Creating a Monster

A monster according to the online dictionary is many things; it can be a creature so ugly or monstrous that it scares people, an animal that is not of a normal shape behaviour or character, an animal or human that is huge in size, or a person who excites horror by wickedness or cruelty. I would describe a monster as someone who commits evil deeds and whose general mindset is to cause suffering on other living creatures. By my definition of a monster this makes victors creation a monster but not Victor.

Monsters are often present in gothic novels; especially in those that combine horror and romance. A monster will be the cause of individual characters fears. Frankenstein can be linked to this genre in many ways, the most obvious link being the horror element of the story. The thought of someone created from dead flesh would have been a horrific thought back then and still would be now, also Victor playing god would have been considered terrible back then “A new species would bless me as its creator” the 1800’s were still very religious times and trying to create life artificially would have been condemned by religious people.

The story is told in first person by three different characters; Victor, his creation and captain Robert Walton. By using this method Shelly allows the audience to view things from another angle, allowing them to consider the story and judge the actions of the characters better than if they only had one view to go by. The story would have been considerably different if it had been in third person, if there was a all knowing narrator there wouldn’t of been the same message put across to the audience.

We are first introduced to victor by Robert Walton, who is captain of a ship which is on an expedition t...

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...n Frankenstein

The main message of the novel is a warning. Shelly is trying to warn us about the effects science could have on society if it continues to progress at the rate it is. Despite the good things about science like medicine, it is changing the world as we now it, we can see this in global warming, but despite knowing we are damaging the environment, as a race we take no real action to prevent it.

My conclusion is that the creation is the real monster his only intention was to cause pain to others he was the one who murdered several people. You could argue that victor made his creation things he did by abandoning him but I think came to the conclusion that victor was not deliberately trying to hurt people. His actions were foolish and rationale but not monstrous , he was driven by fear not vengeance. The only monster in this story is victors creation.