Loss of Goodness

“She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair.”

-p 186

And with Elizabeth’s death ultimately comes the death of benevolence. One of my group’s themes is that of benevolence. Victor and his creation both have encountered several people who displayed benevolence toward them. In the end, however, these people’s benevolence always disappeared. In the monster’s experience, the family’s benevolence dissipated with the monster’s revealing of himself. In Victor’s case, however, benevolence disappears from his life. In each case, as benevolence disappears from their life, the monster and Victor choose to decrease their own benevolence. It seems that Victor’s and the monster’s benevolent feelings only originated from others’ benevolence. This differs from Henry, Elizabeth, and Victor’s father, whose benevolence came from their own kindness. Victor and the monster only mirrored benevolence, yet their internal intentions are not rooted in good.

Any Questions? (Rhetorical Question)

“And now, with the world before me, whither should I bend my steps?...How was I to direct myself?”
-p 133

One of the creature’s more interesting mannerisms in telling his story is his penchant for asking rhetorical questions. Mary Shelley writes the creature’s monologue in this style to increase reader sympathy. This occurs because the creature repeatedly asks Victor these questions to appeal to his own sense of sympathy. The monster is not only telling his story; he is pleading for Victor’s understanding. He is hoping that by asking these questions, Victor will understand the monster’s sense of a lack of direction and helplessness. He hopes that Victor will sympathize with the monster’s lack of guidance and mercifully provide the monster with a benevolent protector. In doing so, the creature also evokes sympathy from the reader, who also is asked these same rhetorical questions. The unique aspect of the frame story allows Shelley to apply these rhetorical questions not only in a pragmatic view which carries function within the plot, but also evokes sympathy from the reader.