Despair In Frankenstein

In chapter sixteen Frankenstein’s monster, overcome by despair, shifts its personality from that of a creature seeking love to one who seeks revenge and redemption. It’s obvious that the creature has suffered a substantial amount of discrimination, but hence forward we get introduced to a monster, with a new personality, and a thirst for destruction. This monster seeks revenge on all human beings, regardless of whether or not they were the cause of its sorrow. The rejection of its “protectors”, whom resembles the closest thing it would ever have to a family has led to the creation of this new monster. Ironically enough, he has imagined victor Frankenstein as the embodiment of its new found rage. Which causes the monster to go back to Geneva
in search of vengeance. After killing the brother of Frankenstein on its journey to Geneva, we see the creature overjoyed by its accomplishment, which is an eidolon of what it has become. Moments later we see a glimpse of its old personality, when it finds a locket with a picture of victor’s mother (whom the creature finds enticing) in Williams’s pocket. This fills it with emotions of joy and hopefulness for a moment, until it remembers the pain that these same feelings caused it back at the cottages (with its protectors), and so many times before. This shows how the creature has to remind itself of what it has become, and how it should fit into the definitions it set for itself. Which also proofs that it went through some type of change or transformation, even though it’s not a transformation that it would have preferred, a transition nonetheless.
Moving on to pg 172 we see indications of the conflict going on, between the new born monster and the dying creature of Frankenstein.
At the beginning of the page the monster says “I left the spot where I had committed the murder, and seeking a more secluded hiding-place, I …” If we compare this quote to things the creature has done in the past we would know that even though it has had self loth ever since it’s awakening, we never see it trying to avoid human contact. When it hid in the cottages for examples it was to hide, so that no one would see its physical form, yet still be able to learn and study human nature. Not because it was ashamed of what it had done or what it had become. At the shed it gets into an argument with itself, on whether or not it should wake Justine from her sleep. At first it tries to, but then remembers what might, and probably will happen, if it does so. This leads us to believe that its monstrous characteristics come from its fear of being rejected, and, its anger from how prejudicial humans act toward it. We see the fear of the creature when it says “‘the sleeper stirred; a thrill of terror ran through me.”. Not long after, this same fear changes to the anger of the monster. It gives us an idea of what it feels when it says “it stirred the fine within me” to exaggerate what it felt when it started to contemplate what would happen if she woke up. Then it decides that she should suffer for what she would have thought, and how she would have
acted, given that she saw its physical appearance. The thought of never getting the chance to show its love, yet be judged, enraged it, leading it to commit its most heinous crime of its miserable life; frame Justine.
Afterwards, the monster suffers from depression and pain, for being forced to change into something it’s not, and for not having someone by its side; a creature willing to look beyond its physical appearance and can share its pain with.
But by now it realizes that revenge does not satisfy it, yet understands that it will do whatever it must, to get the creature of it dreams, even if it means harming others along the way. After framing Justine it never tries to engage with a human but sets itself a goal of finding Victor Frankenstein, to request the creation of something that would accept it, and is as hideous as it. We see the effects of this in the monsters choice of words, and of course its actions. “For some days I haunted the spot where these scenes had taken place...” It could have used plenty of other words as opposed to “haunt”. Which is interesting because of the words homonymous properties, which could mean to “frequently visit” or “(of a ghost) manifest itself at (a place) regularly”. Assuming the monster is referring to the second definition of the word, it relates itself and its physical appearance to that of a ghost, which is something people fear and/or despise. We must remember how much it hates being feared and misunderstood, to truly understand the amount of pain that it must have felt to say this. Another more straight forward indication of its deep sorrow can be when it spoke of taking its own life, something only a depressed being would think
about.
By the end of pg. 172 and the beginning of pg. 173 we see how far the creature has come in terms of despising itself, and its creation. This contributes to its transition from an innocent being in search of acceptance, to the barbaric monster it has become today. When it describes the creature it wants Victor to make for it. It describes it as “one as deformed and horrible as myself” here we see the creature describing not only its physical appearance but also its personality. We have previously heard the creature describe itself as “horrible looking” but never just, “horrible”. Which shows how its self-hatred has evolved to a new stage, loathing passed its appearance. One reason might be because of what it did to William and Justin, if that is the case then this will be the first and last time it ever showed remorse for its actions. When it says “deformed” it compares itself to that of a human being, which by those standards would be true but also shows how lonely and different it feels.