When Frankenstein rejects his creation, it is because he cannot bear to look at him. He is so terrified by the physically repulsive appearance of his creature—“a sight which [he] abhor[s]”— that he recoils, determining that nothing so physically unattractive could possibly be anything other than evil. However, Shelley makes a conscious choice in allowing the physically grotesque creature to speak for himself and to speak eloquently and expressively. Had Frankenstein been less preoccupied with the physical appearance of his offspring, he might have been better able to see that the creature was, in other ways, an accurate reflection of humanity, capable of learning and growing, feeling “anguish” and appreciation for beauty.

It is not only Frankenstein, of course, who recoils from the sight of the creature. It is a natural human response to desire what is beautiful and reject what is not, and the creature struggles even with the sight of his own face when he sees it reflected in a puddle. He knows that he is hindered by the fact that the first reaction he evokes is one of disgust. But he feels “pleasure” at the sight of nature, “wonder” at the beauty of the moon, and emotion at the sight of the villagers interacting with each other. Shelley relies heavily upon the language of Romanticism to indicate that the creature, through his interaction with nature, is exploring his own soul. Far from being a hideous automaton, the creature is capable of very deep feeling, and possibly deep inner beauty. This then forces the reader to question how far his subsequent violence is a result of his nature and how far it is the outcome of the utter lack of nurture shown to him by his creator, the shallow and fickle Frankenstein.