In this essay I am going to answer ‘how and why does Mary Shelley make the reader sympathise with the character of the monster in her novel Frankenstein’. Many readers have sympathised with Frankenstein’s creation, the unnamed monster, because he is badly treated by most people who he comes across. Victor created the monster with dead body parts that he got though grave robbing once he got all of the parts it took him 2 years to build a body. Victor is very obsessed with his work because he would not let any one help him or see him his fiancée is very worried he might be doing something he would regret. When victor brings the monster to life he soon realises that he has made a big mistake because he says ‘What have I done?’ this tells us that Victor has pride in his work at first but then it quickly turns to disbelief then he becomes terrified he leaves the monster and goes to his home in Geneva. The monster soon realises that he has been abandoned (I think that Mary has put in her novel him getting abandoned because her father abandoned her because he didn’t like the person who she was going to get married to) so he sets of to see what the world has to offer. As the monster comes across a village that has just been outrun with a deadly disease called colleria so when the villages see him they think that he brought it in and they beat. He turns to find Victor and make him pay for bring him back ugly. The monster finds a place to hide from all the people and he helps out a family by helping them with their farm work and he learns to read and write. In the family there is a blind man the monster is very protective over the blind man and the man come for the tax on the house where they live and he beats the blind man up but then the monster beats up the tax man and the little girl with the blind man screams and the mum and dad hears meanwhile the blind man and the monster
Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, is the victim of his own pride. An ego unchecked is a dangerous thing. But in truth, it really just shows Victor’s humanity. He is privileged, educated, talented, loved, adored, but he is not perfect. His flaw is his own ego and pride. Without doubt, this is the result of a childhood where he was overindulged. Overindulged to the extent he was given a little girl “Elizabeth” as a “present”, whom he considered from childhood “mine only” (Shelley 21). Little wonder the twenty year old Victor would think he could create, control and command life. But Victor as with any indulged child did not take the time to learn much from his parents about parenting and fath...
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
In the first half of the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is the narrator telling his story. Victor tells how he spends night and day for nearly two years working nonstop on his creation. After all his effort and constant dedication, he is only found disappointed in his creation once finished (Britton 5). “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?” says Victor (Shelley 55). All of Victor’s hard work was of waste. He has abandoned his health, family, and social life working on creating this monster to only be left shameful (Prince 2). Victor states “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I have finished, the beauty of that dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 42). He is so disgusted with his work, that he does not even want his best friend Henry Clerval to know about his creation that went wrong. He shrieks at the thought of Henry even finding the least bit about this disaster (Shelley 58). Upon entering Victor’s apartment, Victor makes Henry wait downstairs while Victor searches his apartment to make sure the wretch he ...
Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein In her novel, 'Frankenstein', Mary Shelley employs many innovative literary techniques to invoke feelings of sympathy for the monster. Sympathy is created by the author both by making the readers pity the monster’s loathsome existence and by leading them to understand his violent and cruel actions. We pity the creature because of the way he is treated by mankind and we can identify with his feelings and reactions and understand why he behaves as he does. Shelley uses different narrators throughout the novel and the reader sympathises with the views of these people to differing degrees.
Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Frankenstein for many people is a huge fiendish monster, a brainless oaf with a couple of neck bolts, who is a horrible murderer. This image has been created by Boris Karloff and other television/film images. I also thought like that, believing Frankenstein to be a monstrous murderer, so when I was met with the text I was surprised to find as a mad scientist who creates a monster. This changed my opinion greatly at first. As the central characters were the narrators, they were obviously going to be bias in their description of the novel.
After Frankenstein discovered the source of human life, he became wholly absorbed in his experimental creation of a human being. Victor's unlimited ambition, his desire to succeed in his efforts to create life, led him to find devastation and misery. "...now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished..." (Shelley 51). Victor's ambition blinded him to see the real dangers of his project. This is because ambition is like a madness, which blinds one self to see the dangers of his actions. The monster after realizing what a horror he was demanded that victor create him a partner. "I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was like torture..." (Shelley 169). Victor's raw ambition, his search for glory, has left him. His eyes have been opened to see his horrible actions, and what have and could become of his creations. As a result, Victor has realized that he is creating a monster, which could lead to the downfall of mankind. His choice is simple, save his own life or save man.
We are introduced to Victor who is found by Robert Walton, now when Victor begins to retell his tragic story he gives us a general view of who he is, where he was born, and what has happened in his life. We then progress through the story and arrive at the rising action which is when Victor returns back to school after his mother’s death and sisters recovery of scarlet fever. Victor sets out to create a living thing upon his return and this is when it all goes down hill, he successfully creates the monster but he is horrified at the site of the creature he then runs like fearful gazelle leaving the creature/monster to wander (very smart Victor). Skipping ahead the monsters causes quite a bit of trouble and strangles a lot of people, and this is all caused by him not being provided with a connection with anyone. Now before he really starts his strangulation spree he spies on a family (the Delacy’s) that teaches him unknowingly how to speak, read, and of general human connection and relationships. This moment of distant watching and learning has left him wanting things even more, he then reveals himself the Father who is blind and he is kind to the monster when the children arrive they terrified and reject the monster. Throughout the tale of the monster is reminded of his indifference by others resulting in him
...most readers tend to sympathize with Frankenstein because of the way in which he is mentally and physically harmed by his creation. However, one must also realize that while Frankenstein is a victim in the novel, he also exhibits features that make him a monster. These monstrous qualities, however, stem from his passion for science and his desire to create life. Not only does the reader criticize and pity Frankenstein, but the reader also empathizes with Frankenstein’s creation. He was unjustly shunned by society because of his physical appearance. On the other hand, the reader realizes that like Frankenstein, the creation can not be sympathized with entirely. He too exhibits traits that make him appear villainous. It is the duality of these two characters that make Frankenstein and his creation two of the most appealing characters of the nineteenth century.
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.
Sympathy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley was born in 1797. She had a difficult life with many family upsets’, miscarriages and suffered personal depression; she died aged 53. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein firstly as a short ghost story but it was published as a novel in 1816. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel and it deals with two genres, Gothicism and science fiction.
The creator of the monster, Victor Frankenstein is a man full of knowledge and has a strong passion for science. He pushes the boundary of science and creates a monster. Knowledge can be a threat when used for evil purposes. Though Victor did not intend for the being to be evil, society’s judgement on the monster greatly affects him. As a result he develops hatred for his creator as well as all man-kind. Victor’s anguish for the loss of his family facilitates his plan for revenge to the monster whom is the murderer. While traveling on Robert Walton’s ship he and Victor continue their pursuit of the monster. As Victor’s death nears he says, “…or must I die, and he yet live? If I do, swear to me Walton, that he shall not escape, that you will seek him and satisfy my vengeance in his death…Yet, when I am dead if he should appear, if the ministers of vengeance should conduct him to you, swear that he shall not live-swear that he shall not triumph over my accumulated woes and survive to add to the list of his dark crimes” (pg.199). Victor grieves the death of William, Justine, Clerval, Elizabeth and his father. Throughout the novel he experiences the five stages of grief, denial/ isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Victor denies ...
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...
It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil. This impact of the change of narration gives us a better understanding of each person, and we see that the monster is not such a monster at all.
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein secretly creates a monster without considering the consequences. After the creation of the monster and throughout Victor’s life he and the monster suffer constantly. Because Victor keeps his monster a secret from his family, friends and society, he is alone and miserable. The monster is also alone and miserable because he is shunned by society due to his grotesque appearance.
Victor’s work on the monster was something he was so fully invested in that he isolated himself in his home in Ingolstadt. Victor’s work is not separated from himself as he is so immersed in it, he and his act of production are deeply connected so that he becomes alienated from others rather than from himself. This alienation opposes Marx’s idea of alienation of the worker from his production. He takes so much pleasure in it that he does not realize the “horror of his proceedings.” Victor did not truly understand what he was doing until after it was done and he sees his product come to life. When he is confronted with his completed, living product he becomes estranged from the product and disgusted by what he has done. This is the first kind of estrangement Frankenstein encounters, where he...