All through his University years; Victor started to wish that he could be the first person in the world to create a human being. He started to fantasise about it, more and more. During chapters 9-10, Victor finally creates a human. His creation is ugly, despicable and looks like a monster. Victor runs away and leaves the creation to roam the streets, in need of food and water.
Although Victor had been planning his creation for month upon month he acted like it was the most horrific and disgusting thing that had happened in his entire life. He treats his creation as though it was as bad as the devil. At this stage Victor doesn’t even know his creation. Victor during this chapter uses words like ‘Begone Vile insect.’ There is so much hatred put into these three words, as you read it, you can feel it. As I read it aloud it comes out as if you’re shouting it and makes you feel angry. As Victor says it, he wishes that he could kill the monster in exchange for all those lives that the monster has killed before.
After the creature was abandoned the villagers seem disgusted by his appearance. People either ran away screaming from him or tried to kill him. In the text it describes this event by saying ‘the whole village was roused: Some fled, some attacked me.’
They react in this way because they are terrified with his appearance because of how tall he is, and with seeing the scars down his face, he seems to look abnormal to the other villagers. What originally catches their eye is when he tries to steal some food and he gets caught. At this moment, the villagers seem to be more monstrous, they run, they scream and they attack him. None of them know that he is a creation; they just take it he’s a monster from the way he looks. None of the people gave him a chance to speak or make peace; they just started to run at him in an offensive manner.
When the monster eventually escapes from the village he goes into the woods and finds a small cottage where he hides in the barn. From the barn he can see straight into the cottage and can hear everything and see everything that goes on. He enjoys listening into their house, as they seem to be kind and generous. He enjoys listening to this family so much because they appear cheerful and caring to one another. They are different from other humans because they were civilised and helped one another. Felix would help his sister in the mornings with her jobs and the old man read to his grand-children, teaching them the good and bad of the world. Eventually from this family he teaches himself the good meaning of life, and how to speak with meaning. From this family he would like to be a member, and to feel wanted. At the moment he feels like he is filled with bitterness and he understands that he looks deformed and odd.
The monster eventually gets up the courage to introduce himself to the old man (Mr Delacey). The old man is blind, so I think the monster thought that if he met the old man, the man would look below the skin and get to know the monster on who he is, not what he looks like. The old man is welcoming to him; he offers him food, warmth and overall friendship. He speaks in a kind manner at one stage he says ‘…there is something in your word which persuades me that you are sincere.’ In Mr Dalacey’s words, he really does come from the heart and it is the greatest and kindest way that anyone had spoke to him so far from his original creation.
At the end of this chapter, the monster is found with the old man, by Felix who is the old man’s child. Immediately he strikes out and attempts to kill the monster. He beats him with a stick till the monster eventually left. At this point, you begin to start feeling sorry for him, as he has no friends, family or even any dignity. As he leaves the house, you begin to wish that you were the old man, and wishing that someone would actually run after the monster and tell him you’ll help him, and be friends with him because in this chapter this is all I think he needs, is someone there for him.
After he was beaten he treks across the wood-land, until he meets a little boy who comes running up to him. The boy starts to make a fuss and reveals that his brother is Victor Frankenstein. He seeks revenge by killing the boy. At this stage in the novel you seem shocked, from what we thought was a change in character in the last scene, where he seemed so sweet and innocent, he has now just killed a boy in revenge for Victor. At this stage you can tell that his character is defiantly changing. You can hear this in his words, for example he says to the little boy ‘I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’ When we read the last chapter you would never have imagined the monster saying this to a little boy. The monster seeks revenge to Victor, as Victor left the monster on his own, with no friends in the world and no clue what-so-ever of how to speak or to seek any kind of help.
After the monster seeked revenge, he finally reunited himself with Victor. He tells Victor all about his troubles and his problems that he has faced since Victor abandoned him. But Victor turns around and tells him to go away and leave him alone, but the monster keeps speaking and asks Victor to create another human, for The monster’s wife. But Victor responds with; ‘Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself.’ To this comment, the monster becomes furious with him, and threatens to make his life hell until he does. I feel more sympathy for Victor as he has no other choice, the monster has already killed his son and he knows that the monster is willing to go further.
The monster does use threatening language in this scene though. At one stage he gets so angry he says; ‘Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you.’ This means that Victor may-be miserable now but the monster is willing to make it a lot worse.
The monster demands that Victor should make him a wife, because the monster has had enough of being a freak and being on his own, he wants someone to be there for him and someone who actually understands what he is going through. The monster decides that if Victor does this one thing, he will leave him in happiness forever. Victor refuses to do this as he doesn’t want to create something the same as the monster. As he would be constantly worried. At this stage I do still feel sorry for the monster, he is still all alone, no-one there for him to speak to.
The monster finally decides that if Victor won’t create a companion for him, then he wants to be killed. He is fed up of being alone, and all he wants is someone. But no-one will give him that someone. He is also annoyed on how he has turned out, for example him killing the innocent. My quote to this is when the monster says; ‘I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless;’ He understands what he has done and I still feel sorry for him.
At the end of the day, it is true, if someone looked like the monster in our country, people would treat him as an outsider. He would constantly be attacked. Underneath his skin he proved that he was a nice person, but he had a temper, which I believe was the cause of Victor leaving him. The monster was always seeking revenge and he finally got what he wanted.
Mary Shelley must have had a vivid imagination, as well as a scary one. This novel isn’t a horror story like people may think it is in-fact a deep down romance. It isn’t a love story, but how the monster describes the leaves on the trees and the flower beds, it definitely comes across in a romantic way.
