The Monster Is Not Born - Frankenstein - Essay Example

The Monster Is Not Born – Frankenstein “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on”.(Chapter 24, Walton's letter continued) This is how the monster sums up his situation at the end of the tale, the word “abortion” spelling out the rejection faced by an unwanted child, better dead than alive, which tormented him to acts of unspeakable cruelty. His inhuman appearance was not gained through a life of heinous deeds, it was how he was made by his human creator. The monster was no monster at heart to begin with, he gradually became so after a lifetime of violent rejection and spite, first from his creator, and then from all other human beings, even those he had tried to befriend. Little wonder that he was pushed down step by step into the abyss of hatred and murder. Through the entire novel, he is given no name, and one is forced to call him a “monster” from the beginning to the end. Built from the body parts of various dead people, he is terrifying to look at even at the moment of creation, so much so that even Victor, his creator, is afraid of him and abandons him. Victor, who has been spoilt by his doting parents, does not understand that he has to take the responsibility for his actions, that he has to face the being, and is obliged to understand the hideous-looking new life he has created. He does so only very briefly, and that when it is too late, when his brother is already dead, more out of dread curiosity on whether the monster is his brother's slayer. His concern for the monster, admitted to himself for the first time, is an afterthought: “I had hitherto supposed him to be the murderer of my brother, and I eagerly sought a confirmation or denial of this opinion. For the first time, also, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness”( Chapter 10). Victor does not accept his duty towards humanity by letting such a huge, powerful being of such a fearsome aspect roam free and unattended. The monster blunders into the world in pain, cold, miserable, hungry and clueless, through no fault of his own. His suffering knows no bounds, he is at the mercy of nature, with no idea on how to cope with his situation. This is how he describes his foray into the world to Victor, later in the course of the novel: “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”. (Chapter 11) But by the time he talks to Victor, he has murdered Victor's brother in a sort of warped vengeance, and his creator finds it difficult to respond to the appeals of sympathy, “Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing? they spurn and hate me” and the subsequent threats of dreadful consequences with any compassion. But not being in the position of Victor who has lost a brother and is unable to cope objectively either with his loss or his aversion to the beast-like figure he had given two years of his life to create, the reader is able to empathize with the monster's plight. The reader encounters a pitiable creature, abject and pathetic. In the beginning, the monster is terrified of the villagers on being persecuted, and escapes with a readiness totally at odds with his great size and menacing appearance.: “.... but I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was mused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country, and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel....”(Chapter 11). What further moves the reader is the tenderness of the monster's first descriptions of the De Lacey family, where he displays a very human quality, even noble refinement and understanding: It was a lovely sight, even to me, poor wretch! who had never beheld aught beautiful before. The silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged cottager won my reverence, while the gentle manners of the girl enticed my love.... He raised her, and smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions. ( Chapter 11) When living undetected in the vicinity of the De Lacey family, he was full of benign emotions, innocent even of the very concept of shedding blood. The future ruthless murderer was not born in him yet, because so far his interaction with the human race had been unpleasant but limited. He had no concept of who or what he was, how different from the human race, and the nature of his own creation. He knew by now that his appearance inspired fear and loathing in human beings, but he had as yet no one to blame for his present horrible appearance. The very mention of slaughter or murder moved him to deep disgust, just as it would any other gentle human being: To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing. (Chapter 13) He saw in human beings a loftier race, in Felix and his family a superior sort of moral, emotional and social framework, and admired them for their qualities : “ Such was the history of my beloved cottagers. It impressed me deeply. I learned, from the views of social life which it developed, to admire their virtues, and to deprecate the vices of mankind.”(Chapter 15). He actually feels sorry for his “protectors”, and tries to help them by chopping firewood for them, and on witnessing Felix and his sister's virtuous and compassionate behavior, he does not rob them further of their meager resources."This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood”(Chapter 12). At this point of his life, the monster has a conscience, and a very active one at that. This conscience torments him throughout his tumultuous life, to the point of Victor's death, but is never sufficient to prevent him from committing the grisly murders in vengeance against his creator. The seeds of his murderous intent lay in the repeated rejections he received, especially from those he longed so hard to to please and be part of, the DeLaceys: The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. I dared not think that they would turn them from me with disdain and horror. The poor that stopped at their door were never driven away. I asked, it is true, for greater treasures than a little food or rest: I required kindness and sympathy; but I did not believe myself utterly unworthy of it.(Chapter15) The rejection from the DeLacey family who did not have the opportunity to know the man behind the monster, dealt a big blow to the monster's faith in human nature. The unwarranted blow from Felix which the monster had done nothing to merit and had not repelled despite his awareness of his own capability to do so, cut the monster to the very core of his being, especially because by this time the monster knew about his own origins in great detail from Victor's records. He knew that it was his grotesque appearance that blinded the De Laceys against him, and he traced the cause of his misery back to Victor, his creator against whom he swore dire vengeance: “There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery”. (Chapter 16) In the course of his travels the monster has another encounter with the human species, and is shot and wounded while trying to rescue a girl. The girl's companion shot at him, thinking perhaps that it was the monster that had harmed her, whereas this could not be further from the truth. Once again, the loathsome appearance of the monster proves to be his undoing. This incident of another violent repulsion and an almost mortal injury in exchange for his great kindness received at human hands renewed his resolve to hold mankind as his deadly enemy. “... with extreme labour from the force of the current, saved her, and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and I endeavoured by every means in my power to restore animation.....but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired. .....This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and, as a recompense, I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound, which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind”.(Chapter 16) In this rabid frame of mind the monster makes his way towards the home of his creator, and in a twist of ironic destiny unknowingly chances upon the brother of his hated creator, and hopes to find love and acceptance from a small boy's unprejudiced breast. But that was not to be and the monster is again venomously spurned by the child, who boasted of his family name of Frankenstein and dared the monster to harm him. The dormant devil inside the monster finally awoke under the long stress of real and perceived injuries, and he shed blood for the first time. On recognizing the boy and in trying to silence his insults, the monster strangled him to death. “ The child still struggled, and loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart; I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.... “I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph: clapping my hands, I exclaimed, `I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him”.( Chapter 16) What is worse, the thought of all the things denied him, including female companionship, introduce cunning into the formerly naive heart of the monster. He plants the evidence of the boy's murder, the locket, on a girl he chances upon, and the girl is sentenced to death for the murder of the boy. The monster is now slowly sinking into the quicksand of evil. At this stage, Victor has a belated sense of his responsibilities and an attack of conscience, and he refuses to create a female monster. The monster then promises to ruin Victor's wedding night as a punishment for his refusal to furnish the monster with a mate. "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......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”(Chapter 20) The monster degenerates from bad to worse, cold-bloodedly murdering Victor's innocent friend Henry Clerval in revenge for Victor refusing to create him a suitable monstrous mate. He, of course, also makes true his dread promise, and dispatches with Elizabeth, Victor's innocent wife, on the wedding night itself. The transformation from a pitiful, ugly, timid, gentle giant to a confident, formidable, articulate and fulsome creature who is nothing but a machinery for rage and revenge is thus gradual, and a result of the series of painful incidents inflicted on him since birth. He is smitten by remorse throughout, the murder of Henry Clerval causes him infinite guilt, but his vengefulness is fanned anew when he sees that his creator is planning to get married and be happy, where he, the creation can never hope for happiness. The murder of Elizabeth seals the transformation, the monster finally realizes that he is now an ogre inside and out, tormented into becoming the very opposite of his original noble inner self. A frightful selfishness hurried me on, while my heart was poisoned with remorse. Think you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears? My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine... But when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance....I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey. Yet when she died! Nay, then I was not miserable. I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my despair. Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen.((Chapter 24, Walton's letter continued) The devil has made its permanent home in the monster after his horrific deeds, but even now it is clear that it was vengeance that drove him, and not wanton cruelty, because after the death of Victor, the monster does not want to harm anyone further, resolves to destroy himself, and is never seen and heard of again. I look on the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart in which the imagination of it was conceived and long for the moment when these hands will meet my eyes, when that imagination will haunt my thoughts no more...Fear not that I shall be the instrument of future mischief. My work is nearly complete. Neither yours nor any man's death is needed to consummate the series of my being and accomplish that which must be done, but it requires my own. (Chapter 24, Walton's letter continued) The monster indeed is not born evil, but in his birth lay the tragic cause of his rejections and subsequent fall from good nature, which slowly compelled him to vengeance, hatred and infernal deeds. Read More