Frankenstein - The Monster’s Fear
Uploaded by surfchick on Feb 20, 2005
Frankenstein - The Monster’s Fear
When giving her novel the title Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley sets the focus firmly on the title character, Victor Frankenstein. In the course of the novel, we see that the effects of his decision to try and create life are disastrous for him, just as those of Prometheus were. I am going to focus primarily on the monster instead and the reactions that he meets from humans when he ventures out into their midst. I will also look at the parallels that can be drawn between the monster and his creator; many of them have interesting implications for the question of what it really means to be human.
The monster that Frankenstein creates has all of human society against him from the start. In fact, as soon as Frankenstein instills life in him and he opens his eyes, Frankenstein is revolted by the look of the monster he has brought to life and runs away to hide from him. Thus scorned by his creator, the monster goes off on his own into the world, trying to make friends with various humans. Because of the way he looks, however, the humans that he meets assume immediately when they see him that he must be evil and dangerous. They either attack him or flee without giving him any chance to prove to them that he is good and only wants to be their friend. He soon despairs of finding someone willing to judge him according to his personality and virtues and not only according to his appearance: ``I retreated, and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man.'' The one and only time he has any luck in approaching a human is when he goes to the blind old man in the cottage when his children are away. He is accepted by the old man as a nice traveler thanks to his pleasant way of speaking. Unfortunately, as soon as the children come back home, they throw the monster out, solely because of the way he looks, before the old man gets a chance to stop them.
Through this episode and the teachings of the people in the cottage, the monster soon learns that humans are indeed not very kind to each other either- in fact even less so...