Basically, the Monster may as well have been a freshly born baby in a stunting and hideous creature’s body?he had no knowledge of the world or his own deformities, and he did not understand why people wanted to hurt him, until he realized it is only because his appearance horrified and disgusted them. Even after he came to this realization, he still attempted to seek love and acceptance from the blind De Lacey, but he was met with the frightened and brutal beatings of De Lackeys son, Felix.
But instead of retaliating, he left; he also saved a drowning girl, but his final act of kindness is not met with gratitude, but with gunshots. The brutality is the response to al of his attempts to be good-natured and even caused him to question suicide, as he did not wish to live in pain and anguish. Here the Monster stated, ‘Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed” (Shelley p. 1 17).
This shows that the Monster was not inherently evil, he was gentle by nature and turned malevolent by Victors irresponsibility and society cruelty. What is worse is that the Monster is quite eloquent, and here author Melissa Bassoonist states, “He is kinder, more loving, and more poetic than his creator. The tragedy of he book is so transparently the way the world deforms and embitters him” (Bassoonist p. 108). If he had a more aesthetically pleasing body, the Monster could have had a good life. Another one of Victor’s flaws that caused tragedy to occur was his narcissism and self-centeredness.
When he first began to work on his Creation, he isolated himself and ignored his family’s attempts to contact him; he was stuck in his own world that he had filled with death in order to create life, and this caused him to neglect the people who loved him. He also allowed his ego to rule him, and he let this egotism own cloud his judgment ND cause him to be reckless?he had a responsibility to take care of his Creation, but he only thought about himself and let the newly animated creature face the world alone.
Even though Victor idealized his perfect family, he allowed his own Creation to grow up without a father or guiding figure; this also shows how “his world only revolves around him. ” Time passed, and the Creature turned to evil since nothing good ever came from his unrequited kindness, and he found Victor once again. After Victor realized the Monster is the one that killed Victors little brother, William, and he had a chance to admit his failure and save the wrongly accused Justice’s life, but he chose not to for several reasons?he did not want to face his defeat, and he valued his reputation more than Justice’s life.
After the Monster confronted Victor, he presented to him an opportunity to prevent future destruction, and to finally be rid of him by creating him a female companion; the Monster even stated, “If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature’s sake, would make peace with the whole kind” (Shelley p. 126). Victor agreed, but ultimately broke his promise when he destroyed the female creature. He did not carefully think about the Monsters threats, he simply assumed that the Monster would only hurt him, not his family.
His negligence to acknowledge that his family may be harmed as a consequence of his broken promise lead to their deaths, and yet he still blamed his Creation. Victor’s unquenchTABLE craving for notoriety ultimately caused the irreparTABLE agony in the book. He did not consider the prospective harmful effects of his experiments, he only wished to be renowned and worshipped, ND he wanted this fame as soon as possible. Since he hastily constructed the Monster, and he purposely did not pay attention to detail so that he would finish swiftly, the creature looked hideous?this is another reason why the Monsters life turned into a nightmare.
On another note, even though some argue that Victor had noble reasons for creating life, such as reversing death and illness, his motivation behind these wishes completely negated any benevolent thoughts behind his enthusiasm; he wanted eternal gratitude and recognition from the people he resurrected, and he states here, “A new pieces would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley p. 44). This desire to replace God and be known by all is not noble, and it shows his true character. Additionally, another flaw that Victor had was his deluded perspective of himself.
This proved to be fatal for his future, since his bottled up emotions were eventually released and placed into his Creation. In this way, the Monster mirrored Victor’s repressed dark side?he was the product of Victors imperfection and over-ambition. All things considered, even though people argue that Victors Creation is to lame for all of the destruction, Victor is the actual monster that corrupts his Creation because of his materialism, his self-centeredness, his thirst for fame, and his inability to accept his dark side.
Mary Shelley carefully crafts her words in the book to leave room for discussion?who is at fault for the disasters? Some scholars argue that the Creation is to blame, while others point the culpability towards Victor. Even though the Monster was the one with blood on his hands, it was ultimately Victor’s fault for his irresponsibility and other imperfections. All in all, if Victor had simply taken on the accessibility of being the creator he had so wantonly wished for, things would have worked out much differently.
