Evil In Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein the creature is brought into this world like a newborn child by his creator, Victor Frankenstein. Although the creature has a seemingly evil appearance and has committed malicious acts, he was once good and pure. Victor believes that his creature who he refers to by the names “wretch” and “daemon” was born evil, but I believe that the creature is actually very kind and good at heart and the creature is right to say “misery made me a fiend.” (Shelley 69) It was really his terrible circumstances that lead to his malevolence towards humans. The creature’s creation and the subsequent events reveal the complex experiences which have shaped his character. Even before the creature became an animate being, he was
He tries to approach other humans in a nearby village, but his efforts were to no avail as they ran away just as his creator did. He then sees his actual appearance through a reflection in a pool and says, “unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification.” These words connect with his creation and appearance which may have directly and indirectly caused him to be evil. However, this also gives some merit to Victor’s claim that the creature was born evil since he was also born ugly. With these realizations, the monster turns to isolation which could turn any person mad as does solitary confinement. When he discovers the De Lacey family, and notices that they are poor and often starve to feed the old man. The creature, touched by their kindness, shows his sympathy and goodness by deciding to no longer steal food from them because he now knew that it was hurting them despite the fact that he himself is starving. He went above and beyond and helped do chores for the family like gathering firewood. By helping the De Laceys, the creature seems to reveal a humanlike nature. All the creature desires is friendship and he greatly admires the De Lacey family. Determined to become friends with them, he uses a lot of his
The creature has changed completely compared to when he was preparing to befriend the De Laceys. We can now see that he plans to get what he wants using violence and threats, throwing all of the morals he had developed out of the window. At the same time, we can still see that he still has a sliver of good inside of him, agreeing that he would leave humankind alone if he had a companion. Disastrously, Victor rebels against the creature and destroys his last hope of happiness and with it, the only good left in him which leads to him killing his childhood friend, Henry Clerval, his wife, Elizabeth and indirectly killing Victor through his taxing hunt for the creature. Having made Victor thoroughly suffer, and with everything dead, the creature no longer has a purpose. He shows his remorse one last time to Walton. Knowing that he can no longer be happy and find companionship, he decides to end it all in a fiery