The Role Of Victor As A Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

When people hear the word “monster”, their minds immediately turn to images of horrifying creatures from their worst nightmares: razor-sharp teeth, flesh-shredding claws, and beady, snake-like eyes that stare directly into your soul, causing your skin to crawl and the hair on the back of your neck to stand straight up. This may very well be an accurate definition of a monster; however, it takes much more than a terrifying appearance to truly make a monster. It requires the unquenchable thirst for vengeance and destruction, without any sense of empathy or compassion. In Mary Shelley’s classic book, Frankenstein, identifying which character is more human, Victor or his creation, is not as obvious as it may seem. Throughout the novel, it is very difficult to discern which character is more human after weighing their

However, in the end, the creation ironically shines through as the most human out of the two. The creation possesses some of the most important human traits from beginning to end: the desire to learn, the need for companionship, and the ability to reason. These are only a few of the essential characteristics that the creature has acquired in order to make himself appear more human on the inside than Victor ever will. The hunger for knowledge and expansion of the mind is something that humans are born with. A person can use their passion for education in either a positive or negative manner. In Victor's case, his intentions of going to college and learning about human anatomy are innocent at first. However, his mind quickly turns in a dark direction, which is revealed when he says, “Darkness has no effect upon my fancy; and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm” (Shelley, 30). His desire to reanimate the deceased and the means by which to do so does not seem