Is Frankenstein a Creature or Monster?

Is Frankenstein a Creature or Monster?

Whether Frankenstein's creation is a creature or indeed a monster is a

key factor of the novel as a whole. Mary Shelley successfully uses

language to create and manipulate the reader's opinion of this

nameless creation.

Frankenstein is from a well respected and well educated family; "my

family is one of the most distinguished of that republic". This

immediately gives the reader the impression that he will be a

benevolent character. The reader feels sympathy for Frankenstein when

his mother dies as it is very hard for him "The despair that is

exhibited on countenance" It is obvious that this affected

Frankenstein deeply, which lead to the creation of the being. His

intentions were good; "If I could banish disease from the human frame

and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death". His mother's

death spurred on his ambition to do this, which lead to him becoming

so engrossed in his work that he forgot all about society and morals.

Just before the creation of the creature Mary Shelley creates a

semantic field of superstition leading to decay using words associated

with religion and death "the churchyard to me was merely the

receptacle of bodies deprived of life," This links in directly to

Frankenstein's loss of morals and shows how he is beginning to lose

touch with humanity. Also words such as "anxiety" and "nervous" have

been used to foretell Frankenstein's guilt.

When the being was created the reader probably wouldn't feel much

sympathy for it as they only have Frankenstein's point of view, which

they will tend to believe in. Frankenstein also was portrayed earlier

in the novel as a respectable, benevolent character, which the reader

would be likely...

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...bject and how it deals with the issue of

'usurping god' and how humanity deals with deformities in humans.

Reactions to the being would be a lot different today; society is not

tied to religion as strongly as it was then so he probably would be

accepted as a largely disfigured human. People would be a lot more

reserved in their reactions to him, it is unlikely that anyone would

scream in horror and run away at the sight of him but some people

still may try and avoid him and he might even be jeered at. All of

this however would be a huge improvement on the situation the being

faces in the novel. Readers of the novel back then may have felt less

sympathy for the being that modern day readers because of the

differences in society. I think Mary Shelley used the being to

challenge society's views of people with deformities and has done this

to good effect.