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He laboriously studied the family; he learned about their relations to one another, he felt their moods and he practiced their language. He had hoped to be accepted as a member of the family and developed a plan for revealing himself. He decided to first approach the elderly, blind father; the creature hoped to gain the father's friendship and to be introduced to the rest of his family. On finding the father alone one day, the creature approached the cottage and spoke with the father. The father unable to see the creature showed kindness towards him. Unfortunately, the children returned within minutes and upon seeing the creature thought their father was in danger. The few moments of acceptance were quickly turned to rejection. The family immediately vacated the cottage, never to return.
The creature was convinced acceptance by others was never to be; that he would always be perceived as a danger and would never experience companionship or love. This realization turned into anger towards Frankenstein, his creator who took no responsibility in caring for the creature and was the first to reject him. The creature's need for fellowship turned into thoughts of evil, wishing to fill his creator's life with the same kind of loneliness and despair he experienced. He gave up on receiving any recognition or acceptance from society and turned his energies to causing pain and suffering to Frankenstein.
One often asks if an evil person exist because of nature or because of...
In the case of the creature the evil results from the lack of nurturing. Frankenstein and all others the creature encounter assumed him to be dangerous. The truth was that Frankenstein was the one to be feared. Frankenstein built the creature to fulfill his need for accomplishment and recognition. Frankenstein's own rejection of the creature began to planet the seed of worthlessness in the creature's heart. The continuous rejection and isolation turned the creature's immature heart into a black heart -- hating the world for hating and fearing him.
One must consider this tale as a morality play. The hatred and unkindness express by the many to the few results in terrible consequences. Did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill themselves and others because of the pain inflicted through the constant teasing they received? Was the extreme anxiety Seung-Hui Cho suffered caused by rejection? Did the lack of social acceptance and the resulting self- hatred become his motivation for committing mass murder at Virginia Tech?
In the end, the creature feared himself. He feared his response to rejection had overtaken him. The end of the revenge he sought could be relieved only by the suffering and death of Frankenstein; just as Frankenstein believed he could only relieve his suffering through the dead of the creature. Both Frankenstein and the creature learned that evil not only hurts its' victims but also consumes the one that impose misery and death onto others.
Frankenstein "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires," (Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 24) Frankenstein's monster remains one of the most misunderstood characters
Her list includes the following: culture / Nature reason / Nature male/female mind/body ( Nature) master/slave reason/matter (physicality) rationality/animality ( Nature) human / Nature (non-human) civilised/primitive ( Nature) production/reproduction ( Nature) self/other At first glance, this list seems to capture the basic groupings and gender associations that are at work in Mary Shelley's novel. The Creature exemplifies animality, primitiveness, and physicality, whereas Victor represents the forces of civilization, rational production, and culture. Victor is part of a happy family
Frankenstein & Romanticism How Romanticism is Demonstrated in Frankenstein In less than six years, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein will be 200 years old. This novel, indicative of the romantic period, is a compelling narrative with numerous themes and vivid imagery to consider. In the context of romanticism, Frankenstein is a worthwhile piece of literature to examine. Literature and art of the romantic period is characterized with an emphasis on intense emotional reactions, specifically
What Victor is saying is that in order to create a living being from the dead, he must haunt the graveyards like a human ghoul and experiment on live animals to "animate" "lifeless clay," being the deceased remains of human beings. From this admission, it is abundantly obvious that Victor, like Prometheus, sees "clay" as the foundation for creation, a substance which is part of the earth itself and
Victor is the perfect example of how the quest for knowledge can be bad for all. Victor abandons his responsibility as a scientist when he becomes self-absorbed and he abandons his responsibility as a scientist and a father when he leaves the monster to die. However, as it is with life, Victor did not consider the law of unintended circumstances in any of his endeavors. When the monster does
However, he also chooses isolation in his desire to explore the North Pole. And yet, to Brannstrom, the character of Robert Walton balances Victor Frankenstein who deliberately chooses to isolate himself from society and the creature who longs to belong to society. According to Brannstrom, "Walton is someone who can strive for distinction but at the same time turn back when his actions might harm others." Tied to the theme