The Real Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The story of Victor Von Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a tale with many themes that have to do with creation, man playing god, and the nature of mankind. The book’s narrative is first told through the eyes of Captain Robert Walton. Later, after he meets Frankenstein and begins to listen to his story, Captain Walton serves as sort of a conduit for the reader as if Frankenstein is telling the story to the reader in a way that heads a warning and pleads the reader to learn from his mistakes and not to follow down his path of scientific arrogance. Throughout Frankenstein’s narrative, he often refers to his creation as “the monster” or “the fiend” in order to show his distaste and hatred for the creature. At first it would seem as if the…show more content…
Despite not approaching anybody in a hostile way, the monster is treated by every human he meets with hostility, whether he is attacked or shunned by anybody he meets. Only due to his hideous physical appearance do people attack without hesitation whether he is being offensive or not. This hostility is man’s fear of the unknown and also mankind’s interpretations of something just because it looks different than he does. The creature is refer to again and again as a monster, but only because that is the label that is cast upon him not only his own creator, but by society in general. There is a certain sympathetic element to be felt for the creature as he is at first very innocent and doesn’t wish to hurt anybody, but through the mistreatment of his peers he is slowly hardened into a vengeful monster and in turns becomes the very thing that society labeled him as. This conveys a message that the mistreatment of others due to differences as meaningless as one’s physical appearance can cause someone to feel shunned and unwanted enough to push them to a point of radical behavior including
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