Feelings Throughout Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Kristin Hauck

Mrs. Daugherty

English 12AP

26 July 2011

Feelings Throughout Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

               Being a child that has grown up reading fairy tales and other fantastic stories, hearing the title Frankenstein frightened me.  Upon learning that the AP English classes would study this novel, I immediately began to think that I was going to be reading a horror story about the uncontrollable monster whose green face flashed before my eyes each time I heard the title of the novel.  However, after reading the novel Frankenstein, my predetermined feelings about the story were changed. Throughout Mary Shelley's novel, I felt sympathy for the monster created by Victor Frankenstein.

               In the beginning of Shelley's novel, after Frankenstein had created the monster, I immediately felt sympathy toward the poor creature that had unwillingly been brought into the world. Merely a science experiment, the monster was completely unaware of it's own body and surroundings following the monster's abandonment by it's creator. After creating the monster, Victor states that he was, "unable to endure the aspect of the being that [he] created" (Shelley 43). Without even giving the monster a chance to get to know his creator, Frankenstein flees the room, leaving the poor being to fend for himself. The sympathy that I felt for the monster continued to grow. As time passed, Frankenstein became more and more cowardly. He, "issued into the streets, pacing them with quick steps, as if I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared" (Shelley 45). The monster is left alone in the laboratory while it's creator wanders the streets in fear.  If Frankenstein had tried to meet the monster and get it know it, the story could have had a completely different ending, making life much easier for both characters.

               Furthermore, I felt much sympathy for the monster throughout the re-telling of the time that the monster spent with the cottagers. After meeting up with Frankenstein, the monster explains his story from the beginning, shortly after his creator leaves. The monster says, "It was dark when i awoke; I felt cold...I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept" (Shelley 90-91).  The monster is completely alone and terrified. At this point in the novel, I began to dislike Victor Frankenstein; he created the monster by choice, and failed to pursue it following creation.  Also, I felt sympathy for the monster in its attemp to make friends with the De Lacey family, the father in particular. After the monster observes and learns from the family, he decides to enter the home one day, following the departure of the children. When the monster enters the blind man's (Mr. De Lacey) home, he is greeted pleasantly and is even feeling courage for the first time. However, my sympathy for the monster begins to "kick in" when the children return home and are frightened by the monster's appearance. The monster is chased out of the village for good. His time with the cottagers caused me to think about his melancholy life and to feel more hatred toward Victor Frankenstein.

               Finally, I felt sympathetic toward the monster throughout the final few chapters of the novel.  The monster, after dealing with hardships throughout the entire novel, requested one favor of Frankenstein: to have a female companion created for him.  After promising to do this, Victor Frankenstein states that he, "could not collect to courage to recommence [his] work" (Shelley 139).  I sympathized with the monster at this point because after all of the trouble that Frankenstein caused, the least he could do is create a companion for the monster. In addition to this scene, I sympathized with the monster and the very end of the novel. After learning that Frankenstein is never going to create a female companion, the monster begins to kill the loved ones of Victor. While many people would feel sorry for Victor here, I sympathize with the monster because he is merely lashing out based on the melancholy and difficult life that he has been forced to lead.  The creator causes much sadness for the monster throughout the end of the novel.

               My premeditated feelings about the novel Frankenstein were completely altered during my reading. Although I believed that I would be afraid of the monster in the novel, I proved myself wrong when sympathetic feelings began to engulf me throughout my reading. I felt sympathetic toward the monster upon his creation, when he observed and learned from the cottagers, and at the end of the novel when he is left alone with no companions.  The novel Frankenstein proves that predetermined feeling may not always end up being accurate.