Before the creature gives his accounts of what happened, we are only able to judge him based off of Frankenstein's feelings and the emotional suffering of his family. Anyone who hasn't heard the tragic events from the monster's perspective would condemn him based on his distasteful actions. But when he begins to go into depth about the murder of William, we see a different side of him. His first intentions were not to murder, but to have a companion so that he wouldn't be alone. "...an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived to short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity. If, therefore, I could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth."(100) In this passage the reader can see the creature as something more thatn a monster. He has the need to be loved and accepted just like any human being. He approached William thinking that he had finally found someone who would befriend him instead of shun him away but when he seen that even the child was terrored by him, it caused him to anger.
The creature has been neglected by Frakenstein and left alone for the world to despise him. Any creation with a heart and brain needs the company of another. "My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create."(101) Here again we see the need for acceptance and love. The monster was thrown into the world without a chance and without hope. Anyone that was left in these conditions would certainly not be at their best.
I think the line that affected me the most when it came to understanding the monster was when he said, "My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy; and, when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture, such as you cannot even imagine" Shelley (153). He realizes that his original design was corrupted, unnecessarily so, by the pitfalls of his existence. I get an image in my head of how emotional the monster must be when laying out his misery for Walton. Here in this moment, all of the agony felt by himself and Dr. Frankenstein has come to its inevitable end. And I think that in seeing Victor's dead body relieved of it's torture, he longs for that reprieve as well.
ReplyDeleteVictor Frankenstein's monster is a creature made that of innocence and unknowledgeable behavior. The monster isn't knowledgeable of societies life and outlooks untill Victor teaches and puts these ideas into his head. When the monster is humiliated and unable to find love and fight his creation; he then acts out in torment. Victor becomes deceitful of his own actions and torment. He becomes the monster to the monster himself from Victor's own creation of desolution. Victor states, "all joy was but a mockery which insulted my desolate state and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure" (Shelley 99). Victor debauches himself into a unfulfilling endeavor of himself that creates isolation between him and the monster. The monster is uncontrollable because he sees no future, "enjoyment of pleasure" but only remorse and despair that creates no room for success of hope and comfort.
ReplyDeleteYes, this monster is innocent. He did not ask to be here, his creator created him out of selfishness. The monster longed for affection but creator refused, so once knowlegeable about human society on killing their own people for no reason innocence was taken from him. A child will only do what he's taught, and that's what the creature done. If Victor would have educated him on certain things about life the monster probally would have took another approach instead of murdering.
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