When the creature is first encountered we are almost scared of it but its infantile mannerisms make us more sympathetic towards it. At first the creature is confused as it had to cope with all its senses all at once whereas humans have several years to master them and use them accordingly. The creature is quick to develop an understanding of cold, hunger, pain and heat. He delights in the sounds and sights of nature just like a child would. He is bewildered when the villagers attacked him so he keeps his distance until he discovers why they had treated him so harshly. There is no anger or desire to seek revenge on Frankenstein at this stage. The creature delights in observing the De Lacy family, he admires their beauty and shares their sadness “when they were unhappy, I felt depressed, when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys.” He becomes fond of them and feels very guilty when he realizes that food is scarce and the younger part of the family were going without because he had been stealing their food “I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption, but when I found than in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.” He has no evil at this stage in the novel, he is still very innocent.
When he learns about love he is then curious about his own background “where were my friends and relations? What was I?” This is where we first witness bitterness inside the creature when he discovers Frankenstein’s journal in his pocket, he learns about the disgust and regret Victor held towards him. These made the monster sickened and it is the start of the hatred he has towards Frankenstein. He is saddened that his creature is repelled by him and he is even repulsed by his own looks “god, in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred” At this stage the monster is feeling “wretched”
Sympathy for the monster deepens as he tries to be accepted in life by showing kindness, but these acts are spurned, now are sympathies are truly with the creature. He is attacked again, this time by the cottagers and then he discovers that “my protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world.” The rage that has been building up inside him turns to rage and he wishes that he had destroyed the cottagers and “glutted myself with their shrieks of misery” although there is some compassion inside the creature there is some early warning signs that this rage is now becoming uncontrollable “for the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them.” He takes his anger out on “inanimate objects”. So he burns down the cottage, symbolically unleashing the fire within him but yet almost in a childish tantrum. Now our sympathy towards the creature wavers.
He regains his compassion when he saves the life of a young girl, but again he is rewarded by hatred, he is shot and at this point “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.” He then desires to take revenge for his suffering he strives to find a companion, someone young who will not be bias toward him; he stumbles upon a young boy and naively thinks that he will willingly become his companion because of his age. When the boy verbally abuses him he finds out that he is indeed related to Frankenstein and so he thinks by murdering his relative he is one step closer to full revenge toward Victor “ I gazed on my victim and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph, I too, can create desolation; my enemy is not vulnerable, this death will carry despair to him and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him” The creature plots to seek more revenge on Victor and so plants evidence on a close friend, Justine, so that she will be executed.
The turning point for both characters is when they both meet and Victor hears the monsters story, he is at first bewildered but when the monster bribes Frankenstein into making him a companion (which is very naive as who is to say that this creature will love him back) he is angry and he refuses the proposal “I do refuse “, “shall I create another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world!” This is quite a strong statement as it shows Frankenstein’s towards the creature; this is showing Frankenstein’s evil side by not taking into consideration the creatures feelings. The creatures reply is quite surprising as he seems rather calm and collected when he hears that he may never have a companion and he disagrees with him “you are wrong, and instead of threatening I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable.” The creature tries the sympathy vote with Victor and he tries to justify himself “Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?” Victor is surprised by the creature’s sensitivity, he consents to the demand of a female in the hope that the creature will stick to his word and leave Europe and in turn freeing him of his fear of being murdered by the creature and his guilty conscience. As Victor thinks through the creation of another creature he realizes the drastic effects it c could have on the human race.
Frankenstein then realizes how selfish he had been and began to consider the consequences “they might even hate eachother; the creature who already loathed its own deformity, and might not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.” These quotes show Victors horror of what might happen if he were to create another creature, his conscience makes him destroy the second creature which the monster witnesses “trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness. And with a howl of devilish despair and revenge he withdrew.” The creature went to his room and asked “you have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare break your promise?” Frankenstein replied with “be gone, I do break my promise”This shows that Frankenstein is no longer moved by the creatures sensitivity. The creature is now content with the thought of the devastation he could cause Victor and the revenge which he describes as “dearer than light or food”. All sympathy that we ever had towards the creature is gone at this stage as we realize that the creature is truly evil and will not stop until he has destroyed everyone dear to the creator.
Frankenstine is overwhelmed with guilt and despair as he watches one by one his loved ones taken away from him by the creature thsat he had created. The final murder of Elizabeth and Frankenstein decides that the only way to find peace is to “collect my funeral pile and consume to ashes this miserable frame.” “I shall die.” Upon Victor’s death the monster stands before his corpse and begs for pardon. He stands there as a completely tamed creature who takes no pleasure in his success. He praises Victor’s generosity and devotion and, in fact, calls himself Victor’s murderer an expression of regret that he did not come foreword sooner to ask for forgiveness. There is a sense of absolute despair in the monsters address that completely contradicts the idea of his inherently violent nature.
Frankenstein is not meant to be portrayed as an evil character, he is more selfish and single minded in his pursuit to create a “perfect” creature. He does not take the time to consider the consequences of this selfishness nor does he regard the safety for others when the results of his dangerous experiments go wrong. He is too vein to admit that he was a failure and he was unable to accept the problem he had single handely created so he runs away childishly thinking that this action would make things better. He lived in a fantasy world, believing that he cold create perfect life, be better than god and that he would earn the respect of all. Frankenstein’s weakness was his inability to admit failure, he is repulsed by his creation and he was unable to cope physically. These feelings did not improve as he finds the numbers of his close family slowly deteriorating as the creature kills them off one by one. In th4e later stages of the novel we see frankensteins character get stronger and be more rational as he faces the task of making his creature a partener he accepts resnonsibility and he didn’t want to risk another disaster. Overall the sympathy that the reader has for Victor wavers erratically as his selfishness is sometimes forgotten about when his absolute misery comes into play. You could say that the creature is to blame for frankensteins death as all the misery Victor is put through have a direct relation to the creature.
The creature does not show his evil side until he has won the sympathy of the reader from his constant rejection from humanity and desire to be loved, he is portrayed as a very intelligent being and highly sensitive to the feelings of other people around him and to nature. The build up of his emotions finally give way as he turns to seek revenge on frankenstine when he discovers his origons. When his only means of eternal happiness is dramatically taken from him he murders “ the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept.” He finally admits that all this evil that he had committed did not satisify him and that he is “wretched”. The creature wins the readers sympathy when he tells his moving story about his sensitivity and emotional scarring but all that sympathy drastically decreases as his anger his boiling point and he murders frasnkenstines younger brother out of revenge. Throughout the bad times I think that we always have a small sence of sympathy towards the creature as he is expelled from human contact because of his “deformity”. His kind actions were always thrown back in his face and overall he did not lead a very enjoyable life.
When Frankenstein was a young boy he described himself, saying: “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement” whish suggests to the reader that the two characters were both more similar than it seems. In conclusion I feel that they were both as evil as each other. The creature and Frankenstein can both be considered as being thoughtless and evil, since they did not have any thought towards anyone who may be harmed for them to achieve success. No-one deserves more sympathy than the other as Frankenstein was to blame for the monsters unhappiness and the monster for Victor’s.