Frankenstein: Narrative and Monster Essay

Submitted By Tyler6270
Words: 1294
Pages: 6

Characterization Through Voices As once said by J.B. Albano, “An educated person will listen to a story before he reacts. But a well-educated person knows how to listen to both sides of a story before he reacts.” Albano is stressing the point that most stories have multiple sides; meaning it is imperative that the listener gets both view points of the story. The only fair way to fully comprehend and give equal judgment on the story would be to listen to the each person that partook in the story and keep each point of view in mind. The use of multiple voices within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contribute to the work as a whole because not only does the reader gather a more in-depth look at the story as a whole, but the reader can characterize each character as well. Each voice in the novel Frankenstein gives the reader the opportunity to look at the story more in-depth. When Victor speaks the reader is gaining knowledge on Victor’s life, and how he views the current situation he is in. Victor looks at everything as if he were the victim, and the monster an abomination. Upon the monster’s creation Victor realizes what he has done, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to from” (42). Victor despises his creation and so he leaves it be to decide how to live life on its own. Through the eyes of Victor the monster is a horrid wretch and Victor expresses this upon finding out the monster has killed his brother, “Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch whose delight was in carnage and misery; had he not murdered my brother” (60). Victor always puts himself in the position to be the victim of any situation and the monster is always the horrid one causing Victor harm. With Victor’s point of view the story from his side is revealed giving the reader more information not only about the monster, but what is happening to Victor and the ones around him. When the monster gets his turn to tell things from his point of view the reader can sympathize with it, and characterize the way it lives. The monster is not as cruel as it seems through Victor’s eyes because the monster started its life out gentle and loving. What changes the way the monster acts is all of the bad encounters it has had with humans. All the monster wants is love, and to love something back, but Victor refuses to help; after the bad encounters with humans and the refusal for a bride, the monster becomes bitter realizing it is an outcast for the human society. When the monster is speaking the reader can tell that the monster is intelligent by the way it can put the human’s culture in perspective, “I heard about the slothful Asiatics; of the stupendous genius and mental activity of the Grecians; of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early Romans--of their subsequent degenerating--of the decline of that mighty empire; of chivalry, Christianity, and kings” (112). The knowledge the monster has helps bring out the other characteristic of the monster, depression. As the monster gradually gains more knowledge it becomes more apparent that he is the outcast of society and will be lonely for the rest of his life, “Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me” (101). Since its creation the monster has been alone with no one to assist it or show it how to live amongst others. Realizing it is lonely, and always has been since its creation, the monster uses the depression it has from these exact thoughts and turns it into anger. The monster becomes bitter due to the fact that it must live life alone, and the bad encounters it has with humans. Through the eyes of Victor the monster has been an abomination since its birth, but with the other narrative side of the monster, the reader can depict the true characteristics of it. Victor starts