Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

How does Mary Shelley present the character of the monster so as to

gain sympathy for him?

When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, in

1818 at the tender age of 18, it was often wondered how such a young

girl could imagine such a horrific story. In fact, one could find that

the idea of ‘playing God’ and manipulating the ideas behind life and

death were very much real at the time, and even today. Many scientists

were investigating the process of bringing a dead being back to life,

or galvanism, and there were some, like Humphrey Davy, who believed

that scientists had no limit as to what they could do, believing that

they could become masters, even creators. Shelley’s character,

Frankenstein, shares these views and with great confidence he vowed,

“more, far more, will I achieve… [I will] explore unknown powers, and

unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation”, thus he

created his ‘monster’.

Frankenstein’s ambitious, perhaps dangerous, dream of exploring

‘unknown powers’ by creating a human being and pouring “a torrent of

light into our dark world” is incredibly similar to the story of

Prometheus, almost certainly the reason behind Mary’s subtitle to the

novel. Both Prometheus and Frankenstein defy the God’s and the

intentions of nature by creating life, supposedly for the good of

mankind. However both men fail to recognise the consequences that

arise from their actions, but where Prometheus is punished by the

Gods, Frankenstein is tormented by his very own creation for forming

“a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust”.

It is apparent that Mary Shelley wrote the novel as a kind of warning

to the many scientists and radicals at the time of publicatio...

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...upon him, instead choosing to

attack. The creature then feels feelings of “rage and revenge” and all

hope in humans is lost after he suffers from the rejection of his

loved ones. He releases his anger onto the uninhabited cottage when he

felt the need to “spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to

have sat down and enjoyed the ruin”. It is already becoming clear that

the endless rejection after rejection from Frankenstein, the villagers

and the de Laceys’ is causing the creature to take shape into the

monster that he is so often accused of being. He recognises this when

he says “I am malicious because I am miserable… If I cannot inspire

love, I will cause fear”, and so he does. He declares an “everlasting

war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had

formed me”, as he blames everything that is wrong in his life on

Frankenstein.