Who Is the Real Monster in 'Frankenstein': Essay

Ever wonder what it feels like to be the outcast of the group? Or have the feeling of being different from everyone else? For the creature in Mary Shelley’s 'Frankenstein', Victor Frankenstein did not even give his creation a chance. The way the language of the text is written seems to be related to someone, or something, being evil or not. For the first time, Victor is speaking his mind about his creation, which is also the first time the audience sees this creature. The whole town chases this creature away because they only see evil when they look at the creature. The way that the creature is first portrayed by Victor controls the audience into thinking that his creation is a monster when it is actually Victor who is the real monster.

When Victor runs away from the monster, based on how he looks, it suggests that Victor sees the creature as an evil monster, even without directly using the word 'evil'. Victor is obsessed with the idea that he may be able to bring life back to the lifeless. This is what he is doing here with his creation. He is expecting to create something so beautifully crafted that he will be constantly praised for his work, but instead creates something horrific. So bad that he cannot bear to see what he has created. Victor explains in chapter five, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (58). Victor runs from the room and is now trying to fall asleep, but nightmares keep him awake as he cannot believe he has just created this ugly creature. Victor has abandoned his own creation because he is saying that since the creature is ugly, he imagines the creature must be evil. There cannot be innocence in ugliness. Also, before he runs out of the room in disgust and terror, he says “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (58). He is saying here that he once had happiness in the idea that he would bring death back to life, but now all he wanted to do was run away from the stupid decision he made. Victor, a flawed man, literally makes things get ugly when he decides to mess with nature. All this time he was depriving himself of self-care and resting, yet when he is done, things get worse because the image of his now living creation now haunts him. He runs away from the one thing that was giving him happiness over the last two years, all because of the way this creature looks. In his mind, if he runs away from the creature, he can forget about what he has done, as he thinks of his own creation to be a monster. The only thing Victor wants is to hide himself in shame because he is running away from what he thinks to be a monster, like a child.

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Victor’s description of the creature’s body attempts to persuade the audience to see the creature as a monster. Victor has been trying for a long time to create a beautiful creature and bring death back to life; an obsession he was proud of, that was until he was successful. He may begin his description of the creature being proportional, but then he says: “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (58). These characteristics are definitely not human-like to a certain degree, so it can be understood why he was so scared and caught off guard. There is a creepy contrast between life and death going on here. Victor describes his hair as ‘flowy’ and his teeth as ‘white’, which are all normal human descriptions. But he then describes his face as ‘shriveled’ and he said his lips were ‘straight’ and ‘black’. All of which are not attributes of the living. So, this creature looks half-dead and half-alive. No wonder Victor feels the way he does. There is a heavy emphasis on appearance when talking about the creature. He really wants the audience to believe that this creature is evil-looking. He uses characteristics that blend the creation of life from death to persuade the audience to believe and see what he does. This is the first time the audience will see the creature, so it has to be described how Victor wants them to feel; no room for their own opinion. It is a monster not even a mother, or in this case, a scientist, could love, so why would anyone else love the creature too, or even give it a chance?

The audience can see that Victor is insecure and unsure about his creation based upon how he would not even look at the creature, even after all the work he has put into it. Victor has spent a long time on the idea of re-creating death. He says, “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate object” (58). He dedicated his life to figuring out ways to create life from death. He never thought it would come true until he finally did it. The creature opened its eyes, and Victor ran away, without even seeing what was going to happen. The creature was given no chance at the life it deserved. There is a question remaining if this monster is a creature representing evil or was the creature created from evil. Now, the answer depends on the opinion of the audience. Was Victor trying to do good by creating life from a meaningless corpse, or could this have created a much bigger problem than the town could solve? Victor would not have created this creature if he knew what was actually going to happen. The creature taught itself everything since it was left to fend for itself. A long time went by before Victor saw the creature again, and by then the creature was managing life on its own. So, is Victor the evil one for creating something that did not have a chance? He would never know if the creature would be loving and caring. As soon as the creature tried to get what he wanted, a friend, he was chased out of town. So, the evil monster is in fact Victor, not the creation itself. This text is portraying looks about evil through the eyes of Victor, when if he did not use the language he did, the audience may see that Victor is the true evil monster here.

Being ugly certainly does not mean evil. Now, in today’s society, there are many ugly people in this world that could be considered evil. But the word ‘ugly’ does not have the same meaning as Victor is using it for. ‘Ugly’ means a bad personality or making ugly choices, neither has anything to do with physical characteristics. Like school shooters or terrorists, for example. Those who get off on the idea of hurting others; the ugly people in today’s society. Victor was imagining a creation that was beautifully created but instead got something the complete opposite. In his eyes, ugly looks mean an evil personality. This is where he went wrong. Everything he worked so hard for was thrown away just because he was not interested in giving the creature the chance it deserved.