The Monster And Frankenstein Comparison

Frankenstein and his monster begin with opposite lives: Frankenstein has everything and the monster has nothing. However, in creating the monster, Frankenstein’s life and feelings begin to parallel that of the monster’s life. Frankenstein is incredibly intelligent with a fascination for science, but ultimately his thirst for knowledge leads to his undoing. Similarly the monster is determined to understand the society around him. But once he does, he understands that he will never be able to find companionship, which leads him to pain and anger. Following this both characters feel sorrow and regret in their own ways, the monster through guilt for the people he hurt and Frankenstein because his family were hurt by the being he created. By the

Both have determination and ambition in their learning, if for different reasons. Frankenstein wanted to understand the world for the glory of it, he wanted to be the first to create life and conquer death, saying: “What glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” (Shelley, 40). The monster, on the other hand, recognised that learning to speak and understand the structure of the world around him was his only hope for companionship. His eagerness for knowledge was born out of desperation for a friend rather than a need for glory. While they obtained different knowledge for different reasons, both were led to unhappiness through it. Frankenstein, in the creation of his monster, brought upon himself a terrible fate of loss and anguish. The monster, upon learning to speak, found only that no matter how hard he tried this world would not welcome him, he found his reflection in Lucifer and felt the weight of his existence. Both were ultimately lost, falling into their own forms of

The monster on the other hand had known only loneliness from the second he opened his eyes. The monster learns through painful rejection that he will never find companionship because humans are unable to see past his ghastly appearance and in anger tears away one of Frankenstein’s many companions. This begins the spiral of anger and loneliness that leads to the monster killing nearly everyone Frankenstein is close to. This, inadvertently, forces Frankenstein to have the same feelings of anguish and loneliness that he first instigated in the monster. Frankenstein never realises that all the monster wants is a companion, he cannot see his own emotions reflected in his creation. Through this Shelley is demonstrating that humans may never have the capability to fully understand the things they create through scientific endeavours, therefore reinforcing her concept that too much knowledge can only lead to downfall. Frankenstein had a wonderful life and in creating then abandoning his monster he destroyed that. The bitter link is the fact that Frankenstein, in leaving his monster, in making his creation go into the world alone, sealed his fate to die alone on the sea, the majority of his loved ones dead at his