Sympathy For The Creature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Harshit Thacker

HON 272

Women’s duty vs. Men’s avidity

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein depicts a powerful concept of humans following their desires versus humans’ stoicism. The Creature in the novel is initially portrayed as an innocent being only to devolve into a monster reminiscent of his creator. This fact demonstrates that men in this story are voracious and controlled by emotion, while women showed restraint in emotion and carried out duties. Despite taking on a lesser role, women are the real backbone of the novel. Mary Shelley deliberately misplaces sympathy for the Creature in Frankenstein to advocate the recognition of women’s struggles through the portrayal of their stoicism; the deprivation of logic and reason within men as the Creature

As the creator of the Creature, Viktor is mostly responsible for creating the monstrosity, demonstrating that the offspring will follow the parent in acts of violence and self-absorbedness. He created the Frankenstein monster to discover the “secret of life” and to examine the cause of life. Sometimes, he asked himself whether “the principle of life proceed?” (Frankenstein, 33). Moreover, he thinks that “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature” (Frankenstein). He continued “Despite the intense labor and incredible discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied” (Frankenstein). This curiosity led him to create that ugly faced monster with different parts from distinct animals and indirectly killing Victor’s younger brother William, his best friend Henry and wife to be Elizabeth. He was sorrowful, mortified and felt remorseful for what he has done but he never admits that it was his creation who had murdered his family members. If he didn’t have the greediness to be a god and wouldn’t have created the monster at the first place, these problems would never have occurred, and he would be living an excellent life. Thus, the evidence above elaborates the fact that Victor Frankenstein was a selfish and

At the beginning of the novel, women were demoralized as men were given the leading roles and attention. Also, women were categorized into the lower social class as compared to men. They can either play the role of wife, daughter, mother or sister. Their primary task was to look after men. In this novel, Mary Shelley has explained about leading female characters who play the role of mother, sister, and wife to be of the main character Victor Frankenstein. For example, as per Volume 1 chapter1, Caroline Frankenstein, became “orphan” and a “beggar” after her father’s death. As she was weeping bitterly, she saw Alphonse Frankenstein, who was her father’s best friend. Alphonse became her protector, and after “two years” of this event, they married (Frankenstein, 19). Slowly, she played the role of Victor’s mother’s and Elizabeth’s mother-in-law. She was so kind and sympathetic towards Elizabeth when she found her in an orphanage and decides to adopt her into the Frankenstein family. This evidence deduces the fact that women in olden times used to be more caring and dependent. Without men, they would become the victims of poverty and would struggle for a basic standard of living. Along with struggle, women have died because of men’s self-absorbed nature. Elizabeth Lavenza only had the choice to marry her cousin Victor as per her mother’s last