Who is the monster - Frankenstein or his creation? Essay -- English Li

Who is the monster - Frankenstein or his creation? "Frankenstein" written by Mary Shelly, was first published in 1818. The book has sold millions of copies and has become deeply rooted in today's society by films and other versions of the books. The main bulk of the story is about Victor Frankenstein's horrendous adventure. However there are sub-plots throughout the story, Robert Walton's journey to the North Pole, and the time the monster spends with the DeLacy family. The definition of a monster is, "something of unusual size or appearance, a huge terrifying creature or an evil person." [Chambers School Dictionary] All of these definitions can be related to both Frankenstein and the creation. To the creation, a huge terrifying creature and of unusual size and appearance, and to Frankenstein an evil person, powered by his hatred of the monster. Mary Shelly's life was very similar to the story of "Frankenstein". Her child, also called William, died at a young age. Her mother died at childbirth and possibly gave the sense of abandonment felt by the creation, "My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them." This showed that the monster was confused about himself, yet had nobody to ask and to confide in. Much like Mary Shelly. When Mary was writing Frankenstein she was reading a book called Emile by John Jacques Rousseau. In this text, Rousseau argued that men are by nature harmless, (i.e. children are naturally innocent) but are made cruel by society, thought the things they have done to them. Rousseau's quote was, "Men become monsters because... ...e a second monster, the bride for the creation. However half way through Frankenstein destroyed the corpse and thus angered the monster further, when Frankenstein could have had the monster out of his life for all eternity. This is also a good example of Frankenstein's selfishness as it shows that he was only thinking about himself as he believes that the creation well use this second monster to reek havoc upon the world, "Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity [Once again we see that he is being biased towards the monster as he never tried to reason with the monster and any time.] had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant that her mate".