- Published: September 17, 2022
- Updated: September 17, 2022
- University / College: Nottingham Trent University
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 15
Lecturer Frankenstein Based on the novel, it can be argued that the monster did not have other options than the ones he took. First, from the very beginning, the monster tried everything possible to integrate into society. Specifically, he is tries to learn language, and this is captured when the monster was observing the cottages: “ I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it” (Shelley, 115). Despite his efforts, the monster is met with hate and violence from the community. This only leaves him with feelings of hate, bitterness and sadness that drive him to do what he did.
Secondly, the actions he took were as a result of self defense based on the treatment he had received from people. For example, after leaving the cottage and attempting to rescue a drowning girl, the monster is shot at by a man who sees him holding the girl. The man took the girl away from the monster, and when he tried to follow the man, “ he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired” (Shelley, 143). With such violence directed against him, the monster had no option but to protect himself against humans.
Third, the monster did not have other options because of his singularity. The monster did not have a companion, despite having requested his creator to make him one. As noted by the monster himself, having a companion who would share and understand his emotions would have made him make peace with the world: “ if any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold, for that one creature’s sake, I would make peace with the whole kind!” (Shelley, 169).
It can thus be argued that the singularity of the monster, combined with the hatred and violence showed towards him by humans left him with no options but to act in the manner he did.
Works Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
