Who Is The Real Monster In Frankenstein

The following sample essay on Who Is The Real Monster In Frankenstein discusses it in detail, offering basic facts and pros and cons associated with it. To read the essay’s introduction, body and conclusion, scroll down.

” In focusing upon the creature’s first murder, the moment where he becomes truly “demonic”, Shelley encourages us to consider how our personalities are formed and what forces can transform a man into a monster. The next cruel act committed by the creature is to frame Justine with the child’s murder.

He is almost killing two birds with one stone here. This is another monstrous act of revenge emphasising the fact that the creature is the monster in this passage. Shelley seems to be suggesting that it is both the external forces that act upon us and the inner workings of the mind that turn ‘men’ into ‘monsters’.

At the end of the passage, the creature demands a companion, also created by Victor.

This is what he has been waiting for since his creation. If Victor rejects this demand he will become a monster because, once again, he is denying the creature love and compassion in the form of a companion. But Victor does not want to create another creature like this one. He is in a lose-lose situation. If he creates another being, he will feel double the guilt; if he does not, the creature will continue to exact revenge. Later in the story, Victor starts to reconsider his decision to create a companion for the creature.

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Victor Is The Real Monster In Frankenstein

He is considering the effects of having two superhuman beings in the world. He is indecisive until he sees the creature at the window of his workshop. He is reminded of the past actions of the creature. Victor, perceiving the creature to be spying on him, rips apart the second creation, almost in defiance. The creature is deeply unhappy about this, ” The Wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness”. Victor is the monster here but when the creature returns later and says “I shall be with you on your wedding night”,

We start to think of what the creature will do to Victor. The reader is now undecided about who the real monster is. The creature is the master of Victor but Victor is the only one who can give him a mate. The creature is powerful over Victor physically and can control his outer movements, but Victor is in control of his own mind and his conscience and he can’t be forced to make a mate for the creature. Near the conclusion of the novel, Victor is sent to gaol following a wrongful arrest for the murder of Clerval. He is distraught when he finds Clerval’s body.

He believes that he has caused the death and says “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny: but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor” This shows that Victor has now come to think of himself as a monster for creating a creature that had killed even his best friend. After serving some time in gaol, he is eventually released and decides to marry Elizabeth as soon as possible because he suspects that the creature is going to kill him on his wedding night and he is prepared for death.

However, by marrying Elizabeth, he is really hastening her death unknowingly. He is anxious and apprehensive of what may happen soon, but he is so concerned about his own safety fears that he does not think about anyone else’s. The negative side of his character has increased, selfishness has taken over and he bears no responsibility for Elizabeth. When Elizabeth dies at the hands of the creature, Victor’s thoughts turn to revenge. By killing the creature he hopes to put an end to the traumatic events.

After Victor has finished his narration to Walton, Walton continued to write letters to his sister because he is filled with admiration for Victor. It appears to the reader that Walton is so desperate for a companion that he thinks favourably of Victor even if he were to be a murderer. This associates Walton with the creature in some ways. The previous passage fills the reader with sympathy for Victor. He has practically given up on life and the only purpose he has for living is to “destroy the being to whom I gave existence. ”

He feels that no man can be as close a friend as Clerval was to him and no woman can be like Elizabeth. Both of these important people have been removed by the creature. “Can any man be to me as Clerval was; or any woman another Elizabeth? ” Victor believes that when he has killed the creature his “Lot on earth will be fulfilled, and I may die. ” The creature is portrayed as a monster who has destroyed Victor’s very reason for living, but it may be argued that Victor created the being and so brought the misery on himself. The last passage in the book is very moving.

Victor has died (through natural causes) and as Walton returns to his cabin to prepare him for his funeral, he discovers the creature bent over the cold body of Victor, in immense grief. The creature has come to hate himself for what he has put his creator through. “That is also my victim! In his murder my crimes are consummated: the miserable series of my being is wound to its close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me. ”

This shows the creature regretted his actions. The creature himself has realised how monstrous he has been to Frankenstein but it is not as much as the creature has had to endure in his short ‘life’. Overall, I believe that Victor is the real monster in this novel. He creates nearly all the suffering and misery in the story. He creates the creature which suffers because of disfigurement; he makes his family suffer misery by hardly ever acknowledging their constant support and love for him, and, probably most of all, he makes himself suffer huge amounts of misery through his unplanned actions.

Also by usurping the powers of God, he is performing the biggest sin: trying to play God. Victor’s overwhelming ambition was to give life to something which was lifeless. By creating life by himself without the need of the involvement of a woman was against the laws of nature and could be seen as monstrous. This could only bring destruction and misery to everyone involved. Frankenstein pays dearly for this and, in some ways, gets his just reward by having all he ever loved taken away from him. The creature was not born evil.

His actions were merely reactions to the way he was treated. Even his murder of Elizabeth was only a copy of Victor’s actions when destroying the mate he was making for the creature. Frankenstein had an overwhelming desire to be reknowned for a major achievement in medical science. This desire to satisfy his own ego grew into something which turned him into a monster. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section. Download this essay Print Save Not the one? Search for