The Monster

"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips"

- Chapter 5

The Monster, also known as Frankenstein's Monster or The Creature, is a major character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

He is a humanoid, hideous creature made out of human body parts, and is shunned and alone. When his creator Victor Frankenstein abandons and doesn't help him, the Monster begins to turn on him, resulting in tragic consequences.

The Monster has also become an iconic and famous creature in literary culture, resulting in dozens of adaptations, merchandise, etc., with his most well-known appearance being in the 1931 film adaptation featuring Boris Karloff as the creature.

Description
Brought into the world by a young scientist Victor Frankenstein and was immediately abandoned afterwards, the Monster finds himself alone and confused in a strange new world he had just awakened in. He may have been a giant, grotesque creature, but had the mind of a newborn since he is completely clueless of life and the world around him. He manages to be like the humans such as reading and talking, but when he fails to bond with humanity and having a companion, he starts to hurt his creator for leaving him by destroying everything that Victor loved.

The Monster had at one point, compared himself to be Adam, the first human created by God, and that he had similar traits to the Biblical figure. He starts off life as an adult-like humanoid monster and without his creator to guide him, he had to fend for himself and teach himself survival instincts. But after reading a copy of Paradise Lost, he also thinks that he is a fallen angel, which could be a reference to Satan. Unlike Adam, who was banished from the Garden of Eden by God after eating the forbidden fruit since he rebelled against him, it could have been the opposite as the Monster. Having been mistreated and banished by society, he has somewhat rebelled at his creator for abandoning him and he kills his loved ones to get back to him.

Anyone who had read Frankenstein can see that the monster is evil and was the one responsible for making his creator's life miserable. However, some speculate that Victor is the true villain and the creature is simply a innocent victim who was never meant to be the perfect human being. All he really wants is a family and a society to thrive with, but his creator is so unprejudiced that he will forever be doomed to be shunned and isolated for not being too human.

Birth
The Monster was born from exhumed body parts stitched together by a University of Ingolstadt scientist named Victor Frankenstein, determined to discover the secret of life by reanimating the dead. Upon coming to life, Victor becomes terrified of it and flees the laboratory and into his room. After the Monster stands in front of his bed smiling at him, the creator leaves the apartment and he is left behind.

The Monster has no knowledge of his new life. He feels hungry and cold, and sees light and darkness. He is confused as he leaves the apartment and wanders around aimlessly. He also discovers fire and its abilities that he learns, such as keeping himself warm with it. He burns himself by the hot embers the first time he interacts with it, and finds out that using firewood would make the flames burn longer and him more warmer. He learns how to cook food from the fire.

Everywhere he goes, he terrifies people with his hideous appearance. One time, the Monster sets out to search for food and he enters in a small hut where an old man living there runs out when he sees him and took the man's breakfast to eat. He also ventures into a small village where the villagers recoiled at the monster and fled, while others threw rocks at him to make him go away. Seeing that everyone is afraid of him, the creature decides to stay away from the humans.

The De Lacey's
The Monster wanders into the countryside and seeks shelter inside a hovel attached to a cottage. He feels comfortable where he is, and ate some food he had with him when he spots a pretty young woman pass by with a pail on her head and then returns with the pail filled with milk. A young man follows her carrying wood, and the Monster watches them go into the cottage. He discovers a pane that had been boarded up but there was a small hole on it. When he peeks his eye into it, he could see the inside of the cottage and its inhabitants.

There were three people living in the cottage: an old man, a young man and woman. The older man is blind and plays the guitar, while the younger man was reading and the woman was working. Both the man and woman treat each other with love and kindness, as the Monster notes. He also wonders why the family looks depressed, and discovers that they are impoverished with hardly any food, despite them still loving each other with what little they had. Having been moved by their plight, the Monster stops eating their food and instead anonymously gathers firewood and leaves it at their door every night.

As the Monster continues to observe them, he sees that they communicate with speech and he learns to speak by their French language. He learns that the young man's name is Felix and the woman is Agatha. One time, he sees his reflection in a pool of water, and is shocked by his ugly appearance. He finally understands why everyone is so afraid of him, but hopes that with his gentle words and actions, he would be able to have the family win their affection over him and make them happy again. He spends the whole winter in the hovel, and as spring approaches, he hopes for the best in the future for his "hosts".

One day, the Monster sees a beautiful, dark-skinned woman arrive at the cottage and Felix is excited to see her, who takes her into their home. The woman's name is Safie and she doesn't speak the same language as the family, so Felix teaches her with a history book called Ruins of Empires by the Constantin-François de Volney. The Monster learns along with Safie, and he starts to learn to read as well. He also learns about world history and the nature of humanity, as well as listening to the inhabitants' conversations and understands more about human society and good versus evil. He even reflects on his own situation and questions himself about his deformity, even asking himself "Was I then a Monster?” He also sees that he has no society of his own and is forever doomed to live without a family or be like the other humans. He regrets his knowledge on society, which makes him miserable.

After eavesdropping on them for some time, the Monster figures out the family's history. The De Lacey's, the inhabitants’ surname, were once a wealthy family living in Paris and were well-respected members in their community. Safie's father, a Turkish merchant, was falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit and imprisoned, and a sympathetic Felix decides to help him. While visiting the merchant in prison, Felix met and fell in love with Safie, with the merchant offering him his money and his daughter's hand in marriage as an exchange for his escape. In addition, Safie is hoping to marry a Christian like Felix.

On the night before the Turk's execution, Felix helps him and Safie escape and they fled to Italy. But after the plot was discovered, Mr. De Lacey and Agatha were jailed for five months, and Felix came back to help his family while Safie was left in a convent. The government ended up confiscating the De Lacey's wealth and banishing them from France. The family travelled to Germany where they settled into the cottage, and when the merchant betrays Felix by bringing his daughter back with him to Constantinople, Safie manages to escape and goes back to find her true love and marry him.

While the Monster forages for food in the woods one night, he finds an abandoned satchel that held three books: John Milton's Paradise Lost, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Sorrows of Werter, and Plutarch's Lives. He reads the books and was moved by them, especially when he considers Paradise Lost as historically accurate than a work of imagination, and even refers to himself as Adam. Looking through the pockets of his clothes, he finds some journal entries written by his creator Victor he had accidentally took after he left the apartment, which describes the Monster's creation. After reading them, he is disgusted on how Victor had made him ugly and then abandoned him to fend for himself.

As winter approaches, the Monster hopes that if he reveals himself and talks to the De Lacey's, they would see past his ugliness and be their friend. When Felix, Agatha and Safie went out for a walk, he sums up his courage and goes inside the cottage to talk to the father, who is blind but would be able to listen to him, as well as be more prejudiced towards him. The Monster talks to the old man and pretends to be a traveller, saying he is a shunned loner and only the the De Lacey’s can be more prejudiced, generous friends to him. The old man listens and conversation goes well so far; until the rest of the family come back suddenly. As they see the creature's hideous appearance, Agatha faints, Safie flees and Felix beats him with a stick until the Monster runs away from the cottage.

Infuriated from being rejected, the Monster vows to declare war on humans, especially his creator. But the next morning, he calms down and decides to go back and try again. By the time he returns, he sees Felix negotiating with the landlord and giving up the lease. The family have moved out of the cottage and he never sees the De Lacey's again. Feeling hurt and more rejected, now that his final link with society has been broken, the Monster gets angry and now has a desire of revenge. He burns down the cottage later that night and makes his way towards Geneva to find his creator, using the notes on how to get there.

Meeting His Creator/Killing Spree
On his way to Geneva, the Monster rescues a girl from drowning in a stream, but her guardian shot him in the shoulder. It takes him weeks to recover from his gunshot wound, but his suffering makes his anger increase against humanity. He travels for about two months to get to his destination, and when he wakes up from a nap in the woods near Geneva, he spots a lovely little boy. Thinking the boy would be too young to be afraid of him, he decides to take the child with his as a guide to show him around. The boy panics in fear when he sees the creature, but when he says his father Frankenstein will come after him, the Monster is enraged that the child belongs to his creator and as his part of revenge, he strangles the child to death.

After the boy is dead, the Monster takes a locket with a portrait from him and finds a barn to spend the night. There he sees a pretty young woman asleep, and as a way to punish her in place of the people who rejected him, he places the locket inside her apron pocket, knowing she will be condemned for murder. The woman, Justine Moritz would end up being tried and executed for the death of the boy William Frankenstein.

Some time later, he is in Chamonix on Montanvert around the glaciers. He finds his creator and runs towards him. Victor is furious when he sees him and curses the creature. With eloquence, the Monster claims that he is his creator's offspring and that he needs his help. He even states that he was once kind but then turned to violence after his creator left him. Victor agrees to listen to the Monster and he takes him to a cave in the glacier where he narrates his whole tale, from his early days of life to wanting to befriend the De Lacey's.

After concluding his story, the Monster demands Victor to make him a female mate so he would be able to have a companion than being alone. Victor refuses at first, and the creature reminds him that he is responsible for his misery he has caused, as well as threatening to kill more people if he is still alone. But if he does have a female companion, she and the creature would travel to South America and permanently cut off any contact with humans. After Victor accepts his request, the Monster tells him he will watch closely on his progress, and then he leaves.

As Victor and his friend Henry Clerval travel through Europe and to England, the Monster would secretly follow them, until Victor goes to the Scottish Orkney Islands to start the female creature inside a small shack. One night, the creature stares at him through the window and smiles at the sight of a female being created, causing Victor to end up ripping up the unfinished project in fear. The Monster howls in grief and leaves, but he comes back hours later in Victor's room. Now only referring to him as "Man" the creature is furious he had broke his promise and he swears revenge, saying to his creator "I shall be with you on your wedding night," before leaving. He later kills Clerval by strangling him and having Victor accused of his murder.

After Victor was cleared of charges and returns to Geneva with his father, the Monster again secretly follows him back. After his creator marries his love Elizabeth Lavenza and stays at a cottage at Lake Como, the creature breaks into Elizabeth's room and kills her the same way he did to William and Henry. He escapes before Victor arrives and he stands outside smiling grimly at him. He dodges Victor's gunshots and quickly flees.

Chase to the Arctic/End of the Line
After Victor declares revenge and visits his family's graves in the Geneva cemetery, the Monster laughs at him and calling him a "miserable wretch" for wanting to pursue him. As his creator chases after him, the creature manages to get ahead of him. He went across the globe for many months until he arrives in Russia. He steals some food and a dogsled where he goes up towards the North Pole with Victor desparately trying to catch up until the ice between them breaks and separates them. The Monster is absent for awhile after Victor is rescued by a ship but succumbs from exposure days afterwards.

After finding out his creator has died, the Monster sneaks into the cabin onboard the ship and weeps over Victor's body, begging for his forgiveness. The ship's captain, Robert Walton comes in and is startled to see him there. The Monster doesn't react when Walton calls him a "wretch" for he has suffered from rejection for too long. He laments to the captain about his miserable life, regretting being an instrument of evil and he has nothing left now that his creator is dead. He tells Walton he will make himself a funeral pyre and then set himself on fire to end his misery. He bids farewell, leaps overboard and walks up northernmost to die alone.

Personality/Appearance
The Monster is a hideous, ugly and terrifying living being whose appearance strikes fear and resentment to everyone around him. He doesn't understand why the humans are scared of him until he sees his own reflection and finally gets the idea. He is ashamed of his ugliness and blames his creator for making him the way he is. His appearance even causes him to be miserable and depressed, as he knew he will never be loved or accepted by society and his creator would never help ease his suffering, all because how fearsome and ugly he is.

He is originally innocent at birth, since he doesn't show or cause harm to anyone despite him frightening them. He was unaware about the actual reality until he stays inside the hovel next to the De Lacey's. He became more intelligent when he learns about speech, society, and human history, and even being more eloquent with his words, such as when he says to Victor, "I ought to be thy Adam,". He is curious about wanting to make new discoveries, like when he wonders about the De Lacey's impoverished life, what he could do to help them and how fire works. He was also initially kind and gentle, as he secretly offers firewood to the family and rescues a drowning girl. He has even hopes that he would win his "hosts'" affection with his kindness but after all he had tried, his generosity fails when he scares off the De Lacey's.

After being looked down by humans, the Monster becomes evil and murderous. But underneath his dark side, he is lonely and all he wants is to have a family and a society of his own. Without those, he gets more enraged at the fact that Victor doesn't truly care for him. He decides to vow revenge on Victor's cruelty by ruining his life and killing everyone he had held dear, such as when he murders William and indirectly causes Justine's death by framing her. With his honesty, he calmly admits to the crimes he committed. After his creator fails to make him a companion, the Monster goes over the edge in rage and hurts him more by murdering his friend and later his bride, using his powerful strength to strangle them to death. He even mocks Victor at the idea of wanting to pursue and destroy him. But after Victor's death and the Monster completes his revenge, he ends up regretting the actions he has done and is now eager to end his own life than live another day of misery.

The Monster is described as being a giant, 8 feet tall humanoid creature who was built from exhumed body parts with stitches. He is also known to have yellow skin and yellow eyes.

Relationships
Victor Frankenstein- The Monster's creator. After being left on his own without his creator, the Monster originally wants him to make him a female companion as ugly as he is, but when it fails, he declares revenge on Victor by killing all of his loved ones and ruining his life. The Monster has even reminded his creator that he is his offspring and he should try to help him for once.

The De Lacey's- An exiled French noble family who the Monster secretly observes for months while living in a hovel next to their cottage. He learns and teaches himself from them, such as talking and reading. He is sympathetic at how impoverished the family is and he wants to be more generous towards them and even be their friend. He ends up being disappointed when he fails to bond with them.

Robert Walton- An Arctic sea captain. The Monster meets him at the end of the story while paying his final respects to Victor's body. He confesses to him all about his suffering and misery before he leaves overboard and disappears for good.

Portrayals

 * In the 1931 film adaptation, the Monster is portrayed by Boris Karloff, one of his most famous portrayals in his career. and the Monster's appearance sometimes associated with Karloff's performance.