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The Monster And Exile In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The Monster and Exile Every person in life is created with a strong sense of belonging. Whether the belonging is to a person, a place, or a moment in time, they still feel connected and influenced by it. Exile is an action that separates a person from this connected belonging, and can suffer great consequences, but can also enrich their lifestyle. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the creature creaked by Victor Frankenstein is forced, from the very beginning of his existence, away from his creator and society as a whole. This type of exile turned the creature into what he is, shaping his ideas and mentalities. From the moment he is created, the creature knows he is not wanted by Victor. Shelly writes, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being …show more content…

He sulks into the woods, where he learns of fire and eating, and other important senses of survival. Feeling a wish for company, he seeks out a village and finds a cottage with a small family, but is instantly met with the same exile like treatment he received from Victor. After being abused by the villagers, he runs to the forest again. Shelly describes part of this journey in chapter 16, “Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heartless; rain and snow poured;…the surface of the earth was hard and chill, and bare, and I found no shelter.” (Shelly, 83). This time spent here helped to begin to develop the creature’s mind, proving he was in fact rather intelligent. The monster knew that he was different from these people, often describing them all as beautiful. He knew they would not accept him, and yet his search for belonging and family continue to surge the novel forward. While the creature is lonely and hurting, his actions slowly become malicious. These outward acts of rage seem to be motivated by his anger towards Victor, for exiling and hating him. When he finally does confront Victor about this, he says “You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?” (Shelley,

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The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is elevated in the area of rich text by its use of allusions, specifically to Paradise Lost. The most predominate is the story in Paradise Lost the original creation story that takes place in Genesis of the Bible. In the Romantic era, biblical and religious references were commonly used in literary work. It is common in the Romantic-Gothic genre. Mary Shelley uses these biblical allusions because she wants to show the principles of what it is to be human, and they are relevant to how she wants the audience to perceive God and the creation of life, which might feed into her stance on people “playing God” which she shows in the book, that she does not believe it is a wise decision to mess with the natural order.

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The creature's views were warped by all of this. Even when he learned to read, write, and speak, he learned to love others, but after all of this, he could not. If society learned to stop judging only appearance, the creature himself would have lived a better life. Not a life consumed by

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“I shall relate events that impressed me feelings which, from what I was, have made me what I am” (Shelley 80). In the second volume Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the monster’s story during his years of isolation shows the complexity of his character; this complexity makes him an enigma. In order to uncover the mysteries behind this enigma, we must analyze the factors that played a role in his development. Looking at the monster’s development, we can see parallels between the monster and feral children. Much like feral children, the monster was abandoned—during the early period of his life—and was placed under extreme circumstances, which he was forced to endure—having to fend for himself.

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(Shelly 69) What Victor endured in the past still fuelled his hate and anger towards the creature. This hate consumed his whole being leading him to parade such savagery to the creature. Through the cruelty he shows buth his own body and the creature we can see Victor's selfishness.

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The creature did not care for anyone, he only felt malice since the moment he was animated. After the creature tries to help a human from death and is only returned by being shot utters this cry,“ Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind,” (Shelley 130). The creature may have tried to help someone but he only does this in the most dire of circumstances and truly only wishes evil upon mankind. After Victor has gone against his promise of creating a companion for the creature, the creature says,“ I may die but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes your misery,” (158). The creature has no compassion for killing Victor’s family and only has a heart full of vengeance due to his being inherently evil.

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But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him” (Shelley 116). This shows how abandoned the monster feels, and how he could leverage that along with other things he learns against Victor and the other humans. Victor’s suffering is entirely self-inflicted.

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This last letter from Walton to his sister describes his final encounters with Victor Frankenstein and the Creature itself. Within these two letters, the author, Mary Shelley, includes irony between two passages to close out the novel. Passage one is a conversation between Walton and Victor while passage two is between Walton and the Creature.     Each passage contains irony within themselves along with irony against each other that connect to the overall story. The first chosen passage discusses how Victor feels he has changed for the worse from his younger self.

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The monster depicts his otherness when he wonders: “Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned” (Shelley 85). The monster evidently remains in isolation and is dehumanized. The monster attempts to get integrated into his society but his appearance and lack of social skills hinder his success. The monster strives to be accepted but is incapable of acceptance. The monster reiterates this feeling of isolation as he says: “I felt as if I were placed under a ban- as if I had no right to claim their sympathies – as if never more might I enjoy companionship with them” (Shelley 108).

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When Victor abandons him, the Creature attempts to live alone and learn how others live. The people hindered his attempts with their harsh reactions and obvious fear of the Creature. He secluded himself from society and lived in the woods near a little cottage where a family lived. For a while, he stole wood and food from them until he learned their financial hardships and then he started helping them. He observed the family and began learning through them.

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He was able to develop the intelligent aspect by listening and learning from the De Lacey family, but he did not know how to control his anger against mankind when they lashed out violently towards him. Trying to save a little girl from drowning, her father thought the creature was trying to harm her, and shot the creature. This caused the creature great pain and “[he] vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind”(Shelley). The creature thought if “I am miserable” why shouldn't “[mankind]... share my wretchedness” (Shelley). When he wanted Victor to make him a female companion, and Victor denied him his one request his anger overcame him and he told Victor “not only you and your family, but thousands of others, shall be swallowed up in the whirlwinds of [my] rage” (Shelley).

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However, society does not see the good in him, they only see the outside and react to his misleading appearance. While the persona of the creature is looked at as the “monster” in Frankenstein, the character’s personality, psychology, and nature well define him as a human being that deserves compassion and love as opposed to the hatred and fear that society provides. To begin with the creature’s nature, from birth to his banishment from civilization, he has possessed the same manner in which humanity has in individuality. The creature’s nature generally remains the same throughout the novel up to the most rational state in the end. The very instance where the creature shows his good nature is during the

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That is the turning point for the creation. Before he experienced rejection he was keen on the idea of love, similar to all humans. All he wanted was to be loved. But because all he ever knew was hate, he became a product of it. Had Victor nurtured him and taught him what love was, he wouldn’t have done the cruel things

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Isolation and abandonment can cause many different reactions from people. In the words of William A. Sadler Jr., a sociology professor, “We often do not know how to cope. It can make us confused, distraught, depressed, frightened, and even outraged” (Sadler 105). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, several of these effects are presented in Victor Frankenstein and his creation. They both suffer from being isolated from their creator, society, and family units.

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Isolation and a lack of companionship is the tragic reality for the monster, who was abandoned by his creator and is repulsive to everyone that he comes across. Victor removes himself from society for many months; severing nearly all human contact then renouncing his creation based on the monster's appearance. As the monster matures he begins to understands the relationship the cottagers share with one another, while the monster, “yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. ”(Shelley). Armed with nothing but the longing for a real connection, the monster approaches his unknowing hosts only to be “brutally attacked—by those he trusted...because of their human ignorance.

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