The creature's words reflect not only his own plight as an outcast, but also the universal feeling of being rejected or cast out for no fault of one's own. It is a powerful statement, and one that speaks to the injustice that so many people experience in life. In this quote, Shelley is exploring the idea of human cruelty
At first glance, Mary Shelley displays Victor’s creature as a blood-thirsty, grotesque monster, but as the story develops, it is revealed as pure and innocent, however it was corrupted due to the abuse and suffering that society caused him. Through this character development, Mary Shelley perhaps wanted to tell the readers that everyone is born righteous but they can be changed due to the actions of the people around them. Throughout the plot of the novel, the theme of rejection and isolation is discussed many times; however, in chapter 5, we see the beginning of the monster’s life and how his own creator rejecting him affects him. At first, Victor says “I had selected his features as beautiful.
This emotional reaction stresses one of Mary Shelley’s key themes, family and how necessary these connections truly are. The creature began his argument by trying to create pity and compassion for himself, believing Victor would commiserate his loneliness. He tells of traveling for days and nights before stumbling across a cottage where a family resided. He decided to lodge nearby and observe them from a distance.
In the preceding volumes Shelley delved into the individual faults of Victor and The Creature. However, the theme of actions having consequences within this volume is reinforced through the collaborative efforts of these two characters. Consumed by the goal of enacting what they viewed as rightful vengeance, Victor and his Creation pursue each other relentlessly; To where Victor chases after The Creature and it somehow manages to elude him every time. Victor figured that it was his responsibility to end the creature’s life to atone for his wretched actions while The Creature saw his constant torment of Victor as revenge for how Victor abandoned him early on in his development. Shelley uses this intense rivalry to drive home her central theme, being how unchecked tendencies such as overambition, jealousy, and vengeance ultimately end up dictating one’s life instead of the other way around thus leaving one powerless.
One character, Justine, is very passive and used as a device to make Victor feel guilty for creating The Creature; as her major contribution to the plot was The Creature framing her for her brothers death and shortly after, being sentenced to death. Another female character, Safie, is used to teach The Creature how to speak: “My days were spent in close attention…and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian…I could imitate almost every word that was spoken… I also learned the science of letters” (Shelley 106). Even the most prominent female character in the book, Frankenstein's lover and wife, Elizabeth, is killed by The Creature on their wedding night, in order to again make Victor regret creating The Creature, and eventually die of his unhappiness. Mary Shelley's depiction of women might be her indicating the roles of women at the time as inferior, a similar thesis brought about by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication on the Rights of Women.
Shelley creates sympathy for the monster by depicting its profound loneliness and longing for companionship. In the quotation, the monster expresses, "Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence... I was wretched, helpless, and alone. " In this quotation, the writer uses a comparison to biblical Adam to emphasize the monster's isolation and sense of being fundamentally different from others.
Shelley’s narrative, particularly through the creature’s lamentation of his loneliness and society’s rejection, acts as a powerful allegory for the importance of looking beyond the surface to the common humanity within
Throughout the Novel, Mary Shelley creates a mirroring effect between the two characters: Victor Frakenstein and the Creature. They both have an intense thirst for knowledge and wanting to know about the real world as they both find a way to seek revenge on one another. Or the domination of one over the other by calling the other person a slave, just like the creature did to Frakenstein as he holds all power since he has abilities no other human would have. The effects that others have on the creature leaves him in misery and to have a cause to act out on those internal feelings. As all the creature wanted was a wife, love and affection, people still neglected him, killing all the innocent and pure people within society such as William and Elizabeth.
Throughout the story, the two characters develop
While his creator lives in extreme comfort, the creature suffers extensively which it blames on its maker. When at an all time low, the creature discovers a family that fills his underdeveloped mind with the idea that he might still have hope of accommodating with the world it found itself in and attempts to acquire the traits that might enable this adaptation with a familiar environment. The creature immensely strived to be accepted by the one that made it that it would subject itself to immense self loathing and strenuous mental development. This portrays the torture Frankenstein subjected his poor underling to due to his imperfections. With this, Shelley criticizes the weakness of the faulty chemist.
Another characteristic that they share in common is that both Shelley and the creature were neglected by their fathers at some point in their lives. For the creature it was early on in his life while for Shelley it came after she eloped at the age of 18 and her father “all but disowned her” (Aldiss). As it has been observed by others before “Frankenstein is peculiarly a book of male parents” (Phy). Consequently, Frankenstein’s mother dies early on in the story, the DeLacey family is absent of a mother figure, and Safie is raised by her father as her mother also passed
This is being portrayed through the author separation of characters into the two distinctive
This family unintentionally aides the monster in learning english, french, and developing his understanding of human nature. Though they are thought to be low class, the monster, from observation of their physical appearance and treatment towards their father, often views Felix and Agatha as superior beings, and having a good disposition. For this reason, the monster expects their lives to be at peace, and yet is surprised when he sees them weeping, “I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but i was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect solitary being, should be wretched” (Shelley 127). The monster is quick to judge, that based on physical appearance, the Delacey family should have the perfect life with little to no reason for being sad, compared to his life of imperfection and solitude.
Simultaneously, Victor failing to take responsibility for his own creation leads the creature down a path of destruction that manufactures his status as a societal outcast. The creature's dissolution from society, his search for someone to share his life with, the familiarity with intense anguish, his thirst for retribution, each of these traits coincide with Victor as he is depicted throughout the novel. Victor unknowingly induces his own undoing through his rejection of the creature. Shelley foreshadows his downfall by stating that “the monster still protested his innate goodness, blaming Victor’s rejection and man’s unkindness as the source of his evil” (Shelley 62) The creature essentially places Victor at fault for the creature becoming an outcast of society, by expressing this Shelley constructs a very austere portrayal of man’s contact with outsiders.
