The Creature's Search For Love In Frankenstein

The Creatures Quest for Love
In the fourteenth chapter of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein the creature is telling Victor what he has learned from watching the people who live in the cottages. He tells him that they were once very influential citizens of Paris. The father was a Turk who was falsely accused of a crime and Felix risks everything to save him from spending his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. Felix meets the Turks daughter Safie and falls in love with her. Safie was very happy to marry Felix because it would take her out of a place where women could not be independent. Felix’s plan was discovered and they were all banished from France and all of their wealth was taken from them. They found themselves settling in a cottage
in Germany. After watching the cottagers for so long the creature has learned acceptance and love even when there is a price to pay for it and wishes only for Victor to give him that same type of acceptance. After Victor’s mother died he was obsessed with finding the spark of life. He dug up graves and took pieces of human body parts and put them together to form his own creation. After bringing it to life he is disgusted by what he sees. The creature turns out to be a hideous creation. Victor runs out of his apartment leaving the creature alone and the creature retreats to the forest at which time he discovers the family living there. The creature tells Victor of his struggles since he was created.
He tells him about the rejection he as experienced while he wondered the lands. He tells Victor that people do not welcome him as he thought they might. He comes across a family living in the forest. After watching the family the creature learns that he is not like everyone else. He is different and wonders where he fits in. He wonders if he should be with the humans or the animals, he says in Chapter 13, “I was not even of the same nature as man, where do I belong in the scheme of life, with men or among the animals?” He also knew that he had a creator and that creator was Victor. He wanted answers from Victor. The creature finds Victors jacket in the woods and gets his notes from the jacket pockets. In the notes the creature finds out exactly how he was created. This new information is sickening to the
creature. The creature continues watching the family in the cottages.
He is intrigued with the way the family reacts to Safie returning with servants and money. He understands that Safie takes care of all of them in a loving way. He starts to notice the roll of women. He then starts to wonder why he has no woman. He then kills Victor’s brother to show him that he is serious in his request for a mate. He tells Victor that he will kill him too if he does not make him a woman. The creature felt that if he had a mate then he would have the love and acceptance that he longed for and that maybe he would be more like the humans; normal. Victor does not create the creature a mate. He realizes that there could be two of the monsters on the lose murdering and doing hideous things. He also envisions what could happen if they were to have children. With this in mind he destroys her in front of the creature. The creature vows to get revenge on Victor for depriving him of the love he longs for. He tells Victor that he will be with him on his wedding night and Victor assumes that the creature is promising that he will kill
Victor. Victor marries Elizabeth and all the while wondering when the creature will make good onh is promise. The creature does and kills Elizabeth instead of Victor. The creature wants to make Victor feel the loneliness that he feels so he takes his mate. Victor tries to shoot the creature but misses and the creature escapes. After this Victor finally tells his story, but by this time all of the damage is done. Victor now wants revenge. He has lost everyone he loved and the one thing that is to blame for it is still on the lose. Victor never would accept the creature or extend any hint of love or care for him. The creature thought the reason was that he was so disgustingly ugly and he hated Victor for creating him that way. He hated it so much that he wreaked havoc on Victor by killing everyone he loved. All of this could have been avoided had Victor just accepted the creature.
The creature finally realizes that his looks are so bad that no one will ever have anything to do with him, much less love him. But he keeps looking for acceptance and tries to reason with Victor to make him understand how the creature longs for a relationship. The two actually have something in common. They both search for happiness and love and both end up with neither.