Rejection In Frankenstein By Mary Shelly

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster recounts his devastation upon reading Frankenstein’s journal pages that he wrote the night of the monster’s creation.

‘“I sickened as I read. ‘Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. ‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? 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, but I am solitary and abandoned (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 110-111).’”

The monster is so hurt by what Victor wrote about him, that it wounds him deeply, in a way that only his creator can inflict. In this passage, Mary Shelley so articulately illuminates the theme of rejection. In this moment of vulnerability, the monster describes to Frankenstein that his desire to be loved is so strong that he must either be loved or he will inflict rage. Through the monster, Shelley explicates the theme of rejection and the truth that someone can only be rejected so many times before they begin to act out.

Shelley shows the reader just how

much the monster has been rejected by man and makes us feel sympathy for him. ‘“I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 114).’” His pain is seen later when he is attacked and beaten by the people that hold his affection.
“Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung; in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained. I saw him on the point of repeating his blow, when, overcome by pain and anguish, I quitted the cottage, and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 115).”
Even when beaten and attacked by those he loves, he still refrains from retaliation because of his affection for them, brought about by his desire and need to love and be loved. At this point Shelley begins to slowly reveal to the reader the monster’s ever increasing frustration of being rejected. After revealing to Victor his motives behind killing William, he asks Frankenstein to create a female companion for him to love. When Frankenstein refuses, the monster attempts to reason with him by explaining why he needs a companion.
“‘I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 124)?’”
Here, the monster clearly says that the reason he is so malevolent is because he is rejected by mankind and has no one. After a series of events, involving Frankenstein backing out on his promise to create a wife for the monster, the monster begs him to change his mind.
“‘Shall each man,’ cried he, ‘find a wife for his bosom, and each have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 146)?’”
This final act of betrayal causes the monster to enact his horrific agenda of violent vengeance.

After this passage, we lose all sympathy for the now murderous monster. Shelley uses this passage to mark a turning point of the monster’s personality from being eager for companionship to being a revenge driven monster. She does this to once again express to us that everyone has their limit of how much pain they can endure before their emotions get the best of them. For the rest of the story, it is a vengeance-driven struggle between the monster and Frankenstein. After Frankenstein finally comes to peace with the events of his life, he dies. It is only after he dies that the monster comes to apologize to him. The monster, in his confession of wretchedness, tells Captain Walton of his

regret.
“‘I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine (Shelley, Miller, and Bloom 196).’”
In this honest evaluation of his behavior, Shelley articulates through the monster that even though people treated him badly, it is still him that inflicted pain upon someone else. The monster’s actions are not justifiable because of the constant rejection he received, because only he could have chosen to murder the loved ones of Frankenstein.
Throughout the novel, we see the monster be cruelly rejected continuously. It was only a matter of time before he would outwardly express his pain through inflicting pain on others. Shelley uses the monster to express to the reader that rejection can change a person for the worse. This is especially true for the monster because the only thing he desires and lives for is the hope that someone will finally love him regardless of his physical appearance.