The structure of the novel also creates sympathy for the monster. There is an anti-climax in Frankenstein because in the beginning the monster is very isolated from everyone. He then asks Victor to create a female companion and Victor agrees. Unfortunately, Victor changes his mind and the monster is distraught because his spirit was raised but then crushed. This creates sympathy for him. The monster asks afterwards, “why did I live?” This shows that all hope for the monster has gone and he will have to live life with no meaning or purpose. This is demoralising for the monster and touches the reader’s heart.
Shelley uses imagery, which portrays alienation. Victor says “I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred”. This symbolises that the monster is always on the outside looking in. We sympathise for the monster because he isn’t involved with anything or anyone; he is always alone and isolated. This image is also portrayed when the monster is looking in from the outside at the Delacy family, trying to see how they act and live their lives.
The monster’s limited language means he doesn’t understand his own emotions so he is isolated from himself.
The monster says,
“No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness, innumerable sounds rang in my ears.”
I chose this quotation because is shows exactly what the monster’s life is like. The monster’s lack of knowledge and nurture means that he can only list words that he believes describe his feelings. Also, the structure of this quotation reflects the monster’s confusion at this point. Shelley has created sympathy for the monster because he is isolated from the world and community.
This quotation has significant language because Shelley lists the monster’s emotions. This comes across very powerfully and because the monster lists a memorable group of three nouns, they seem more effective. Also, because Shelley describes the monster’s sensations passionately we feel involved so therefore empathise with the monster. For example, the monster describes confusion so successfully that the reader can imagine ‘innumerable sounds’ ringing in their ears.
Secondly, Mary Shelley creates sympathy by adding a subplot of the Delacy family to Frankenstein. The monster finds the Delacy family when he has been rejected by Frankenstein and is roaming the countryside alone. The monster watches their way of life and tries to understand more about life and the correct way to live.
The structure of the novel makes the reader believe that the monster is evil so he is hated from the beginning, but when the monster’s side of the story is told, the reader begins to hate Victor and see that he is self obsessed. This creates compassion and sympathy for the monster because no one loved him. The structure of the novel is also full of contrasts between characters and plots. For example, all the Delacy family are together and they get on well with one another; this is a huge contrast to what happened with Victor and the monster. Also, because of the story within stories our feelings change as we look back at how the monster has been treated. This creates sympathy for the monster because he now understands and knows that he should have been treated very differently. The monster was deprived of a normal childhood so has never been able to involve himself with anything or anyone. Shelley uses imagery to portray these themes because the monster frequently talks about how the “moon had disappeared”. The moon represents solitude and in Frankenstein it is often linked to the monster. Then, even the moon leaves him. This shows the monster’s complete isolation.
The plot also shows the reader that the monster is an outcast of society. When he sees the Delacys get on well and live life normally he envies them. “They possessed a delightful house and every luxury,” said the monster after he had been studying the Delacy’s lifestyle. The monster then says, “I withdrew from the window, unable to bare these emotions.” Again this shows that the monster isn’t involved but is looking in from the outside and observing. However, this time the quotation shows that the monster has realised that his creator had abandoned him and he is upset that Frankenstein couldn’t love him and care for him.
The structure of the novel creates sympathy for the monster because in the beginning he is left alone and doesn’t understand anything because of his lack of nurture. Then, when he sees the Delacys he starts to learn languages and skills from watching and listening to them. He says, “I learned and applied words.” So therefore, the monster thinks he should be able to live a normal human life when he isn’t a human. As a result of this he gets wounded by Felix but cannot understand why until he sees his reflection, then he says, “Increase in knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was.” The reader is made to sympathise for him because now the monster realises that he is an outcast in the world and will always be because of his nature and appearance. Even though he tries hard to change this, he cannot.
Both the monster and Safie lack the knowledge of language but unlike Safie, the monster gets no help. This is not normal which proves that the monster is inhuman. This is upsetting because is causes the monster to get depressed and it makes the monster feel isolated.
In the Delacy family, there are themes of family and social responsibility. All the family have strong relationships with each other and this contrasts with Victor and his relationship with the monster. The monster realises this and desperately “longed to join them.” This creates sympathy because now he understands that humans are meant to be brought up by a loving family, but the monster has been deprived of relatives.
Safie is a new character introduced into the novel and she is very similar to the monster because she is alone with no family and doesn’t understand the language. However, Safie is ‘beautiful’ and is therefore accepted by everyone. The monster isn’t accepted because of his outward appearance and everyone is prejudiced so will not give him a second chance. This creates sympathy because everyone has accepted the ‘angelic’ Safie but rejected the ‘wretched’ monster.
Lastly, the monster puts all his hope and trust in the Delacy family to try and learn the basic skills of life. However, when they depart it thwarts the monster’s plans.
A main theme in Frankenstein is prejudice and it is very prominent throughout the book. Prejudice means to pre judge someone and unfortunately the monster is always pre judged negatively. The monster realises this himself and says to the audience, “they are always prejudiced against me.” This shows me that he understands that he is not accepted into society but doesn’t necessarily know why. Victor, who created the monster, says,
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe… I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! - Great God!…His yellow skin…his hair a lustrous black…dun white sockets…shriveled complexion and straight black lips…the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”
The language in this quotation is very emotive. Frankenstein says that his creation is a ‘catastrophe’. This is very strong emotional word and it tells the reader how angry and ashamed Victor is of the monster. He goes on to say that his amazing dream has been crushed because he is appalled with the monster’s looks.
Frankenstein also uses alliteration when he says, ‘great God’. He is also blaspheming which was seen as an awful sin at that time. This links in with Frankenstein playing God by creating a human. ‘God’ is a monosyllabic word so it grasps the reader’s attention. The punctuation also does this because exclamation marks are placed after short phrases.
Frankenstein planned for the monster’s features to be ‘beautiful’. This conveys a vivid picture but then contrasts with Victor sarcastically repeating beautiful. This creates sympathy for the monster because Frankenstein implies that the monster is a hideous joke. This aids the reader to empathise with him.
This quotation also shows that Victor is prejudiced towards his own creation, he only has to look at ‘it’ to know that the monster has to be a ‘daemon’. This is very sad and creates sympathy because the one person who should accept the monster rejected him because of his appearance. This leads to the monster roaming the countryside alone and becoming isolated. This, in turn, could cause the monster to be prejudiced towards mankind because of the way Victor treated him.
Mary Shelley sets up an interesting structure in the novel because in the beginning Shelley makes the reader feel sympathy for Victor. He makes the audience listen to him alone. For example, when Justine was accused for the murder of William, Victor thinks he is the worst off and says, “the tortures of the accused did not equal mine.” Victor also wins the reader onto his side, creating hatred for the monster without getting to know him; this means that we have pre judged the monster as an ogre. We then realise the truth when we hear the monster’s story. We feel sympathy and sorrow towards the monster because the monster has been deprived of his life because of prejudice from the first impression. It is also more effective because we were prejudiced towards the monster so we feel guilty.
Shelley uses satanic imagery to describe the monster as an evil character that should be feared. In chapter fifteen, the monster says: “Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition”. The character and appearance of the monster creates sympathy for him. Victor describes the monster as,
“A figure most hideous and abhorred”
The monster is so ugly that man has never seen such a horrible sight before and runs away for it. The monster is disliked because “Everyone is blinded by prejudice.” This quotation was said by Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen and published in 1813, shortly before Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and she probably read it. However, this quotation portrays the truth and therefore the monster will never be accepted into society. This creates sympathy because it is unjust and the monster has no hope in his life.
The language in Frankenstein is always negative when talking about the monster. He has heard himself being called an ‘ogre’, ‘wretch’, ‘daemon’, ‘creature’ and ‘beast’. The monster has grown up and learnt that he is an inhuman creature. He also began to use these words to describe himself. The monster never understood what they meant so when he found out he was shocked and very upset, this makes us pity him and sympathise for him. When the monster finds out what he looks like he says, “my heart beat quick…when I proceeded to execute my pain, my limbs failed me, and I sank to the ground.” The monster has described his feelings so well and because you hear his emotions from his point of view, more sympathy is created.
Socially, the monster is not accepted because everyone is prejudiced against him. When the monster was talking to the blind man, Felix came in and saw the monster. He jumped to conclusions and thought the monster was evil. Later, the monster was being socially responsible and saw a young girl in trouble. He saved her life and had her in his arms. As soon as the father saw the monster he fired a gun at him hoping to kill the monster. This is emotionally upsetting because the monster likes them but the community cannot accept him just because of his looks.
The monster says,
“The feeling of kindness and gentleness, which I had entertained but a few moments before, gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind. But the agony of my wound overcame me…I fainted.”
This quotation shows the monster’s personality because he is very open minded until something bad happens to him. The monster liked mankind and honoured them until they let him down by trying to harm him. This creates sympathy because the monster has tried so hard to be accepted but it goes the other way and he is even more rejected.
Shelley uses very distinctive language in this quotation. This monster refers to ‘hellish rage’ and ‘gnashing of teeth’. This is moving and frightening because it shows that he is so angry that he has to describe his emotions using evil places and actions.
The monster says that he vows to always hate mankind. The use of ‘hatred’ states that he will never forgive them and dislikes them to the extreme.
Lastly, the lack of the monster’s childhood creates sympathy because it has caused him misery. The monster has had to learn how to survive all alone because no one took responsibility of him. Victor never gave the monster a childhood but abandoned him from birth so therefore shows no family responsibility, for example the lack of a name. Victor also lacks in moral responsibility because he wanted to kill a living being that he had created. This is morally wrong but Victor persists in telling the monster that he is unwanted and shouldn’t be alive. We sympathise for the monster because of Victor’s actions.
At birth the monsters “jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, but I escaped.” I chose this quotation because it touchingly describes in detail how the monster behaved, like a newborn baby so it seems all the more unkind that Victor abandoned the monster.
When the audience reads the novel, they can imagine a baby crying and babbling just after its birth. This is exactly what the monster did when he was born but Victor ignored him. Also, babies reach out to their parents and the people they love. In Frankenstein, the monster reaches out to Victor as if Victor is his father. The monster is showing that he trusts and loves Victor but when Victor escapes we empathise with the monster.
The monster had the lack of both nature and nurture because he had no biological family and Victor left him at birth. The monster is unnatural and abnormal so he has to develop basic instincts without help so he has to use ‘trial and error’ to survive. This is upsetting because although the monster wasn’t brought up at all he is still naturally friendly.
The monster cannot be nurtured by another monster because he is the only monster so he has to learn from humans. He is desperate to understand life. The monster says, “you formed a monster so hideous that even you turned…in disgust.” This shows that the monster understands that he has been unfairly treated and is so angry with his creator for giving him life when his creator knew that he would be deprived of knowledge, love and companionship. The monster asks Victor to “perform thy part which thou owest” but when Victor fails to keep his promise we sympathise for the monster even more.
Shelley inspires sympathy for the monster because he is alienated and unwelcome. She makes the reader feel emotionally charged and involved with the monster’s feelings by the depth of his expression of rejection. Shelley also uses the theme of prejudice against the monster. This is very powerful because it brings out the reader’s own feelings on prejudice and helps the reader to identify with the monster. Shelley creates an unpleasant background for the monster because she deprives him of childhood and family support. This creates sympathy for the monster because the reader’s own childhood experiences help empathise with him.
I think that most sympathy is inspired when the monster starts to hate himself and realise that he will never be accepted: “a wretched outcast I was.”