Are we responsible for the actions of our offspring? Marie Shelley's masterpiece “Frankenstein” poses the question to its readers, although the lines are blurred and grey. It would appear at first that Frankenstein's monster is to blame for the deaths; A closer look reveals otherwise, that Victor is responsible and that he is the real monster of the story. Looking only at actions, the monster did all the actual killing of the book, but his actions were in response to Victor’s mistreatment. It was his hands that choked William, Clerval and Justine. He was the one that seemed “to jeer” (145) as he pointed towards the corpse of Victor’s wife. This sequence, without background, puts him in the wrong. But he did not kill his victims without reason. His hatred for Victor was so intense, it fueled a mad desire for revenge. On page 102, when the monster learns that William is a Frankenstein, he says “you belong then to my enemy,” having never actually met Victor in person. He hated his creator to such a degree that he was willing to do anything to hurt him. The monster was right, however, in hating Victor because of Victor’s terrible treatment and disposition towards the monster.
The first wrong that Victor committed was making the monster unbearably ugly. When he first creates the
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He then decides that he will return some of the hardship he has suffered because of his creator’s short-sightedness, and kills William. Although the decision was rash and naive, it was the only way the monster knew how to get back at Victor, whom he