Theme Of Regret In Frankenstein

Regret, it helps you but hurts you

Have you ever had some sort of regret in your life? Most of us would say yes to this question. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, she talks about regret. Her characters make many choices that they wouldn’t do again if they could go back in time. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she describes the theme of regret by using verbal irony, alliteration, and satire. The first element used to describe the theme of regret is verbal irony. Mary Shelley shows this when the monster states “I’ll see you on your wedding night” (pg.124). Here Frankenstein thinks that the Monster is coming to kill him, however, the monster is going for Elizabeth and does kill her. So there was some verbal irony there because Frankenstein thought one thing but another happened. Frankenstein was even more furious at the monster now and in plain shock. He then starts to regret his choice of trying to protect himself instead

This is shown when the Monster states “Cursed, cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?” (pg.99). Here the Monster is regretting being created because he hates his life. He doesn’t get why Frankenstein would make him so ugly. He feels alone and hated even though nobody will give him a chance. So he figures to himself to get revenge on the person that made him be so ugly and hated. The third and final way how Mary Shelley shows the theme of regret in the story Frankenstein is by using satire. Satire is shown when the Monster states “If my first introduction to humanity had been made by a young solider, burning for glory, and slaughter. I should have linked with different sensations.” (pg.93). Here, the Monster is saying that he regrets trying to be nice to humans. He feels that now the only right thing to do is to slaughter them all. Since nobody will even have a conversation with him, why did he even try to be nice in the first