Frankenstein Essay

How does Mary Shelley create sympathy for the Monster?

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the mysterious fears of our nature. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of playing God, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creatures first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this monster is a creature and more of a human than we think. It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victors last days; Victor explains his creation of the monster; the monster explains his turn to evil. This impact of the change of narration gives us a better understanding of each person, and we see that the monster is not such a monster at all. We begin with Victors story, firstly of his past family life and then the build up to his immoral creation, his scientific motives. We see what drove him to this terrible crime, and we are given an insight into his dangerous passion. He wanted to create life, to make a human being, and increase his knowledge of science. These ambitions and his imagination became his obsession, and they distracted him from the outcome, his creation. While he is thinking of his future success he becomes blind to the consequences of what playing God really means. That to create life you have made a person, and you need to show them love and care, which Frankenstein fails to do, revealing his hidden monstrousness. When Frankenstein abandons his creation, the monster feels alone and frightened, creating sympathy for his rejected state. Frankenstein had made his creation for all the wrong reasons, his lust for knowledge, for power and success. When his outcome did not turn out to be how he imagined, he gave up, and turned his back on him. Because Frankensteins dangerous obsession possessed him, he was oblivious to the outcome, and the shock of not making a lovely looking human repulsed him. He explains his creation as a catastrophe, he had thought he had created something beautiful, but actually these features only made a more horrid contrast. The feelings of such hope and desire for a successful creation have suddenly turned into loathing and disgust. Now that the beauty of the dream vanished has been replaced with breathless horror and disgust he can no longer endure this monster, and so he abandoned it. When he decided to turn his back on this monster, he did this without any consideration and was completely oblivious to the creatures feelings. What Victor didnt realise was the creatures feelings are very much similar to our own. He did not empathise with his creation, his child, and he has not taken on the important responsibilities of being a parent, this is what

makes him less human. This is why we feel sorry for the monster, because his father figure has not shown compassion, which is something that we should all have and need from someone who has brought us into the world, to feel loved. Mary Shelley has expressed to us the idea of nature and nurture here, when we are born we start with a blank slate and it is how we are brought up and cared for, or not cared for in the monsters case, this is what makes us who we are. Victor failed to be a parent; he did not look after or educate his creation, it is this acknowledgement of responsibility which Frankenstein fails to show, and it is this rejection which makes us feel sympathy for the monster. Perhaps what led Victor to this rejection, why he was so horrified of his creation, was because he had had such high expectations. In chapter 1, he talks about his life and his parents; he says he was an innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven. Perhaps this is what he wanted from his creation, for it to be a gift from heaven, and when it turned out it was hideous and not so heavenly, he was disappointed. He wanted something that was perfect, human, but what he made was something hideous, and his gigantic structure made him different from a human. However, what we realise later on in the book is that its whats on the inside that makes him human. This monster is capable of human emotions and intelligence, he learns to read write and think like a human. This is what makes us have sympathy to the monster- that we can relate to his feelings. The monster gains our sympathy from the telling of his perspective. His personal story reveals his own suffering and rejection. This monster has not been given a name, so already he must feel like he does not belong. To have a name means you have a sense of identity, and because the creature does not have this he will feel lost and rejected. When he is abandoned by Victor and the villagers, he weeps in despair, which shows he has feelings. When he sees what we see, that he is a monster, upon looking at his reflection he was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification, the fact that he feels ashamed and horrified by the way he looks, and he sees what other see of him, a wretch, that we feel sorry for him. It is the deepest sorrow and feeling of total abandonment that we feel sorry for him. Even though mankind despise this monster, throughout his life, the creature repeatedly attempts to befriend mankind. All he ever wanted was to be accepted and to be loved, but through no fault of his own, his hideous appearance has deprived all hope of this. Instead, he was feared and was looked upon with disgust and he was attacked and grievously bruised by villagers. Although he has escaped them, feeling frightened and more alone, he also feels anguish that he is such a wretch, and we too feel his fury. When he begins to love and trust the De Lacey family, he is rejected once again, and escapes them overcome with pain and anguish. What is so sad, is that the blind man begins to trust him, because he is blind of his wretchedness, this makes us feel more sorry for the creature. From these experiences, we begin to understand why the creature vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind - because he is hated by all, and this causes so much pain that he feels he can only hate in return. The last words of the creatures are the most significant, as he has gained our sympathies, and not only this, he also deserves them. The monster not only accepts that the crimes he has committed are wrong, but also that he is sorry for what he has done. He felt that his crimes

degraded him beneath the meanest animal which shows his remorse, and feels he has sunk so low to commit these crimes. We know that the creature has committed these unforgivable crimes, yet on the inside he has suffered deeply from them, that his happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair. He hates himself and loathes his existence because he has brought only misery to his creator, and he is sorry for this. When we see that the monster has suffered terribly from the crimes he has committed, and we understand the pain he has gone through from receiving such hate, we feel sympathy for him. As the creature tried to show remorse, Walton called him a hypocritical fiend for pitying his creator, that he only showed pity because his victim was withdrawn from his power now that he is dead. As we are told in his final words, this is not the case, and the final words that we hear of the monster are the most significant. They show remorse to his creator, that he is sorry for everything he has done, and from these words he earns our final sympathies. We see that Walton is wrong to think badly of the monster, because he like the rest of mankind, never fully understood him, and this was due to prejudice. They never tried to understand the creature, because he was different to them, his gigantic structure made him stand out from the rest and made him stand apart from humans physically. Because they never looked past this, what Walton, Victor and everyone else failed to see in him was what was inside him. What they never found out about him was his intelligence, his friendliness, and his love and compassion. We never truly see this side of the creature until the very end, where we see what made him a creature and not a monster. It is here that we feel true sympathy for him, we feel compassion and love for him. What Mary Shelley is trying to show us here is that our prejudices can be wrong, and they can also hurt people. The end of the story marks the end of a life. It is the end of the life of a creature who wanted to be accepted into the world and feel loved. Mankind brought about only suffering into his life, when all he wanted was to enjoy the nature and world around him. Humanity judged him, and hated him for what he was on the outside, the hideous, gigantic, monster; failing to see what was inside him, his gentle, intelligent and friendly side. It was his feelings of total abandonment that brought about his death, and that the only way he could end the agonies which now consume him is death. Now, he can finally feel some kind of consolation in death, as his final words state My spirits will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will surely not think thus. Although it is the end where we feel sympathy for the monster, this sympathy is felt in vain, because we realise that these words are his final words that this creature will ever speak. I think we only feel sorry for him because he is now dead, and I do not think we can sympathise with him, because we do not truly know how he felt. We know that he felt unloved and that he cannot even face to love himself, whereas we have always received love from our parents and the creature never received this. He was always alone, he never even had a companion of his own species which had the same defects .The creature does not want to be alive any more, as he does not love the world he lives in any more, and this is the world we live in. I think this is how Mary Shelley wanted to achieve thrilling horror; she created a monster that was so different to us on the outside but on the inside was very much alike, and it is frightening

that we never really notice what he is like on the inside until the end. We now realise that from judging someone, it can have long lasting and damaging effects on them, and this is something that we can learn from Mary Shelley.