An extract from one of Percy Shelly's poems, Mutability, contrasts the emotions of humans (feeling, thinking, conceiving), with those of the creature, “We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond foe, or cast our cares away”. This poem talks about nothing going on forever, except change (whether it is for better or for worse), this relates to the relationship between Victor and the creature as there is change in the way they both view each other, with Victors feeling of rage being subdued by the maternal and religious feelings of the creature who just wants to explain his story to his creator (God). From this we can see a significant relationship between Victor and the creature, as Victor longs to murder a being who owes it's life to him, with the creature being both good and capable of evil just like his creator, “fallen angel” (a reference from Paradise Lost) which has caused the creature to become brute and vicious without religion/God to guide him. Formerly a mysterious, completely physical being, the creature now becomes a verbal, emotional, sensitive, almost human figure that communicates his past to Victor in moving terms. This transformation is key to Victor's bigger understanding of his act of creation; before, it was the creature's physical strength and apparent ill will that made him such a threat, however now it is his intelligence. Victor who is portrayed as God judges the creature causing him to feel unworthy, “grant me thy compassion”.This chapter relates both Victor and the creature as they are both beautiful (“I was quickly reassured by the cold gale of the mountains”) in some way in there own eyes but on the other hand they are both seen as ugly (“dreary glaciers”) , this binary opposition adds to the relationship of Victor and the creature as they are in such a beautiful place. The reference of Victor as “God” and the creature as a “daemon” allows us to look into the use of Paradise Lost. This theme of victor as good and the creature as evil is reversed in this chapter with Victor setting out to murder the creature yet to be comforted by a very mellow being, “these bleak skies I hail”. This enables them to see the result of each others actions as well as the feelings for one another, in doing so this enables them to relate to the causes of these feelings which is Victor creating the creature in the first place. In these lines, “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”, Shelley refers to the Biblical creation story of Adam and to John Milton's Paradise Lost. The creature likens himself to Adam, the first human created in the Bible. He also speaks of himself as a “fallen angel,” much like Satan in Paradise Lost. In the Biblical story, Adam goes against God by eating an apple from the tree and even though He banishes Adam from Eden, He doesn’t speak harshly of Adam. However, the creature seems sinned against, hated by Victor, feared by society, and banished, and thus murders to get back at his God. This is personified further when Victor talks about the sun descending behind the “snowy precipices” and “illuminate another world”, this world being hell, however Victor could just be referring to the night as it is when the creature has done has killed but also saved yet he has been ridiculed for his appearance. The use of these diabolical language and imagery to hell and Satan is used by Shelley to display the hatred and disgust both have for each other but the ironic fact that Victor (the creator) hates what he has created.
The difference lies in what drives these two beings to nature. For Victor, it is his guilt and the pain he suffers for bringing upon his family the suffering that comes from the loss of loved ones. William's death and the loss of Justine are indirectly Victor's fault. Through his selfish ambition, he chose to create and abandon his creature without any thought of the consequences. This is considered a crime against nature, and certainly not in keeping with Shelley's ideal parent/child relationship. For Victor nature is peaceful and beautiful, which his current life is not, this is ironic as this contrasts with the very unnatural creature that victor has created. By comparing Victor to God, the creature removes responsibility for his evil actions upon Victor, condoning him for his neglectful failure to provide a nourishing environment.
The creature is driven to the calm of the mountains because of the cruelty of mankind. The creature is hideous, and he is rashly judged by his outward appearance rather than his inner beauty. Everywhere he goes he is met with violence and irrational behaviour based on his appearance. It is unfair and unjust, and the reader completely relates to and feels for this rejected "person", “How dare you sport thus with life”.
Methods such as the setting and contextual references used by Mary Shelley from Percy Shelly and Paradise Lost enable the reader to be presented with a clear view of the relationship between Victor and the creature. The reversal of the good and bad side of them enables the reader to see that the extent of there hatred isn't as big as they might think, Mary Shelley portrays this well by scripting Victor without a weapon to kill the creature this would imply that there is some maternal instinct about him. The use of religious imagery and well as the extensive comparison of nature to each of them brings there relationship closer together. The use of the diabolical language and imagery is a method used extensively in this chapter to get across the Gothic nature of the the relationship (dark, cold and bloody) but also the light and dark side of both characters.