Whenever you watch a movie or a TV show or in this case, a novel, there is always a antagonist and a protagonist. The other thing that you notice is how this characters are more similar to each other than we really notice. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we are given two characters that also show remarkable similarities beneath their skin. In this case, Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the creature. They seem to share similarities with being isolated from the world around them, the absence of a parent figure in their life for approval, more specifically a motherly figure, and by hatred for not being accepted.
Throughout the novel we see both characters being put into isolation, Which is a tremendous role in how they are both similar. For Victor it’s that he wants to focus solely o his scientific work and his unquenchable search for the secret of life. On P.39 it says, “I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” What this means is that he has detached himself from the world completely in order to fully be able to pursue science and his work. It seems that as soon as he begins to dive into his scientific research and experiments he made the decision himself to isolate himself. He almost seems to think that after his experiments are done he will be able to be praised for his work and people will actually pull him out of his own isolation by accepting him and giving him approval for his experiments. Another example of this is on p.41, “And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time.” With the monster it was same, but different in that the reason why the creature isolated himself more and more is because of his appearance. In the society that the two characters live in, the people in the society don’t accept people who are different from the rest, more specifically with appearance. “When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, a Monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?”, p.98-99. Another part to their isolation and their rejection from society is that both characters have their own different view points on how life is dealt with. In Victor’s case he wants to bring the dead back and the monster on the other hand lashes out and takes life in retaliation against his creator. This results in both of these characters becoming outcasts of society. This is all too familiar to both considering they never really had people there to love them.
The other aspect of their similarities is their lacking of love and affection. Having those family ties and how that affects their actions most definitely shows how both, Victor and the creature are similar. Victor was for into a wealth family so he was able to be pampered and spoiled at a young age, but when his mother died it made him lose that parental figure that could give him the attention and love. On page 30 it says, “She died calmly…it is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose every existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard.” This just goes to show how desperate Victor was for that love and to have that parental approval and love. One such example of where Victor needed that approval was with his scientific experiments. The creature is a perfect example of the child who needs that parental and motherly love and approval. He never was able to receive those feelings and wasn’t able to feel real happiness, and resulted in the creature turning to rage and killing. The creature surely shows his anger when he goes to the cottage and destroys the villagers house. This is similar to Victor in that he is angry and resentful of his creation and believes that the creature is a abomination. Both of these characters situations results in them becoming socially isolated, angry, and vengeful.
If you think about it, it’s like a chain of the same thing. It revolves around responsibility and the lack of parents and how that affects both the creature and Victor. Both Frankenstein and Victor never really learned how to be responsible. Victor lacked guidance and had low self esteem which was a result of social isolation. In one part of the book Frankenstein says, “Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.” I think he means in this quote, that he’s scared people will be mad at him or disapprove of him as a scientist and that he won’t fit in. Because of this he of lacks sense of responsibility for his actions. One example of this is when he created the creature only to be disgusted with it and left his lab and rejects the possibility that this creature could possibly be his creation, which results in the creature running away. The creature is left alone and is by himself to learn responsibility. He has no one to guide him in life because his creator saw him as a monster refuses to take responsibility for him and teach him to be sensible deserted him. In one part of the book it says, “Another circumstance strengthened and confirmed these feelings. Soon after my arrival in the hovel I discovered some papers in the pocket of the dress which I had taken from your laboratory. At first I had neglected them, but now that I was able to decipher the characters in which they were written, I began to study them with diligence. It was your journal of the four months that preceded my creation. You minutely described in these papers every step you took in the progress of your work; this history was mingled with accounts of domestic occurrences. You doubtless recollect these papers. Here they are. Everything is related in them which bears reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of that series of disgusting circumstances which produced it is set in view; the minutest description of my odious and loathsome person is given, in language which painted your own horrors and rendered mine indelible. I sickened as I read. `Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. `Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even YOU turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred. 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.” What this shows is how the creature is left to be responsible on his own. The creature needed someone to treat him like a kid, teach him how to eat, act civilized, etc. What is similar here is that both characters desperately crave that one figure who they can go to and feel love.
What I think everyone should take away from this novel is that everyone, not just a protagonist and an antagonist are the same in many ways that we don’t even realize. So everyone should just accept everyone for who they are so we can all peacefully coexist.