Frankensteinis one of those books that really just tugs at my heartstrings. It truly makes me upset reading it, almost to the point of tears. I read this a while back, and rereading it left me with the same emotions…
The reason I say this, is because the tale of the monster just is so heartwrenching to me. Although he causes so much destruction and devastation, it does not stem from an innately evil cause. It simply derives from a longing to be loved, to feel that another individual has some remote sense of care for you. I can’t consider the creature to be the true monster in this story, simply because he acts out due to an unsatisfied basic human desire; compassion and social interaction. He’s very comparable to a child, lashing out and misbehaving all to get attention. It actually makes sense, this analogy, as the monster is in his supposed youth when he begins to cause mass chaos, for he can think of no other way to deal with his emotions.
When we hear the creature’s account where he observed that loving family in the mountaintops, it truly evokes a very innate, natural sense of the need for companionship. All Frankenstein’s creature wants is love, yet the world cannot look past his grotesque external characteristics to see the individual inside. It truly portrays the shallow nature of humanity. In fact, it seems that Victor Frankenstein and all the others who abhor the creature are the true monsters. If they had merely put aside their external perceptions and focused on the truth of the matter, that the creature merely longs for affection, then no harm would have come to anyone. It truly speaks about human nature, and our pathetic judgment of others based solely on the most trivial things, such as appearance, religion, gender, etc. Frankenstein isn’t so much a story about monsters, but rather about the shallowness of humanity. I completely sympathize with the creature, although his actions are terrible, because not only is he cast out of society, he is made to feel like a demonic being. Can anyone blame him for reacting?
Although I don’t condone the actions of the creature, they are perfectly understandable, and I will always sympathize with him. He truly wasn’t the demon, but the society that shunned him. How can they blame him for what they started? He merely fought back against their mistreatment.
2 replies on “Frankenstein”
I agree that Frankenstein is one of those tragedy’s that really leaves a strong impact on the reader, and it really makes you reflect on yourself and the people around you.
The monster is an orphan who’s been abandoned by his father and forced to fend for himself against the indifference of the world. For him his God’s literally abandoned him. Not all of his acts are justifiable though, his revenge on Victor by murdering those who are dearest to him is similar to Medea, where he is simply seeking mutual destruction with no gains. He’s very human, but is still capable of acknowledging that his efforts are pretty much fruitless, making his actions wrongful.
While I do sympathize with him as the initial and greater victim, I feel I have to draw a line not call him completely innocent. But to be fair he is almost like a child. As you mentioned, he simply wants to be loved and acts impulsively when he cannot get what he wants.
While reading Fankenstein didn’t tear at my heart as much as I think it did yours, I definitely felt the same tinge of sadness as I realized that Frankenstein’s monster was lonely, and like you said, childlike.
I feel like this recurring theme of the monster being isolated from the rest of society and that society might be the greatest monster, is one which will almost always comes up when analyzing monsters. Yet I have to agree with Kyle when he says that some the monster’s acts just weren’t justifiable.
The one thing I wonder about is whether one could make the claim that Frankenstein’s monster is just as monstrous as Medea as his actions are very similar. Ultimately I think we’d have to say that he’s less monstrous than her, and less to blame when you consider that Medea was an intelligent mature woman and Frankenstein’s monster was a much less developed individual.