Who is the monster – Frankenstein or his creation?
“Frankenstein” written by Mary Shelly, was first published in 1818.The book has sold millions of copies and has become deeply rooted intoday’s society by films and other versions of the books.
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The main bulk of the story is about Victor Frankenstein’s horrendousadventure. However there are sub-plots throughout the story, RobertWalton’s journey to the North Pole, and the time the monster spendswith the DeLacy family.
The definition of a monster is, “something of unusual size orappearance, a huge terrifying creature or an evil person.” [ChambersSchool Dictionary] All of these definitions can be related to bothFrankenstein and the creation. To the creation, a huge terrifyingcreature and of unusual size and appearance, and to Frankenstein anevil person, powered by his hatred of the monster.
Mary Shelly’s life was very similar to the story of “Frankenstein”.Her child, also called William, died at a young age. Her mother diedat childbirth and possibly gave the sense of abandonment felt by thecreation, “My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What didthis mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was mydestination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable tosolve them.” This showed that the monster was confused about himself,yet had nobody to ask and to confide in. Much like Mary Shelly.
When Mary was writing Frankenstein she was reading a book called Emileby John Jacques Rousseau. In this text, Rousseau argued that men areby nature harmless, (i.e. children are naturally innocent) but aremade cruel by society, thought the things they have done to them.Rousseau’s quote was, “Men become monsters because…
…e a second monster, the bride for thecreation. However half way through Frankenstein destroyed the corpseand thus angered the monster further, when Frankenstein could have hadthe monster out of his life for all eternity. This is also a goodexample of Frankenstein’s selfishness as it shows that he was onlythinking about himself as he believes that the creation well use thissecond monster to reek havoc upon the world, “Three years before, Iwas engaged in the same manner and created a fiend whose unparalleledbarbarity [Once again we see that he is being biased towards themonster as he never tried to reason with the monster and any time.]had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterestremorse. I was now to form another being of whose dispositions I wasalike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignantthat her mate”.
