Use Of Language And Imagery In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley puts a lot of emotion and imagery in her writing. Even though the creature was supposed to appear to be a monster, she wrote the story so she could demonstrate that he was the victim in the story. She turned it around, and changed it from what you would usually predict from a story of a monster. Instead of persecuting the creature, she switched the story around to target Victor as the monster in the story.

The imagery from Victor’s stand makes it come off as scary or fearful. He was so consumed in this that he chose to work in such a horrible situation, showing that he’s one who prioritizes his work over anything else. “It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished

light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Shelley 44). Reading this, it makes the reader assume that the creature was something horrifying, or a disgrace. Victor took his sense of pride for the creature, and he flipped it around to make it fear towards the creature instead. Mary Shelley tries to explain the way that she feels about him by using the imagery of the creature reaching out for him from the bed as a way to imply that he allowed him to take over his life. The image stays strong, because it really shows that Victor keeps trying to push away the creature. It makes the reader feel like Victor’s in the wrong, because he doesn’t even try and give the creature a chance to understand it. He wouldn’t even listen to him, or try to understand him. He immediately labeled him as a failure. “I beheld the wretch-- the miserable monster whom I had created” (Shelley, 45). He doesn’t try and feel sympathy towards him at all.
Victor’s extremely stubborn, and this causes him to not even want to understand the creature. “The different accidents of life are not as changeable as the feelings of human nature” (Shelley, 44). He explains the creature as if he was an accident, it demonstrates that he doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened. He’s takes his denial, and he immediately switches it to resentment towards him. “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health” (Shelley 44). He takes his creation for granted, and the tone of the writing makes you think of him as arrogant. Victor makes it seem as if the creature was just a waste of time, and Shelley’s tone when she writes this makes Victor seem arrogant. It’s clear that she doesn’t like the creature’s attitude.
While Shelley puts Victor down, she also shows just why he was so upset about his creation.

She writes, “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great G-d!” (44). He intended for the creature to be a gorgeous creation, which is why he felt so prideful of his creation before it woke up. She made it clear she didn’t feel sympathetic towards his behavior, although she also could understand why he would feel that way when he saw the creation. The ways that Victor describes the way the creature was supposed to look makes the reader feel surprised, because of the sudden change in attitude that Shelley had written.

The creature is the pitiful one in the situation, and it makes the story so unique. Her tone and imagery of the situation makes everything darker from Victor’s point of view, but it also makes it upsetting because of how little effort he puts into understanding the creature. Constantly, Victor’s mind seems to sink to the absolute worst, while thinking the opposite of himself. Victor’s far too cocky in the situations than he needs to be, and Mary Shelley makes it so the reader thinks he deserves what end up happening to

him.