Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (chapter 1-10 only)
Frankenstein: Nature as a refuge
One of the most interesting aspects of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The modern Prometheus is the extent to which the monster, just like his creator Victor Frankenstein, embodies the ideal of the Romantic antihero. Victor Frankenstein uses science to challenge human limitations. However, he also finds comfort in nature when he feels depressed and desolate, realizing the mistake he has made in creating a monster. "The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnizing my mind, and causing me to forget the passing cares of life" (Chapter 10). But the monster also finds comfort in nature because he is ostracized from the rest of humanity because of his ugliness. His soul is beautiful at first but because he is rejected he becomes ugly and hateful in his actions. The rejection by his creator is the origin of the monster's sinful and murderous actions, the monster believes, not his intrinsic nature (a metaphor for all human beings who sin in a fallen, dark world).
Thus in some ways the monster is even more human...
"Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us" (Chapter 10). Even though the monster is hated by humanity, he still desires love and redemption. He wants to worship Victor but cannot because Victor spurns him: "I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous" (Chapter 10). The monster is by nature good; he chooses evil not by his own design but because he is effectively forced into it, by virtue of his solitude. Like his creator, he is capable of appreciating the beauty of nature and the good of humanity (which is why he wishes to become a part of society) but unlike human beings who are invested with the ability to seek salvation and find comfort amongst themselves, the monster was created by man not God and has no one. Unlike Victor, he never sought to defy nature but his very existence…
