frankenstein essay

Submitted By lolopollooza
Words: 375
Pages: 2

Who Should We Have Sympathy For? As a newborn child, one is not expected to know everything about the world and how it works. In this sense one also is not expected to know right from wrong. In the book Frankenstein, the monster is abandoned from his creator, or “parent”, and is left on his own to survive. The reader should feel sympathy for the monster because of the lack of guidance it had to become a successful part of society. When the monster came into the world he had no clue of how things worked, much like a newborn. The monster himself recognizes that ”there was no one to lament my annihilation (II, VII, 131).” He needed to be taught and nurtured for, not abandoned and left alone. This abandonment affected the creature in a negative way and thus is why we should not blame him. The monster takes self-initiative and tries to learn right from wrong and everything he can about humanity. Although he does this, he had no one to teach it to him besides books and what he learned through stalking the cottage next door. This means he had no role model to look at for help. Along with this came resentment toward his creator for abandoning him and making him unlike any other human. The creature should not have killed the creator’s brother and when he did, he should have stepped up and accepted his fate for his crime. Even though he did not do the right thing, the reader should have sympathy over the fact that he tried to learn what he should do although he failed at the task.