In chapter 5, when Victor has finally brought his creation to life after months and months of toiling over it, he suddenly realizes that the creature is actually horrifically ugly and not at all what he had planned. Here, he describes the creature as a "wretch," one with whom he has taken such care to create as beautiful; instead, the creature is monstrous and "horrid" to look at.

In this instance, Victor seems to be using the word wretch to mean an unhappy or an unfortunate creature. He uses the word again when he describes how the creature forced its way into Victor's bedroom; the creature tries to speak to Victor and even "grin[s]" at him, but Victor cannot even stand to look at what he made. He calls his creation a "wretch" and a "miserable monster." Again, then, calling the creature a "wretch" seems to signify Victor's feeling that it is an unfortunate creature, something which ought not to have been created in the first place.

Later still, Victor calls the creature a "wretch" when he describes the way that Victor was affected by seeing the creature in motion: it had been horrid enough before it had been brought to life, but Victor says that nothing could be "so hideous as that wretch." Here, he seems to use the word to mean the same thing.