Mary Shelly's Motives In Frankenstein

Humans are very complex beings; their motives and reasons for being are always different and sometimes difficult to understand. In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, she depicts the monster created as a very curious and caring creature that soon discovers his inevitably lonely fate which, upon realization, turns him into a vengeful savage. Mary Shelley illuminates the idea that no one is entirely pure nor evil, but a complex mixture of both. In the beginning of the novel, Frankenstein creates his monster and abandoned it out of fear and disgust. The monster, being left alone with no guidance, is like a newborn in the way that he didn't have any past experiences or knowledge of the world around him that would help him survive.

This is best noticed when he encounters Frankenstein's brother in the woods. The boy was mocking the monsters appearance, but the monster chose to ignore him until he found out it was Frankenstein's brother. At that moment the monster recalled how frankenstein abandoned him, so he killed the brother to get vengeance on his creator.This scene depicts how the monster did not intend to kill him, but thought it was necessary. The monster had no one to look out for him; he had no family, so he wanted to inflict the same loneliness he felt upon the creator who caused him the pain. When the monster was first created he spent his time wondering around, but he was not angry at anyone because he was not aware of the wrongs that were inflicted upon him. He's an ambiguous character because he thought the murders he committed were acts of justice. While Frankenstein depicted the acts as cruel and unreasonable the monster

This is best illustrated when the monster begins to explain his reasoning behind all the murders he committed. The monster only killed because he thought it was unfair that he was created with no guidance and affection and he wanted his creator to suffer the way the monster did all those days on his own with no one to comfort him. This signifies how the monster knew that his actions were not right but he felt the need to accomplish it because it was justice. The monster was misinterpreted throughout the whole novel as a crazy savage, but in reality he was angry because he was left alone while his creator was enjoying himself. Frankenstein made the monster vengeful when he abandoned him and refused to create him a companion. The monster's ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole because it makes Frankenstein acknowledge his mistake in leaving his creation alone in a judgemental world. When he experienced the loss and loneliness, once his family dies, he realizes what he put the monster through and blames all of the murders on himself - for without his thirst for knowledge he would have never created the monster which would have prevented the deaths. This causes the reader to feel pity towards the inhuman creation more than the knowledge seeking creator because it was