In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature that is created by Victor ends up murdering several innocent people, and is proclaimed a "monster". However, the real monster(s), would be the people that mistreated the creature causing him to eventually become a malicious being. This supports that, even though humanity might not be entirely evil, we are not exactly completely pure either.
The origin of man's mistreatment and first act of evil toward the creature is traced backed to the creature's first moments of life. Who was the culprit in the beginnings of the creature’s mistreatment? Why, it would be the monster’s own creator, Victor Frankenstein. Victor flat out abandons the poor creature as soon as it is sparked into life. Victor was,”Unable to compose the aspect of the being that he created” (Shelly, 43), and ran out of the room in a fit of horror and fear. The
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Creature’s own creator has a disdain for the creature in which during its creation he deemed “perfect”. This evil eventually brought Victor to his death, as after the creature practically kills all of Victor’s loved ones, Victor, “Awoken to revenge” (Shelly, 186), and began to hunt down the monster in the name of those he lost to him, though he died shortly after finishing his story to Walton. Even though Victor’s abandonment of the creature marked the origin of his detriment, the most heavily influencing moment on the creature’s short life span was his attempt at encountering people.
The small village he tried to approach treated him with much barbarity and fearfulness. The creature recalls: “The whole village was roused...some fled, some attacked” (Shelly, 93-94). This led to the creature becoming isolated into a hovel located next to the De Lacy’s cottage. On mention of the De Lacy’s, the “ever so kind and loving little family” that the creature stalked and learned from, are the people who in the end, are the one’s who turned the creature into a murderous being. After attempting to approach the elderly Mr. De Lacy when he is alone by himself, Felix, Agatha, and Salfie return, and Felix ends up beating the creature with his fists, and a stick. The creature”s heart, “Sunk within with a bitter sickness” as he was being beaten. This marked the phase of when the creature turned vengeful and murderous; knowing that no one wants to accept him and show him hospitality, but only cruelty and
abuse. While all the people the monster came into contact with treated him with cruelty and shunned him, there was one man who offered the slightest slice of kindness toward the monstrous being. It was old man De Lacy. Which is rather ironic since his son drove him away after brutally beating him down. But why did the De Lacy Sr. offer up kindness to the monster? It was simply because he was blind, and couldn’t see the creature’s hideous appearance and gruesome stature. De Lacy Sr. even tries to reassure the monster during their short lived conversation when he says: “To be friendless is indeed unfortunate; but the hearts of men… are full of brother love and charity” (Shelly, 121). Unfortunately this reassurance is killed, when Felix and the women return, and Felix beats down the creature. Though, humanity in itself is generally good for the most part (or attempts to be), there is no denying the utterly dark and malicious side we also contain within ourselves. Had the people who acted cruelly to the monster attempted to see past his figure, and try to understand his gentle, kind, and nature loving side, they would not have been as frightened. However, if most people were to see a seven-foot tall, undead looking, sentient being with dead yellow eyes, being scarred and running away would be a perfectly logical reaction.
The Creature, Victor Frankenstein’s creation, is shaped into a monster through its experiences, instead of the nature of itself, which is more expected. Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, is shaped into a monster because of his mind’s power-hungry nature. Victor treats his creature poorly and he himself becomes wicked. While the Creature also becomes wicked in the end, its actions are more justified because multiple people treated it poorly, causing the Creature to lash out. Even though Victor Frankenstein and the Creature both turn into wicked monsters, to some extent, only one of
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...
The creature displays his hatred toward Frankenstein for leaving him immediately and not providing guidance and protection in this harsh, new world by murdering his family and friends. While seeking his creator, the creature first murders Victor Frankenstein’s youngest brother William and exclaims, “I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him” (Shelley 144). The creature wishes for Victor Frankenstein to suffer taking his own companions away, forcing him to be miserable as well by destroying his personal relationships with others by murdering loved ones. Through the rejection of the creature because of his physical appearance, he learns what is accepted as well as how you can treat another being as he succumbs to his anger and proceeds with his crimes. The creature tells Frankenstein, “your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish your happiness forever.
The creature was created with the intention of goodness and purity but because of this, he wasn’t equipped to deal with the rejection of his creator. After Victor Frankenstein’s death, Robert Walton walks in to see the creature standing over his friend’s lifeless body.
While Frankenstein’s monster is presented as the villain of the novel, his savagery and viciousness only mirrors that hate and isolation he experiences because of the evil that is within every human alive. Before the creature even understands how he is different from the rest pf humanity (his creator and, for all intensive purposes-his God) abandons him because he is physically deformed and frightening to look at. For Victor Frankenstein to desert his own creation is an act of evil driven by a heart-stopping fear of his monster. Then, when the monster seeks refuge in a town of strangers, they all denounce him and either attack or run away from him. This cold reception to a being that needs help is not the response of individuals who are in their hearts kind and loving, this savagery is the result of selfish and cruel beings contorted by society into gentler animals. In addition, the viciousness of human nature is clearly evident when Felix beats the weeping monster off his father's knees even though the creature does nothing to harm him.The creature is clearly not a threat, he is defenseless at the feet of an old man, yet Felix still attacks. This instinctive reaction to reject the unknown reflects the violence that is inherent in all of humanity. Finally, when the monster saves a little girl from drowning in a river, her father does not embrace the creature for saving his flesh
The Creature was born capable of thing such as love and sympathy though he lost these capabilities as a result of how he was treated. The creature’s heart was ‘fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy’ but wrenched with misery to ‘vice and hatred’. On a cold night in November, Victor Frankenstein brought his creation to life. This creation has thin black lips, inhuman eyes, and
Victor’s cruel and hostile actions toward his creature demonstrate his monstrous characteristics. One example of Victor’s inhumane cruelty is when he decides to abandon his creature. When Victor realizes what he has created, he is appalled, and abandons his creature because he is “unable to endure the aspect of the being [he] had created” (42). This wretched action would be similar to a mother abandoning her own child. Victor’s ambition for renown only fuels his depravity; he brings new life into the world, only to abandon it. This act of abandonment accurately depicts Victor’s cruelty because it shows his disgust toward his own creation, as well as his lack of respect for life. An example of a hostile action is when Victor destroys the creature’s
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein displays how one can be judge by his appearance. In her story, Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who challenge nature and discovered the secret of life, created a hideous monster whom everyone fears. Frankenstein’s monster in the book is assumed to be dangerous and heartless because of his image. People misjudgments create a feeling of rejection in the monster which leads to violence in the plot.
In the novel, Frankenstein, a doctor named Victor Frankenstein created a monster. Victor’s monster was created using old human parts, chemicals, and a “spark.” Victor wanted to create this monster in order to benefit mankind, and for the purpose of playing God. Victor thought his creation would turn out great, but in all actuality, his monster ended up terribly wrong (Shelley, 145). The monster was a deformed man, standing eight feet tall, with yellow eyes, black hair, black lips, and skin that did not conceal his internal features (Shelley, 144-145). Even though the monster was very grown, he had the mind of a newborn child, and he was very kind and gentle (Shelley, 327). The monster’s appearance terrified Victor, and he immediately abandoned it. Dr. Victor Frankenstein also never named his creation because he disliked it that much. The monster was longing for love, and since no one loved him, he became very violent. He ended up killing Victor’s brother and best friend out of pure revenge (Shelley, 193). Anytime the monster tried to help people, he was bea...
Early in the novel, a scientist named Victor Frankenstein treats his creation worse than anyone. He does not give the monster a fair chance, before he knows anything about the monster he regrets creating artificial life. Victor sees his monster and is astounded by him at first, then, triggered by appearance and early observation, hates his creation and only sees evil. Frankenstein says, “I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness… he is generally melancholy and despairing” (Shelley 51). Frankenstein’s hate and lack of respect for his own creation represents the shallowness of society. When Victor uses words like “wildness” and “creature”, he connotes that he sees the monster as nothing more than an animal. Animals live in the wild and have wildness about them because they only know survival. Victor does not think the monster possesses any human like qualities otherwise he would not regret creating him. Fr...
The creature became very attached to his creator, Frankenstein, but when Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with him and ran afraid the creature vowed revenge. Also, the creature became very attached to the family in the cabin, who he learned from, but they too expected the worst of him based on looks. Frankenstein had the opportunity to make the situation better by attempting to accept him, because he genuinely was a good person, just not the society norm, but he blew it. Frankenstein’s absent “parenting” made the creature become what everyone feared he already was, a monster. After not taking responsibility, Frankenstein began his fate and started to lose everyone he cared about. Everything Frankenstein did, like denying the creature and not teaching him about the world, only made the creature angry with him. The one thing Frankenstein did take responsibility for was deciding not to create a second creature and therefore, risking his own life. Frankenstein only took the responsibility for his actions at the end of novel when he should have taken it at the beginning. The Book Thief clearly shows the responsibility in its characters, whereas, Frankenstein lacks it, but both grow attached to many others characters, whether out of love or
The doppleganger that is the monster takes on many forms in terms of what it represents. One of these is the fear of science and its role in relation to God. As scientific advancements were made in the field of medicine, questions arose as to whether or not man should try to perform acts that only God was previously capable of performing. This moral issue is initially ignored by Frankenstein, overshadowed by his zeal for accomplishing his impossible feat of reanimation. After he animates the creature and shuns it for its horrible appearance, it acts on its impulses for revenge. As the story progresses, Frankenstein realizes that he should have thought more carefully before acting, and the repercussions of his dark deed eventually lead him on a self-destructive quest to ultimately attempt to annihilate his own creation. By trying to ascend past his place in God’s universe, Frankenstein, in the end, destroys himself and all that he ever loved....
In conclusion, Victor Frankenstein is to blame for the actions of the creature, which was brought about by its rejection. Victor became obsessive in his work, but when his creation was complete he fully rejected it causing the creature to lead a life of solitude. The monster also attempts to seek acceptance from society and fails. The creature, also aware that it has been rejected by Victor, pursues a life of revenge killing those dear to him. Hence, if Victor would have never abandoned his creation the multiple deaths of the innocent could have been prevented.
Dr. Frankenstein himself, the creator this monster, disapproved and rejected it as soon as he gave it life. In the beginning of chapter 5, Frankenstein is just finishing his “creation”. After giving it life, the monster, rises with life, sending the Dr. fleeing for his life. After being terrified again while waking the next morning, Frankenstein flees the house and leaves his creation to fend for itself, hoping to forget about what he created. A reasonable amount of time passes, and throughout this time, the monster is terrorising the countryside. Endangering the public and even murdering a few civilians, but that will be expanded in the next passage. But the worst part is that Frankenstein, knowing what his creation can and is doing to people, will not take responsibility and care for the matter. But he pays for his ignorance and his carelessness when the monster turns on frankenstein’s