In Volumes II and III of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the conflicts between Victor Frankenstein and the creature ultimately increase as the narration switches between Victor, the creature, and towards the end of the novel, Robert Walton. Volume II begins with the continued perspective of Victor as he recollects his grief and guiltiness over Justine and William’s death, in which the creature later confesses his crimes of murdering William and framing Justine for William’s death. Following the deaths of Justine and William, the Frankenstein family retreats to their mountain house where Victor is confronted by the creature while on a solitary walk within the mountains. The creature is immediately greeted by Frankenstein’s disgust and anger in which Victor immediately threatens the creature with death. The narration then switches to the creature as he recounts his experiences the past few months that he spent observing a French family by the name of De Lacey as he hid from their view in a small hovel near their cottage. The creature felt as though he had befriended the family without interacting with them and upon his first interaction, is rejected by the family for his monstrous appearance. The creature tells Frankenstein of his spite for his creator making his appearance so distasteful to society resulting in eternal loneliness and implores that Victor must make him a female companion of similar appearance whom he will disappear from society with. Victor hesitantly agrees but while in the process of making the second creature version (Volume III), he is consumed by the possibility he was feeding into the creation of a “race of devils,” (Shelley 255) and instead, tears apart his unfinished creation. In spite, the creature murders Victor’s longtime friend Henry Clerval and his wife Elizabeth on his wedding night leading Frankenstein into a spiral of vengeance to kill the creature himself. The novel ends with the confrontation of the creature and Robert Walton on the ship following Victor’s death in which the creature confesses to his crimes and admits his feelings of regret.
One element emphasized throughout the novel, but particularly in Volume II and III, is the factor of loneliness due to isolation from society and the desire to find a companion, surfacing in both Victor and the creature. In Volume II, during the creature’s recollections of his time spent away from Frankenstein, one statement I found emphasizing the degree of loneliness the creature experienced was his comparison to the book Paradise Lost in which the creature claims, “he (Adam) was allowed to converse with, and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature: but I was wretched, helpless, and alone.” (Shelley 209) The creation stories of both Adam and the creature are quite different in which Adam was immediately greeted with love from God, his creator, and given a companion so he was not alone, whereas the creature was given nothing, and his own creator ran away from him in fear. The creature’s remembrance of the months without Victor places the reader in the creature’s shoes, implementing empathetic feelings as the creature speaks about the continuous rejection from society due to his appearance despite his strong desire to not be alone and join society. The creature’s desperate desire to have a companion is also shown through the ultimatum he gives Victor in which he demands a female companion or else he will murder those who Frankenstein loves. This desperation, although the creature later admits to Walton his regrets and sorrow for his actions, can be seen as the utmost level of loneliness calling for the creature to demand such a difficult request. Secondly, the loneliness of Victor is also shown in Volumes I and III, during both instances where Frankenstein is isolated in his laboratory working on his experiments. In both instances, Frankenstein becomes ill and suffers as he devotes the entirety of his time working on his projects alone. Before returning to his laboratory in Volume III, he claims, “I found that I could not compose a female without again devoting several months to profound study and laborious disquisition,” (Shelley 235) possibly inferring his fear of loneliness and potential to slip back into his illness due to isolation. Throughout each of the volumes, Frankenstein’s apparent happiness is shown when he returns to his family and particularly Elizabeth. For instance, in Volume III, Victor is visited in prison by his father and is immediately filled with joy but then becomes “absorbed by gloomy and black melancholy, that nothing could dissipate” (Shelley 273) after his father leaves, further emphasizing his desire to not be isolated from society but, in particular, his own family.
After finishing the novel, I am left with a multitude of questions regarding both the ending of the story and plot complications throughout the novel. One particular question I have that pertains to the entire plot is why did Frankenstein decide to reject the creature when he was fully aware of what he was creating? This complication confused me as Frankenstein witnessed the appearance of what he was creating throughout the entire process and decided to not give the creature a chance. Frankenstein left the poor creature alone and isolated, despite his own creation not being requested. A second complication I am left wondering about is why Frankenstein did not simply exclude reproductive parts of his second creation to prohibit the “race of devils” he fears? If Frankenstein had done this, there would likely have been less conflict as the creature and his companion could leave in peace without implications arising. Thirdly, why did Frankenstein believe that the creature was only to kill him and not his family? I found it quite obvious that the creature sought to make Frankenstein feel as alone as he did rather than giving him solely an easy death on his wedding night, but Frankenstein did not think he would murder others such as Elizabeth and Clerval despite the creature’s history. Overall, after reading the final chapters of Frankenstein, I find the most prevalent theme to be loneliness between Victor and the creature, which persuades me to focus on this topic for my next project.
Comments