Comparison Between Frankenstein And The Creature English Literature Essay

Being the only child in his family for the first five years of his growth, Frankenstein was indulged and spoilt by his parents, then later by his adopted sister Elizabeth and his friend Clerval. He was born into a wealthy family and brought up by a loving, caring mother who is described as dutiful and is said to have possessed a mind of uncommon mould (Shelley 32). Frankenstein’s first recollections were of his mother’s tender loving and care and his father’s smile of benevolent pleasures (Shelley 33). On the contrary, the creature was not born of any parents, he was Frankenstein’s sole creation; made out of curiosity and selfishness from scavenged body parts. He had no relatives, no friends or even parents to take care of him. He neither experienced the love of a mother nor the companionship of friends and family. He never went through a childhood of love and affection like his creator Frankenstein. He lived in the forest and had to discover for himself that trees could shelter him (Shelley 100). He never knew the smile of a father. He was a strange, lonely creature with no shoulder to lean on.

Despite the fact that Frankenstein’s childhood was crowned with love and care from his family and friends, he never grew up to be a responsible adult. He lacked discipline and guidance and never had a balanced view of himself and the wider society. He grew up to become indiscipline and too obsessed with nature to an extent of lacking sense of responsibility for his actions. After creating the creature and seeing the contrast between his dream and reality of what he called a miserable monster, he flew from his apartment. When he returned to his apartment and found that the creature had escaped, he was filled with joy (Shelley 60). The creature on the other hand was a victim of Frankenstein’s obsession and indiscipline. His childhood’s first experience of his parent Frankenstein was that of rejection and this set the pattern for his life (Shelley 57). He did not have any one to guide him in life because his creator saw him as a monster and deserted him. He explained how he had no distinct ideas, how he was confused, he felt light, hunger, thirst, darkness and could not distinguish anything else apart from bright moon. The creature desperately needed someone who could show him affection like a new born baby but all he went through was desperation. He learnt on his own that drinking from the stream could quench his thirst, eating nuts would satisfy his hunger and that trees could shelter him (Shelley 100). In desperation, he moved out Frankenstein’s apartment in search for companionship and love because unlike Frankenstein, he wanted to become a responsible member of the society and coexist with other members. His actions were driven by love, loneliness and search for identity. Not knowing that he was different from humans, he could not understand why humans ran away on seeing him until later when he discovered the truth (Shelley 103).

As clearly seen through his actions, Victor Frankenstein was an intelligent, rational and self centered man. He clearly understood the importance of friendship, family and love. This is demonstrated in his fulfilling healthy relationship with his friend Clerval, his fiancée Elizabeth and his family members. He went through unbearable mental and emotional distress when the monster murdered his brother, his friend Clerval and his fiancée Elizabeth. He further destroyed the female monster that he had created fearing the destruction that might result from this creation. He was a self centered man because he dedicated his time and energy in creation of his creature at the expense of his family and friends because he wanted to be famous as the first man to create life in a dead human being. On the other hand, his creature was brutal, destructive and selfish. Out of the creature’s brutality and selfishness he murdered Frankenstein’s brother William, his friend Clervel and his fiancée Elizabeth in a move to revenge against his creator Frankenstein for deserting him and for destroying the female companion that he had started creating for him. He even viewed himself as Satan due to his destructive nature.

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The monster lived all his life longing for affection and companionship, which he never got because humans feared him. On the other hand, his creator enjoyed the companionship and affection of his fiancée Elizabeth, his friend Clervel and his family members. The two characters are quite different and each one is seeking his own interest. The only thing they share is selfishness, which seemed to motivate their actions, including revenge for the creature and success and fame for Frankenstein.

Frankenstein’s creation of the monster was a supreme, rational and imaginative effort in his life. He said that his imagination was vivid although his powers of both analysis and application were extreme. He conceived the idea and further executed the creation of what he referred to as a perfect man from the dead. However he had not adequately researched on his ambition. He had no set measures on how to control, manage and deal with the creature that he desperately spent his time creating. Consequently, after completing his project of creating the creature, the union between his imagination and intellectual ability disintegrated and he had no control over his creature. The creature turned out to be even more powerful than him and this landed Frankenstein into serious problems as the creature’s frustrations and loneliness made him to seek revenge against his creator through causing death and destruction (Shelley 61-174).

Like Hamlet, Frankenstein was plagued by doubt and inaction. He decided to destroy the creature that he had created, yet he could not because he pitied him; he even gave in to creature’s demands by accepting to create a female creature to provide companion for the male one but he destroyed her in fear of the wreckage that might result from his creation. He knew that the creature was planning to revenge, but was wrong to assume that he was the target. The creature on the other hand had no doubt on what he wanted because that is what he spent his entire life seeking. He longed for love and companion, which he sought from human beings but failed. After facing rejection from human’s beings, he realized that he could not get any affection from them because he was totally different from them. He therefore demanded for his creator to create a female creature for him as his companion, a demand that his creator accepted but later changed his mind. When his creator could not meet these demands, the monster decided to revenge by killing his creator’s loved ones. The creature viewed his creator, Frankenstein with bitterness and jealousy as he realized that he was different from him. He lived his entire life as a frustrated lonely creature, with no family and no one to keep him company.

The creature represents a strange powerful combination of both unbalanced intellectual ability and emotional power. Being a product of Frankenstein’s reasoning ability, the monster represents reason in isolation. He told Walton how his heart was fashioned to longing for love and sympathy. He even tried to live with a little boy as his companion but killed him when he discovered that he was a brother to his creator, Frankenstein. When De Lacey’s family rejected him in fear and horror and Frankenstein, his creator denied him the companionship of a fellow female creature which he had demanded for, all the his tender loving emotions changed to poisoned selfishness, bitterness and jealousy that could not be stopped. Executing revenge only brought him more frustration and misery. While the monster destroyed Frankenstein’s hopes, he could not satisfy his own desires. He viewed himself as Satan as he decided to head North Pole and burn himself to death because to him, that was less painful than life (Milton 98).

Besides irreconcilable clash between intelligence and emotional power as well as imagination and analysis, nature provided a source of healing and wonder for mankind. Frankenstein sought to draw strength and vitality from nature and his surroundings with the encouragement of his fiancée Elizabeth. “Observe…how the clouds…render this scene of beauty still more interesting. Look also at the innumerable fish that are swimming in the clear waters…What a divine day! How happy and serene all nature appears!” (Shelley 162).

The joy from nature was not however permanent because as soon as the mountains made Frankenstein’s heart to start swelling with joy and vitality, the monster appeared. This was just after Elizabeth had enjoyed the scene of clouds and clear water when the creature coldly murdered her. This painfully shows how nature can be best apathetic to man. It has the ability to destroy and also preserve, it creates lightning as well as sunshine.

Frankenstein viewed death as the most irreparable evil. The death of his mother really broke his heart because the love and affection that he used to enjoy from his mother was no more. He explained how her mother expressed affection even in death. The mother’s death made him more determined to find cure for death (Shelley 40). The creature saw death as cure for all his sorrows, suffering and rejection. He killed three people, determined to end his sorrows through revenge. He even confessed how determined he was to rule North Pole and kill himself (Shelley 170).

Conclusion

This paper has discussed some characteristics of Frankenstein and the creature that he created. Frankenstein clearly comes out as an aspiring scientist who emphasized on importance of intellect in seeking out secrets of the universe, yet validating the emotions and the importance of individual needs. By showing the painful experience that Frankenstein went through as a result of his scientific ambition of creating a perfect human being who turned out to be disastrous and ended up destroying his happiness by killing his loved ones. This clearly shows how science does not always act for the good of man, and how at times it destroys the very man that created it. Due to poor planning, lack of proper research, impatience and poor execution of his creation ambition, Frankenstein’s efforts of creating a perfect human only frustrated him as the creature turned out to be more powerful than him.

As an inspiring scientist, Frankenstein spent his life creating another life at the expense of family and friends but unfortunately when he accomplished his mission, the life that he had created; the creature destroyed his happiness and killed his loved ones.

Clearly, Frankenstein should be blamed for this tragedy but not the creature that he created. He should have researched, planned and executed his creation well as a good scientist so that it does not get out of control but he did not. He never thought about the consequences of the project that he undertook. He never thought his creation project could fail or even least of all destroy him and his loved ones. His frustrations from acts of revenge by his creature clearly shows optimistic Frankenstein was about his project. All that Frankenstein wanted was the fame of being the first scientist to create life to a dead person. He even went ahead with putting up a laboratory in his house without really thinking about consequences of such a move. At the end of his creation exercise, Frankenstein confessed how he was deeply engrossed in his occupation, how he had desired to succeed in his project but the end of it all was breathless horror and disgust that filled his heart. Frankenstein was therefore the real monster in this story. As a result of poor planning and lack of enough research, his own creation overwhelmed him and destroyed him.