Rejection In A Society
Reading the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, I thought that the creature was more sympathetic; meaning having or showing kind feelings toward others. First he is loving and caring, but as soon as he starts to get rejected he feels he has no one to turn to.
The creature is rejected in the society that Victor brings him into. The first rejection for the creature is when Victor leaves him, he has no idea where he is or what to do. Victor has no responsibility for his actions and this sets the pattern for the creature’s whole life. “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” (Shelley 100).
Victor can’t see the difference between the dream he had and the reality for the creature he decided to make. He’s not very mature and has a lot of self-discipline problems. When villagers saw him in a town, they were prejudice against him just because of his appearance. Stoning him, calling him a wretch and a fiend. He saves a little girl’s life when she is drowning in a river and a man shoots him. The DeLacey family also rejects him after he chopped them wood, cleared the way in the snow for them, and pulled weeds in the garden. When he thought he could find a little kid to be his friend he was mistaken. He thought that just because they were little, they wouldn’t know how to judge him. However when he got William Frankenstein, he screamed and called him a wretch. This disappointed him, now knowing he had no friends.
The creature had to learn everything by himself. “I felt light and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; and on all sides various scents saluted me: the only object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure (100). For example, he learned how to satisfy his hunger by eating nuts and berries and his thirst by drinking out of a rippling steam that he passed. When reading some books that he found, he learned life lessons, such as: good, evil, wealth and social standings. He was like a little baby, left out in the cold to fend for himself. He had no idea what to do or where to go.
Victor didn’t feel any sympathy or take any responsibility for his family when he left to explore. Furthermore he didn’t take care of the creature that he created.
The creature just wanted to love and be loved back, like any other human in our world today. Would you want to live your life with no friends or family? No one to love? That’s how the creature felt. He had no one to love or love him back because he was just this “thing” that Victor Frankenstein had created him to be. “Yet I ask you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands” (97). Victor started to make the creature a mate. As soon as the creature popped his head in the window to see how he was doing, Victor ripped it to shreds. The creature told him he would see him on his wedding night. Killing first his brother, then Henry Clerval, and now his wife. He would now have the same happiness as the creature. None! The creature looks to find another but finds no one.
After Victor has no one left to love, he spends the rest of his days trying to get revenge on the creature. When he is dying on the ship, the creature comes to see him and feels bad for doing what he did to Victor. But, he did say all he wanted was a mate then he would go off, leaving Victor and his family alone. To sum it up, I believe Victor owed the creature something because he created him. The creature did not ask to be brought into the world.
Bibliography:
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: TOR Classic, 1993.