The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a frame story in the viewpoint of Victor Frankenstein, The monster Frankenstein and Captain Walton. The beginning of the book contains a series of letters exchanged. The story is about Victor Frankenstein and his obsession with sciences and where it took him. Victor was a fortunate child growing up. He had his family as support, they loved him very much and he loved them. His mother passed away when he was a teenager when she risked her life for his adopted sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Victor got along very well growing up. When his mother died, they promised her they would be wed to take care of the family for her. When he was at the age to attend college, instead of marrying Elizabeth right away, Victor left for college at Ingolstadt. This is where his experiments came to life, everything he worked for when he was a child. His professors were vital to his learning. He became fascinated with life and death, so much that he wanted to create life himself. He used his apartment and a small laboratory to create what he was longing but once his creation came to life, he regretted everything. The monster envied the love and family his creator had, because he had none of it. He attempted to create contact with humans when he ran away from Victor. He met an old man named De Lacey and his family. He spent months spying on them. Here he learned to speak and communicate with De Lacey. He was blind therefore when the monster went to speak to him and ask for help the old man offered help. When his children came back they saw his horrid appearance and struck him and ran away. This broke him and was when everything changed, this is when he killed William, the death in which Justine, Williams nanny was blamed and killed. The monster offered a deal with Victor, he would stop attacking his family as long as Victor created him a monster. Victor agreed but as soon as he started creating her he destroyed her because he was so enraged with what the monster did. Furious, the monster confronted him and told him he would be there on his wedding day. Shortly after he killed Victor’s best friend, Henry Clerval. Scared of what would happen to the rest of his remaining family, Victor returned to his home, Geneva and promised to marry Elizabeth in which he did. On the night of their wedding the monster kept his promise and killed Elizabeth. Victor’s father also died from his sadness. Left with no one, Victor went to search of the monster to kill him. There he came in contact with Captain Walton and Victor died. The monster found him and died with him, because Victor was the only family he had. In conclusion I believe the actual monster in Frankenstein is Victor Frankenstein for all of what happened. Victor was so repulsed by his creations appearance that he left him to fend for himself. The creation he made had no idea what was going on and Victor should have expected his appearance and the lack the monster had to think and speak on his own.
The creation explained his experiences to Victor after running away and it began alone in the woods. By observing a family through a small hole, Frankenstein was able to learn about himself and everyone around him but before that he was alone and had to learn most on his own. When he first left Victor’s apartment the monster stated, “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.” This meaning that when he was first on his own, he had no idea what was going on with him and experienced it all on his own and had to deal and learn about what was going on with him, by himself. He also told Victor, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half-frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes; but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept” This was all of Victor’s fault. He did nothing to contain the monster or look for him, knowing that he had created something no one has ever thought of creating. This proves that what he did, was not his fault, he could not understand what was going on, he wasn’t capable of learning yet. Since Victor did not look for the monster or taught him anything before the monster left on his own, his sadness, anger and confusion was all of Victor’s fault, the monster was unaware of how to control his emotions and how to be among other people or ask for help on his own.
In another point in the story, Victor had promised the monster a companion, someone to make him happy and keep him company since the monster had come to the realization that he will never be loved by humans. Victor had begun to create this companion and when he was almost done, he noticed the monster had followed him and was watching his every move, and therefore destroyed her. Enraged the monster went to Victor and told him “The monster saw my determination in my face, and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. “Shall each man,” cried he, “find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! you may hate; but beware! your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness for ever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions; but revenge remains–revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die; but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.” Here the monster opened himself to Victor and asked him why did he want to see the monster so horrible and alone, why did he have to take away the only thing that was going to make him happy and at peace. The monster also told Victor, “It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.” Meaning the monster warned Victor what would happen for what he did. It was Victor’s fault the monster felt the way he felt. He had no one and Victor crushed the little bit of hope he had left in him. Victor then revealed, “A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.” The monster had killed Elizabeth. I feel like Victor really was the one who killed her because the monster had warned him he would kill her for what he had done to him and Victor still left her alone.
By rejecting the affection and care the monster needed, he made the monster a hateful, vengeful person. The reason the monster was so hateful was because everyone he came in contact with, especially his creator, were disgusted by his appearance and refused to help him. It was the worst when he attempted to help De Lacey and his family and the little girl drowning because he was actually doing something right and nice, something that made him happy and come in contact with his emotions, yet everyone refused to hear him out and just assumed he was there to kill them. If Victor had stayed after he created him, he would have known how to feel affection and care and learn to speak and communicate. This would have saved Victor and his family. Even after all of that happened when Victor’s brother and Justine were killed, Victor still had a chance to change everything and save his best friend, future wife, father and brother Ernest but last minute changed everything. He was only looking out for himself because the enraged monster even told him from after that, he would kill everyone else and Victor still refused to listen. This is why he is to blame for all of the murders in his family. I think the big idea or the hidden meaning to the story is basically not to judge someone from appearances because you never know where they’ve come from or what they’ve been through.