Discussion Topic
Victor and Creature's Initial Reactions in Frankenstein
Summary:
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein's initial reaction to his creation is one of horror and disgust. He is repulsed by the creature's appearance, despite having crafted it with care, and he flees in fear, abandoning his creation. In contrast, the creature initially feels benevolent and seeks connection with Victor, akin to a child yearning for a parent. However, upon discovering Victor's revulsion, the creature becomes angry and vengeful, feeling cursed and rejected by its creator.
How does Victor Frankenstein express his feelings towards his creation in Frankenstein chapter 5?
In chapter 5 of Mary Shelley's novel FrankensteinVictor Frankenstein comes face to face with his creation for the first time after two years of obsessing over the process of "giving life into an inanimate object."
Arguably, the manner in which Victor conveys his emotions is through the expiation of his innermost thoughts without leaving any room for doubt as to what he really feels about the creature. The emotions to which Victor confesses touch on every characteristic of the creature, from the aesthetic, to the psychological.
In analyzing Victor's reaction, it is unavoidable to correlate his relationship with the monster to the relationship of a father and his child. This is the reason why the expectations of joy that the reader may have already assumed would take place between the creature and its creator will come to a halting contrast when Victor expresses with disdain, anger,...
Unlock
This Answer NowStart your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
and disgust, what the creature means to him.
He begins by stating in complete sincerity how the looks of the creature are primary reason why he feels disgusted. In Victor's own words:
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......the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room.
This is the first indicator that Victor's vanity and blind ambition know no limits. He has fooled himself into thinking that the abomination of his actions would result in something beautiful.
As a result of this vain and egocentric mentality, the most obvious secondary reaction occurs: Victor feels sorry...for himself! Victor abandons (runs away, rather) the creature and tries to pretend that it never existed. At this point, however, Victor has not bothered asking himself whether the creature has wants, needs, or feelings. He is so egotistical that he focuses his attention in that his "project" did not come out the way he had expected.
A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.
At this point, the creature is able to find Victor only to have Victor scream and run away from it again, hiding in the courtyard near the house. As the creature obviously yearns to connect with his maker the way a child would do, his creator continues to focus on nothing but his own hurt ego.
Conclusively, Victor does not make contact with the creature, nor does he attempt to establish any form of communication. He simply despises it, rejects it, and tries to make it "go away" by not thinking about him. Yet, at all times, he is adamant to express how disgusted and frustrated he feels about the appearance of his creation. Again, nothing else matters to Victor; not even the fact that he has, indeed, played God and has, in fact, infused life onto a being. This shows Victor's shallow nature and inability to put his common sense to good use.
How do the creature's initial feelings towards Victor in Frankenstein differ from Victor's reaction to his creation?
The creature explains that he can barely remember his earliest moments. Like a baby, he could not even really distinguish his senses from one another for some time. He had taken a coat from Victor's apartment, and it contained Victor's journal. When the creature read Victor's thoughts, he exclaimed,
Hateful day when I received life! [....] 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.
He is angry at his maker, most especially for making him so ugly, and for having not thought ahead at all to consider what life might be like for him. He curses Victor for trying to be like God and falling so short. The creature does explain that he was born feeling benevolence and good will toward people, but the treatment he received from human beings changed him.
When Victor first sees his creature come to life, he describes the moment as a "catastrophe." He calls the creature a "wretch" and describes the physical features that Victor had chosen to be beautiful, but says,
[...] 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.
Further, Victor says that he could not "endure the aspect of the being" he created, and he goes to sleep so that he can try to forget about his troubles.
We also know from the description of the creature's first encounter with Victor that he was an amiable creature. Victor himself says that the creature pulled back the bed curtains and smiled at him in a way that on anyone else's face would have been friendly, but on the creature's face was grotesque and hideous. It is at this moment that Victor runs from the apartment in Ingolstat and roams the city all night hoping that the "mistake" would go away on its own.
The creature explains in chapters 11-13 that he was looking on his "father" with love and innocence in his heart. That he felt scared and cold, so he took Victor's cloak and left the apartment in search of his creator. From that point on, the creature's life was one of rejection, hard knocks, and tough lessons. It is through these experiences that the creature is vengeful and angry at Victor.
When the monster awakens, Victor runs from the room in abhorrence. He is ashamed at what he has done in creating this creature and terrified of the implications of the creation. So, he does the really mature thing (sarcasm there), and runs away, completely ignoring the problem.
The monster, however, does not have the ability to process his feelings towards Victor when he first awakens. He only knows sensation, like a baby, and does not have specific feelings towards any one person. He says this of his first few days:
It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.
Only after spending time observing the family in the woods is the monster able to process emotion and to evaluate Victor, Victor's actions, and his own feelings about them. The monster is angry at being abandoned and at being put into exile on account of his creation. However, he is willing to put those feelings aside if Victor will just provide him with a companion.