freed from the ice and he decides to return home abandoning his trip, around the same time Victor’s health begins to slip and soon after he dies. After the death of Victor, Walton finds the creature with the dead body. The creature tells Walton his story and of his sufferings, of what he has been through since Victor created him. The creature now hates himself because of the things he has done and now that his creator is dead he decides to take his own life, and he drifts on his ice raft into the dark night.
All the murders the creature committed were inspired by the revenge and hatred he had toward his creator. Who is the real monster in the novel? In my opinion, Victor is a far greater monster than the creature itself. The audience can tell the innocent human nature of the creature, as it learns and grows from observing both Mother Nature and human nature. Any acts of monstrosity the creature resorts to is because of either revenge or the fact he simply was not taught right from wrong. Victor created a monster but not a real monster, what he and people thought was a monster, and if he had taken responsibility for his creation the creature would not have resorted to some of the things it had done. Victor continuously drove the creature to do horrible things, and so did the people who came in contact with it. In the end I find myself most sympathetic with the creature, which was brought into the world unwillingly pieced together by Victor. The creature’s monstrous look was completely designed by Victor and brought to life then abandoned. In my opinion the creature never had a chance; he was created a monstrosity then abandoned a monstrosity, treated like a monstrosity and thus lived and acted like a monstrosity.
