The words that Victor uses to refer to the creature are significant factors in the role of depicting the creature as monstrous. As Victor brought the being to life, he realised that it was not the perfect being, but a deformed, ugly creature. He described it as ‘a catastrophe’ and a ‘wretch’. He then rushed out of the room and escaped to his bedroom where he tried to ‘seek a few moments of forgetfulness’ by sleeping. The nature of these descriptive words suggest: that the creature is some kind of monster; one that should be feared.
Soon after that set of events, the monster arrived at the bed; posing no threat whatsoever, yet Victor shouted and fled to the courtyard. Immediately, the impression we get of Victor is a careless, cruel and selfish man. He judged the helpless creature merely by his appearance. The reader at this point would feel pity for the creature and possibly anger towards Victor due to his cruel actions.
The careless and selfish actions of Victor at this point strongly link to previous parts of the story, where Victor isolated himself in Ingolstadt where he worked day and night, showing no care or though for his friends and family. The line: ‘With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me...’ and ‘...it was already one in the morning’ show Victor’s determination to create this being. Though his love for Elizabeth did exist, he was quick to leave her so he could get on with his work on creating life. For ‘two years he worked on the creature’, however, he was very quick to abandon the outcome of his toils. These actions strongly suggest that Victor is an irresponsible man and refuses to acknowledge his actions.
The creature itself is portrayed as monstrous, through Victor’s descriptions of his appearance. Descriptions such as: ‘miserable monster’ and ‘demonical corpse’ are used. These descriptions portray the creature as some kind of ugly, deformed and evil character. The word ‘demonical’ suggests that he is evil and out to get Victor; however this is far from true.
The creature’s appearance was not his own choice, though Victor still cruelly shunned him away due to it. The creature did not pose a threat; furthermore he was confused and helpless. This line suggests that the creature was fairly friendly, rather than demonical: ‘...while a grin wrinkled his cheeks’.
The creature was very similar to a new born baby, with no experience in life and no knowledge of how to communicate and act: ‘His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds’. Despite the creature’s lack of knowledge and experience, Victor somehow manages to treat the creature in an appalling manner. These set of events portray Victor as somebody who is very cruel and selfish, furthermore, it makes the reader sympathise for the creature.
The idea of bringing someone into the world by stitching together pieces of dead bodies and passing electricity through the corpse raises the question of immoralities; moreover the way Victor brought life into the world and then abandoned it is a terrible lot worse. In this story, Victor Frankenstein acted similarly to the Ancient Greek character ‘Prometheus’, as he played God. He felt that he had the right to create new life. He then realised how wrong it was, however by that time it was too late. In the 19th century, most people in England were very religious, so the way Victor plays God in the story would have been widely frowned upon. It was extremely uncommon for people to see boundaries and morals being questioned and stretched in this way.
The creature that Victor created was far from a monster, it was but a helpless, needy being that he had abandoned, and it was not very different from abandoning a new born baby. Society cruelly rejected him due to his appearance, which goes to show how narrow minded society can be. This could have been part of the message that Mary Shelley wished to send out. The true monstrous figure in the story is Victor. This is all down to his cruel nature and the disgust he shows towards the creature he spent two years trying to bring to life. Victor even goes as far as describing the creature as a ‘half-distinguished light’, meaning he felt the creature was merely ‘half of a human being’.
The author, Mary Shelley, in my opinion was trying to send out the messages: it is wrong to play God and that society can sometimes be very judgemental. The reasons are that Mary Shelley depicts the creature as helpless, confused and needy, so that the reader will sympathize towards him, whereas she depicts Victor as a cruel and selfish person, which supports the point of playing God being wrong. The reason I believe Mary Shelley tried to send out the message of society often being judgemental is so that people will realise that appearances are not everything, and that they can learn to avoid judging people by this before getting to know their past and present situation.
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