Frankenstein

Wesley Fernandez

Ms. McDonald

English 2238

3 March 2015

A Monster

        In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein sets his sights on creating a new species by reanimating an object that was previously dead. He succeeds in creating a gigantic, unnatural beast but does not consider the consequences of doing so. His actions set in motion the events that would inspire death upon innocent people and would in turn ruin his life. Throughout the novel Victor refers to his creation as a monster, however, the only real monster in Frankenstein is Victor Frankenstein.

        A monster is someone or something that strikes fear and terror upon a community of people and causes pain or death. Webster’s Dictionary defines a monster as “a strange or horrible imaginary creature. Something that is extremely or unusually large. A powerful person or thing that cannot be controlled and that causes many problems.” While the dictionary definition matches a description of a large creature similar to the one in Frankenstein, it does not mention what creates such a being. One who is unscrupulous enough to allow such a creature to exist and cause so much havoc must surely be a monster as well. Victor spent nearly two years hard at work experimenting on animals, grave-robbing and pilfering for human body parts, and sacrificing his health “for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 58). Victor’s work and perseverance to play God and bring something horribly unnatural into the world is one of the things that make him a monster. Victor even admits that while working to finish his creation, he “deprived [himself] of rest and health…but now that [he] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart.” (Shelley 58-59) Victor drove himself mad by working countless hours to construct something he instantly saw as horrifying upon its first breath. Victor is a monster by these credentials in that he disturbed human graves, stole body parts, and drove himself crazy in the name of furthering his own work.

        While Victor Frankenstein’s creation fits the physical description of a monster with its size, yellow eyes, pale skin and blackened lips, along with the fact that it terrorizes and murders several people throughout the story, Victor remains the true monster. There are conditions under which a human being can be considered a monster. A human is to be considered a monster if they do something unspeakable or unthinkable or when they allow something terrible and unnatural to exist and to harm people around them. He created something terrible that should not exist. His silence and secrecy of the matter to his loved ones led to the deaths of his youngest brother William, his best friend Henry, his wife Elizabeth, as well as the execution of Justine. Not only did Victor keep his work a secret from his friends and family but also, he made an effort to make sure they did not find out. An example of this is when Henry came to visit Victor very soon after his work is complete. The two men are about to Victor’s dormitory when Victor insists that Henry stay at the bottom of the stairs while he went to go check and see if his terrible creation was still in his room where he left it. Upon discovering his creation was gone from his home, Victor “clapped [his] hands for joy and ran down to Clerval (Shelley 62). Instead of worrying about whether or not an undead monster was running around scaring or killing people, Victor was more relieved that it was gone from his home and he could go back to his friend without having to worry about Henry seeing the creature.

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