Empathy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story of birth and creation, revenge, and alienation as a reckless young man usurps a traditionally female role by creating life by sewing together and reanimating dead body parts in his secluded laboratory. Immediately abandoning his creation, Victor Frankenstein leaves him to fend for himself in a society that rejects the peculiar. Lost in an evil world, the Creation is forced to learn how to take care of himself as he is continuously rejected by anyone he attempts to connect with. Frankenstein’s Creation deserves the most empathy from the reader because he came into this world alone and is continuously rejected by people when all he wants is to be accepted and loved. Although Frankenstein’s suffering is real, …show more content…
This switch from ethereal to vengeful takes place when he tries to save a young girl in the forest from drowning in a stream. As he grabs her out of the water he is shot by a man with a gun, and it is only after this event that he vows “...eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (143). His first murder, which was Victor’s younger brother, William was done completely out of vengefulness for his creator not necessarily because he wanted to murder someone. His original intentions when seizing William was to “...educate him as my [his] companion and friend...” so he would “...not be so desolate in this peopled earth...” (144). He never intended to harm the young boy, but was yearning for his companionship, however it was once the boy named himself as a Frankenstein the Creature kills him. Having not yet reached full emotional maturity, he goes to such an extreme to cope with his alienation from society. Although the murder of a child is an indefensible act, the reader still empathizes with the hopeless Creature. Had Victor never abandoned his creation in the first place, he never would have to revert to violence. After coming face to face with his creator, the Creature warns Victor that if he does not create a companion for him, he “...shall be with you [him] on your [his] wedding night” (173). Victor does not take this forewarning very seriously because he does not end up creating a partner, and following his threat; the Creature kills Elizabeth on their wedding night. Once Victor dies, the Creature admits to the seafarer Walton that “my heart was poisoned with remorse… and wrenched by misery to vice and hatred…” (172) and refers to himself as “...the fallen angel [who] becomes a malignant devil” (223). The Creature realizes his mistakes and takes full responsibility for his homicidal acts, and this takes some of the guilt off of him because the