Here are some prompts you might want to respond to in preparation for our discussion of Frankenstein today:
- If you had never read the book before, were you surprised by the depiction of the Creature?
- Do you have sympathy for the Creature? Why or why not?
- Do you think his demand for an “Eve” (a female creature) is reasonable and just?
- Where does Victor really go wrong?
- What do you think is the purpose in the book of the sequence with the cottagers–Felix, Agatha, their father, and Safie?
- How do you think Shelley depicts Nature in the novel?
I found the section in which Frankenstein’s monster recalls the De Lacey family, and his fondness for them really interesting and incredibly important to understand Frankenstein’s monster’s motivations and capability for empathy. Through his story telling of this family and of Safie he is able to convey his own ability for both positive and negative emotions, which draws upon the reader and Frankenstein to feel empathetic for him. It also allows us to understand the prejudice which he feels is against him, and the anger he feels towards humanity. Through this little story told in the middle of the novel we are subjected to the complex emotions and even the humanity of the monster, which without he would not be as complex of an ‘antagonist’. It also helps as a sort of plot device, in which his rage and resentment towards Frankenstein and mankind stems from being outcast by the De Lacey family.
After reading Frankenstein for the first time, I was surprised by how cruelly Victor describes the Creature. He uses menacing words to describe the being he created. I believe that the Creature is not all bad, he clearly has emotions and desires to be more than just a monster. This is seen with the cottage where he stays in hiding, watching the family going about their lives. He cares for them and wishes to be a part of something bigger than he has. I believe that this is why he wanted to have an “Eve” for himself; a counterpart to what he is. That way there is someone else that he can experience life with that understands what it is like to be seen as a monster. I do have sympathy for the Creature when the cottagers turn him away and attempt to harm him. However, I find him to be the monster he is made out to be when he torments Victor in his lab to make him another creature. He is almost bullying his creator, then to almost ensure in its mind that Victor will do as he wants, the friend is killed.
I think must of us as kids have the typical sterotype of a monster, specifically Frankenstein as a harmful creature with the intent to hurt people; I even had that depiction of him till this day until reading Frankenstein. We are taught as children to not judge a book by its cover, and after reading the novel, I was reminded of that. This was not Frankensteins choice to become who he is now, and I do sympathize for him. Victor takes the time to describe Frankenstein physically and all his ugly features, but doesn’t inform the reader of his loneliness and want for love as all humans do.
Even though I have read the novel before, I wasn’t surprised by the description of the monster the first time that I read the novel, because I already had an idea that the monster looked like a horrible stitched together abomination from the way the monster is shown in pop culture. However one thing that is surprising once I read the novel was the fact that I found a lot of sympathy for the creature. He didn’t choose to be reanimated and brought back to life, just to be cast aside by his own creator and then treated like an abomination and a horrifying monster by everyone who looks at him. There’s a phenomenon in psychology called the “fulfilled prophecy” phenomenon which basically says that when someone is convinced throughout their life that they will turn out a certain way, then eventually they will actually fulfill that prophecy, and I think that’s important when thinking about the creature’s life and why it turned out to be the way that it was, because of the cruelty he faced from his creator, and people in general
Before this I had never read the novel Frankenstein, so there were many aspects about the monster that I wasn’t expecting. All that I previously knew about Frankenstein was what I learned from halloween stories as a kid, so I pretty much imagined him as a brainless zombie. Reading further and seeing how intense the monster feelings could really be opened my eyes, and gave me a new feeling of empathy for him. It made me put aside the fact that the monster had been previously vicious, and it made me see the flaws in what Victor had done. I think that like myself, victor failed to realize that the monster would have feelings as well as physical strength. Victor let the monster loose into a world that deeply fears the unknown, and so for this reason I think Victor is also somewhat responsible for the murders.
I had never read Frankenstein before taking this class, and the way the Creature was characterized was nothing like I imaged him. I was completely unaware of the story of how Frankenstein was created. I had never seen the movie either. The only thing I had an idea of, was the way Frankenstein looks due to the very popular Halloween costume. I knew that Frankenstein would be ugly, but I never imagined him being made from other human body parts, nor did I ever think he would possess human traits. When Frankenstein talked, ran, and felt emotions I was surprised, but intrigued. As I was reading the beginning of the novel, it made me have a lot of sympathy for both Victor and Frankenstein the monster. Frankenstein never asked to be created, and human kind feared him for the way he looked which I can image is a horrible feeling. Victor instantly regretted creating the Creature due to his looks, but yet set him free leading to the murders of many he loved. Towards the middle of the novel, I dislike both of these characters, Victor for is carelessness in letting the monster go right after he created him instead of killing him, and the Creature for killing so viciously for hatred of humans who feared him, and the loved ones of his creator. At the end of the book, when Frankenstein asks Victor to create a female creature, so he won’t be lonely, and he would stop being violent, I kinda felt bad for the Creature again, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea. I knew when Victor doubtably agreed there would be issues. I never thought he would be half way into his creation and destroy it in from of Frankenstein. I knew this would lead to more murders, but I like that it ended in Victor hunting him down to kill him even at the risk of killing himself. In my opinion, this made the end really suspenseful, and is one of the reasons I enjoyed reading this book.
The non-physical characteristics and depiction of the creature was definitely much different than what I had expected since this is my first time reading the novel. I already had prior knowledge of the creature’s physical description because growing up I think most people have seen some version of the monster, so we all have a general idea. But I genuinely expected the creature to immediately be a true monster in the beginning, which wasn’t the case. The creature was filled with curiosity and loneliness, and he had a sensitivity to him. I can empathize with the creature because he did not ask to be created, he just wants some social connection/understanding and he soon realizes that he will not be accepted because of the way he looks. And that must be awful! When the creature eventually becomes more angry and vengeful, that’s where I draw the line, but overall I do feel sorry for him. I am aware there are more layers to the story and reasons to not empathize with the creature, I just can’t help but feel for him.
This is my second time reading it, I read it just over a year ago and honestly forgot what the creature “Frankenstein would look like and act like. But my first impression was that he was going to be mean and cruel and want to kill people for no reason but there is a reason he’s lonely and wants Victor to love him and be nice and be around him. When Frankenstein first woke up or became alive, Victor had already gone, and Frankenstein had woken up to nobody, and that had to be sad. The whole time I was reading the book the first time I just felt sad for him because he just wanted to be seen and have relationships with people but that sadly took a while, and he never did get it.
I do believe his want for an “eve” is reasonable because when he first woke up, he was alone and that’s what he wanted, he wanted someone to be like him and that would understand him that that’s what everyone wants in life no matter what you are (human or animal wise).
Having never read the book, I was a little surprised with the depiction of the creature. The dopey and loud depiction of the creature in pop culture is very different from the vastly more articulate and aware depiction in the novel. I would say I have sympathy for the creature because of how harshly and quickly he’s judged from only appearances, like the creature could’ve been a lovely addition to society or at least just been a nice entity to have around but people had to go and be mean to him for no logical reason. The creature’s demand for an “Eve” isn’t exactly unreasonable. He just wants someone to love him and that’s a valid want. Obviously the creature isn’t thinking about the factors such as an “Eve” turning out to be evil or damaging to the general population so it’s really not unreasonable. I think that Victor goes wrong by not holding himself accountable for what he did in the first place. If Victor wasn’t so quick to run away from his problems (problems being creating the creature in the first place), then all the bad things literally would not have happened; like if he just raised the creature correctly or at all instead of leaving him for dead, then the creature potentially could’ve found a place in society or at least could’ve been eventually locked up so he wouldn’t cause harm.
I’ve never read Frankenstein, so the only knowledge I had going into it was that of popular culture. It was for this reason that I found the book so captivating; it was absolutely nothing like I expected, and one of the things that surprised me the most was the Creature. He was so much more eloquent than I had been led to believe, and a lot more ferocious. I had previously anticipated him to be a helpless, slightly dumb, creature that didn’t know his own strength, and thus caused distress as a result. It was shocking to read that he (eventually) was fully sound of mind, developed strong morals and opinions, and then afterward hurt people by choice.
It was for this reason that I honestly have little sympathy for the Creature. I had empathy at first, because he did not ask to be born and then cast out, and his rejection from society and his creator was heartbreaking to me. But the more the story progressed, I found myself disliking the creature more and more. It’s difficult, because I can definitely see the argument that he didn’t have much of a choice other than to become the menace everyone already saw him as–that change was undeniably influenced by a society that would never accept him–but he also still made the conscious decision to become a monster; to destroy innocent lives just because his feelings were hurt. Not only that, it wasn’t even in fits of rage or passion that some of these choices occurred: he acted with deliberate and conniving malice in the torture of Victor (although, to be fair, Victor is not a innocent), but also in the determination of Justine’s fate–a girl who actually was. Logically (and emotionally) I want to sympathize with the Creature very much, but I mostly just feel distaste and anger towards him–which I honestly believe has a lot to do with hearing his story through Victor’s biased point of view.
Still, the Creature is not the only being to blame. I think Victor goes so, so terribly wrong in letting the Creature just walk out of his house. Like, sure, make your creature, play God, but once you see it’s wrong and quite literally lose your mind just by perceiving it, what compels you to just walk away and then feel relief that it’s escaped? You could have killed it on the spot and been done with it, but instead you released a being upon the world you had no intention of controlling, and thus caused a lot of carnage. (But still, while I know Victor is very much in the wrong, I can’t help but root for him. Is that a bad thing? Am I in the minority in that?)
While I can obviously agree that the creature consciously, and with a set of his own morals, decided to inflict pain on the lives of innocent humans, I can not help but hold a great deal of sympathy and empathy for the creature. Helpless, in a world that’s deeply disturbed by his existence, clearly left the creature pained with psychological suffering; emotions in which not even a human can healthily endure. What truly saddens me, is the way he found comfort and happiness in the cottage’s inhabitants, and allowed himself to observe and feel alongside them. He characterized and established deep humanly emotions that only heightened his ability to connect. The creature refers to them as his “protectors,” signifying the ways in which they saved him from enduring enteral despair, giving him something to hope for. Then, after months and months of strength and personal encouragement, he built up the courage to reveal himself to the only human entities that brought him comfort. After being relentlessly rejected yet again, and more times to follow, how else could we expect him to react? The creature is not human, therefore giving the ability to separate himself from humankind, even though he so desperately wanted to join. After experiencing such anguish following every human interactions, it becomes easy for the creature to turn against the entire race; thus resulting in his un-pure intentions for vengeance.
Hearing the creatures story from his point of view only brought me pain and empathy. As a being so rejected by man, he truly held a great deal of empathy himself, even as an outcast physically unable to change others perceptions of him. The creature’s vengeance are based off of more then just hurt feeling, but a progression of deepening psychological pain that only caused him to suffer in a world he involuntarily joined.
I think the creature’s demand for a companion, or Eve, is both unreasonable and reasonable when you look at it from different angles. When I sympathize with the Creature, I can understand why he would want an Eve. From the very beginning of his life, he has been hated and looked at with disgust. His own creator abandons him, thinks he’s horrible, and then eventually tries to kill him. The people he begins to love, when they find out about him, also are disgusted by him. The creature has never experienced love in his life. He craves normal human love and believes that Victor owes him for creating him and leaving him. I see where he is coming from. He is very lonely and just wants someone who understands him and is like him. However, I also do not think it is a good idea to make another creature. The creature is crazy and murderous and sucks. Another one of those in the world would only cause harm.
Coming from someone who has never read the Frankenstein novel before, I was very surprised to hear how ‘the monster’ was described. I always thought Frankenstein was somewhat of a slow, lifeless creature that held no intellect or human value. In chapter ten, we hear Victor share how he saw the monster running towards him and then speak to him. Victor describes him as, “his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while it’s unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes.” I was definitely expecting him to be ugly, but I was surely not expecting him to speak, and moreover, ask for pity from Victor. Victor’s depiction of Frankenstein is at first disgusting, but by the end of chapter ten his decision to listen to the monster, as his sort of “duty” as his creator, helps change my view on Frankenstein and lead the reader in to have a change of thought.
I think the purpose of the cottagers was to prove how much of an outcast and how horrifying the creature really was. The creature spent many months observing the cottagers, learning their language and backstory, he must have felt extremely connected to them. The cottagers never knew the creature was there, but he decided to introduce himself to the blind father when no one else was around. Since the father could not see who he was talking to he believed it to be a normal person that had come seeking respite from his travels. The creature has a conversation with the father and is not judged because of the way he looks. However, when the other cottagers come back they are abhorred by the appearances of the creature and drive him away, without listening to his pleas for help. This interaction proved that the creature is judged solely on how he looks, and even if he is benevolent and kind hearted. The story of the cottagers is where the turning point for the monster is,. People he believed would accept him, and who he believed he trusted and actually knew, treated him the same way everyone else who saw him did. This was his villain origin story, the moment he vows to make the life of his creator as miserable as his own life.
Victor from the beginning started off overconfident. He believed he would be some sort of god that would create a new perfect race. When Victor sees the creature for the first time, he is overtaken with fear. Victor is afraid of what he has created, and also spends no time trying to understand the true nature of his creation. Victor’s overconfidence was one of the many ways he went wrong. He was obsessed with being better than everyone else, and he also was set on keeping his research a secret. The secrets he kept made it impossible for him to catch the creature because there was so way for him to do it on his own. Victor was so cocky that he couldn’t sacrifice his research in order to receive help. He ventured off into the arctic thinking he could fix his mistake on his own, but he couldn’t. He saw himself as too powerful from the beginning and that’s what lead him to make the creature and what lead him to his near death. The creature was not at fault for the murders, it was Victor.