Throughout the last century, the movie and theater industries have been creating and recreating movies about Frankenstein, the monster. He has been depicted as a gigantic, ugly monster with incredible strength that walks around searching for his next victim. In the original book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Monster is not depicted as a complete savage, but is shown to be more of a person. The Creature is intelligent and is an outcast from society.
Regardless of the Creature’s horrific appearance, he was very a very intelligent individual. When the Creature is telling Frankenstein about how he first learned about communication, he says, “This reading had puzzled me extremely at first, but by degrees I discovered that he uttered many of the same sounds when he read as when he talked. I conjectured, therefore, that he found on the paper signs for speech which he understood, and I ardently longed to comprehend these also; but how was that possible when I did not even understand the sounds for which they stood as signs?” (98).
The Creature is able to recognize patterns in the speech of DeLacey. He is then able to infer that symbols on the paper represent the words that DeLacey has been using. Much like his creator, Frankenstein, the Creature yearns for knowledge. The Creature later recounts the story when Safie begins to learn French. He explains, “Presently I found, by the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them, that she was endeavouring to learn their language; and the idea instantly occurred to me that I should make use of the same instructions to the same end. The stranger learned about twenty words at the first lesson; most of them, indeed, were those which I had before understood, but I profited by the others” (102).
The Term Paper on Similarities in Frankenstein and Monster
Frankenstein is regarded one of the best Gothic novels because it beautifully and artistically blends the natural philosophy, scientific spirit of 19th century, Mary Shelley’s own literary influences and her individual vision and literary craft. A close analysis of her (Mary Shelley’s) subjective approach and critical evaluation of the text of novel reinforces the truth that Percy ...
His intelligence begins to develop very rapidly at this point, as he is able to discern between certain words and start to learn new ones along with Safie. How a monster that was just recently brought to life can learn to speak is an amazing feat. The Creature later recounts how begins to comprehend French when he says, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken”(103).
At this point, the Creature’s intelligence is undeniable. Learning a language from nothing is extremely difficult for anyone, but the Creature was able to learn faster than Safie, who can already speak one language. The Creature’s ability to learn and comprehend a language and also learn how to read shows how intelligent he is. However, his growing intelligence allows him to also comprehend hi wretchedness.
The Creature is always alone throughout the entire story. When Frankenstein first encounters his Creature after he originally escaped from it, the Creature says, “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us” (83).
The creature explains that he is very miserable. He is lonely and hated by all other living things. The worst feeling is that even his creator detests and rejects him. As the Creature is telling Frankenstein about the time when he was learning from the DeLacey family he says, “When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?” (105).
At this point the monster realizes that he is the only one of his kind. He is all alone in this world and is an outcast from society. His growing intelligence helps him to realize this. Even in all the stories he hears from the DeLacey’s, he never once hears of somebody like him. Later, he learns even more about his wretchedness. While the Creature is taunting his creator for what he did he exclaims, “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance” (115).
The Essay on Character Analysis – The Monster In Frankenstein
The monster’s physical grostequeness, as well as murderous deeds – his strangling of William, Clerval, Elizabeth and framing of Justine – tempts the unthinking reader to believe that the monster is the embodiment of evil. However, on analysis, the reader realizes that this is not entirely true. Mary Shelley has gone to great lengths to portray the monster as less of a ‘daemoniacal corpse’ and more ...
The Creature knows now that he is different from all other creatures. He believes that he cannot even turn to God, because he is not one of His creations. He knows that he is hideous, despised, and is destined to be miserable his whole life, and that it is Frankenstein’s fault that he is that way.
Unlike movie interpretations of Frankenstein, the Creature from the book is not a raging monster; he is very much like a person. He is very intelligent and has feelings like normal people, but he is also an outcast. Mary Shelley did not want to create an insane beast for a monster when she wrote Frankenstein; she wanted to create a humanlike monster to propose a question about the morals of the human race.
