In the following paragraphs I am going to talk about what events change the creature from being lonely to angry and murderous.
One day the monster was wandering about in the cold and found a fire left by some beggars. He experiments with the fire.
“I was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain.”
The monster learns how pain feels after putting his hand by the fire. We can tell this by him drawing his hand out of the fire. He is learning by experience and when he reacts he expresses his emotions. This shows that he is naive because he was delighted by the warmth of fire. This also shows us that he is not murderous and is a human.
After the day fades away and the night appears the moon rose up and suddenly he hears a pleasant sound coming from the birds and wants to copy the beautiful sounds.
“I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.”
This shows that this creature wants to make the same sound because he thinks it’s wonderful. But when he imitates the bird sound, he realises he is frightening. The word “imitate” means shows that the creature is slowly learning. He tries to express his sensations in his own mode but he is frightened from his “uncouth” and “inarticulate” voice. A murderous wouldn’t be imitating bird sounds, which means that he isn’t a murderer. This shows that he is a calm character because he tries to imitate the pleasant songs.
Then the night has gone by rapidly and the sun rose up and it was morning. The monster wakes up with a yawn. He went to find some food and shelter and suddenly he bumps into a small hut. The monster enters the shepherds hut when entered the shepherd sees the monster and shrieks loudly and exits the hut with speed. The monster is frightening to the man because of his appearance. We can tell this by him screaming and running out of the hut. When he enters the hut he finds that the snow and rain can’t penetrate through the hut.
“He turned on hearing a noise, and perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and quitting the hut. His appearance, different from any I had ever before seen.”
This shows that the creature realises that he is frightening when perceived by the Shepherd but when the monster sees an old man in the hut with the door open he enters without permission. He thinks that he is welcome but doesn’t realise that. The monster is still sad and lonely because doesn’t react when the shepherd screams and runs out of the hut. We can tell that the monster is still confused because he doesn’t react in anyway towards the shepherd. The creature is beginning to learn about his appearance because of other people reactions towards him.
It was the afternoon when the monster was resting in the sun. He then travelled for several hours and arrived at a village at sunset. The monster feels happy when he enters the village. At this point he doesn’t realise that he isn’t welcome to the village. The creature starts to learn more about how people treat him compared to the rest and how he reacts to him because of his appearance.
“How miraculous did this appear! The huts, the neater cottages, and stately house engaged my admiration by turns. One of the best of these I entered, but I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one of the woman fainted. The whole village was roused.”
The monster feels happy when he sees the village because he sees all the organic vegetables planted in the ground and sees a window with milk and cheese. When the people see the monster they react in such a way that some of them attacked him and others escaped from the village. This shows the creature is learning more about himself because of the villager’s reaction towards him. Also attacking him and bruising him by stones because of his horrid appearance. The monster realises that his ugliness and awful appearance is the reason why he is being attacked shown by the events from the village. The monster doesn’t realise that no one likes him. At this point the monster isn’t angry and murderous because he doesn’t attack the people in the village.
Later that day the monster meets an old man and starts to have a conversation. The monster begs the old man to protect him from the people around him.
“Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his ground and struck me violently with a stick.”
When Felix sees the monster speaking to his father he hits him with a stick but the monster didn’t respond to his action and instead ran away. At this point the monster is still calm but very confused. He doesn’t realise what he has done wrong. This shows that he is not murderous because he doesn’t attack Felix.
One day the monster finds a book and tries to understand what is printed on these pages because he learned to read when observing the family and their teachings.
“They produced in me infinity of new images and feelings that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection.”
This shows that the creature is learning to read and slowly understands the books he read. The creature can create new images and feelings. The word “dejection” show’s the creature has emotions and he is expressing them in different ways; good and bad. Sometimes they made him happy but mostly depressed. This shows that he is sad because he feels depressed when he reads the book.
Soon after his arrival in the hovel he discovers some papers in the pocket of the dress which he took from the laboratory. He discovers how he was created after he learned to read from the papers from the laboratory.
“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”
This creature learns about himself and what his creator thinks of him because of what he reads from the paper from the laboratory. He realises that the creator of man made them beautiful but he was made ugly like the comparison of Satan. This shows he is lonely like Satan and his companions. The creature is hurt and shows mild signs of anger.
He didn’t retaliate to the people in the cottage which shows he is not murderous.
“I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.”
He could have destroyed the cottage and attacked the people but chose not to. However he is now thinking that he could have attacked them and destroyed the cottage which shows that he is now murderous but before he was lonely.
The creature wasn’t born evil. It knows nothing about the world and the creatures mind is like a baby but only learns to be good or bad from its experiences. Therefore, it is not born good or bad, but learns the bad behaviour we see in the novel from those around him. Due to Frankenstein’s misguided actions the creature was made evil. My feelings about the creature was that it wasn’t his fault from him turning evil it was the people around him. It should be blamed all on Victor for creating this creature because it was against the law for him to attempt experiments from bringing the dead back to life. There are reasons for laws. He did not guide the creature onto the right path. Victor was not right to create the creature because it is god’s job. Mary Shelley was trying to show what would happen if you went into the unknown and went too far with technology.