Does the creatures eloquence and persuasiveness make it easier for the reader to sympathize with him why or why not?

In the eighteenth century novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the protagonist creates a creature commonly known as Frankenstein. From a young age when his mother past away, the main character, Victor Frankenstein had a passion to create life. With this passion, Victor set out for the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Here Victor acquired the knowledge allowing him to execute his plan. Victor was interested in bringing the dead back to life, thus leading to his downfall. After many tries he finally accomplished the creation of a monster. The creation was extremely hideous, but far more real than Victor could have imagined. In the years that would follow, the monsters eloquence and persuasiveness would allow him to not be blamed of murder and force Victor to make another creation all to sympathize for his ugly physique. Victor Frankenstein’s creation was able to elude the warrants of murder through his eloquence and pensiveness in short talks with his creator. As the antagonist of the story, the creation sought revenge on Victor for making him as appalling as any human being. No person or community would allow the creation to be near them even if he was trying to help. For instance, Frankenstein saved a young girls life. She was drowning and Frankenstein saved her as he was on his way to Geneva. For a reward the girl’s father shot the creation for his horrendous physique. The creation did not want to live the rest of its life relinquished from society and stranded. To balance out his creator’s wrong doing, the monster endeavored to make Victor’s life more miserable than his own. To accomplish such a feat he would have to take what he loved most, his family. Upon crossing Victor’s youngest brother William, he strangled him to death. After this he took the necklace that William had worn and placed it on the family servant, Justine Mortiz, to frame her for the murder. Several days later Justine was executed for the murder of William although it had been the monster all along seeking revenge. When Victor learned of all the misfortunes he knew it most have been his creation. While taking a walk on a snowy mountainside Victor finally met his creation for the first time in almost two years. Victor’s “feelings allowed (him) no respite; no incident occurred from which (his) rage and misery felt furious and wished that he had never created the monster” (Shelley 108). Still when the monster spoke to Victor his eloquence and persuasion could be enough for Victor to sympathize with him and not accuse him of the murder. The monster spoke to Victor and told him how villages had chased him away and even the loving Felix and Agatha could not bear to see him. Victor’s “heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine” (Shelley 184). Since Victor would sympathize with his creation, but also the creations overwhelming strength and agility were reasons enough for him to not accuse him of the murders he had committed and the ones that would come. The second commodity that Victor’s creation achieves through his eloquence and persuasion is that he gets his creator to make him another monster. Throughout the course of the story the creation is lonely and unhappy with his short life. Victor has made him “hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion” (Shelley 4). As the creator of the monster he cannot bear to see his creation. Victor realizes that if he cannot look at his own creation than maybe the monster does deserve someone like himself to be with. That creation must “be supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world" (Shelley 4) in order for it to get along with another monster as ghastly. Victor creation is able to win Victor over by making him truly comprehend how miserable his life is alone with no one wanting him. With his persuasion the monster gets Victor to make him another monster or wife to live with by his powerful tactics of persuasion. Although the monster would ruin his hopes of a second creation, his eloquence did win Victor over and would keep him from being killed by Walton at the end of the novel.

In all the monsters persuasion and eloquence were crucial in order for it to feel equal amongst people. When Victor Frankenstein first created the monster it was a horrible disaster and an experiment that had gone completely wrong. By the end of the story the monster convinced Victor to satisfy his needs allowing him to get away with the murder of many innocent people. Also the monsters eloquence made Victor sympathize with him and force Victor to make him a wife. This would never happen in the end but the monster did get Victor to sympathize with him. At the end of the story Victor and the monster had built a social integrity with each other through persuasion and eloquence although the monster would be the only one that lived.

Shelley makes the monster eloquent, rather than mute or uncommunicative. What effect does this choice have on our perception of him?

The monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein lurches into life as big as a man but as ignorant as a newborn. He can’t read, speak, or understand the rudiments of human interaction. When he stumbles upon the cottagers, however, he picks up language by observing them and studying their speech. It is this acquisition of language, along with the eloquence it brings, that turns the monster from a mysterious nightmare into a sympathetic and tragic figure. By showing how language transforms the monster, and by contrasting the well-spoken monster with his equally articulate creator, Shelley argues that verbal communication—rather than action or appearance—is the only way through which people can truly understand one another.

Before the monster learns to express himself, his actions are no less than terrifying. His escape from Victor’s workshop seems sinister and his murder of William apparently confirms the notion that he is a powerful, malignant beast capable of unmotivated violence. His shocking appearance does not help matters. Victor assumes, and Shelley invites us to assume along with him, that this being, with his patched-together body, his yellow skin, and his black lips, must have a soul that matches his hideous appearance.

When the monster speaks, however, he throws his actions into a different light. He explains that Victor’s desertion left him alone and frightened. He conveys how hurt he was when he realized that his appearance scares normal people. His stories about sympathizing with and secretly helping the cottagers show that he has an empathetic nature, and his tale of rescuing a young girl and getting a bullet for his trouble demonstrates his instinct to help those weaker than himself, sparking our outrage at society’s unwarranted cruelty toward him. Even the monster’s description of William’s murder makes the convincing case that fury at Victor drove the monster to violence—not an excuse, by any means, but certainly an explanation that is understandable and psychologically credible. By giving the monster the power of oratory, Shelley forces us to consider his behavior from an entirely different angle and to sympathize with his plight.

Shelley bolsters our sympathy for the monster by comparing his words to Victor’s. Frankenstein is Victor’s story; he has countless opportunities to argue his case and cast himself as the tragic hero of the tale. Despite his earnest—and long-winded—attempts to put himself in the right, however, Victor’s words only alienate us as they pile up. He feels little besides relief when the monster escapes; he lets Justine go to her death rather than risk his reputation by telling the truth; he whines and prevaricates; he heartlessly abandons and scorns his own creation. Ironically, Victor would be more appealing were he to lose the power of speech. Unlike his monster, he is no murderer. By themselves, his actions might seem reasonable. But because he bares his soul by communicating verbally to us, the readers, he reveals the unappealing motivations behind those reasonable actions and loses our trust and sympathy.

The monster’s eloquent words do not have the effect he intends: They fail to win Victor’s approval or gain his affection. They do have an effect he cannot foresee, however. By explicating himself and his actions, the monster gains our favor and turns himself into the hero of Victor Frankenstein’s narrative. And by pulling off this neat reversal, Shelley demonstrates the overwhelming importance of language in shaping individuals’ identities—as well as the perception of those identities by others.

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Do not judge a book by its cover. A famous American proverb that says a person’s character cannot by judged by their appearance. A prime example of this is the monster from Frankenstein. On the outside, he has a terrible appearance but he is a kind soul simply looking for a little compassion. He is a victim however due to his monstrous appearance and is left in bitter misery in the story. Both the book and the play present him as a sufferer in a cruel world but ultimately the book does a better job portraying his pain and creating compassion for him. The monster in the book details his suffering in greater detail, is more eloquent and persuasive and also experiences a more tragic ending and as a result a reader feels more sympathy towards him than an audience member would feel towards the monster in the play.

The greater detail about the monster’s experiences provided by the book is the first thing that allows a reader to sympathize with the monster better than an audience member. When the Frankenstein monster is retelling the story of the hardships he has endured, he mentions events that were overlooked in the play. One example of this is when the monster saved a young girl’s life. An act such as this would be praised with the greatest heroism if it was done by a human, but as a reward he is shot, receiving only “the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone.” (Shelley 135) The book also examines the months of hard work the creature put into learning about human nature and language in order to be fully accepted when he chose to reveal himself. The monster hid by the cottage for around a year, never leaving during the day and working to help the cottager’s at night in order to learn from them. The monster went ...

... the monster from the novel. At the end of the play he appears to Frankenstein, appeals to him for a little bit and then Frankenstein accepts him and they live together. The monster from the book undergoes a much harsher life and end, and as a result the sympathy a reader has for him far exceeds that of an audience member.

The book goes into greater detail regarding the monster’s hardships, has a more eloquent and persuasive monster and has a more heartbreaking ending. As a result a reader feels greater sympathy towards the monster in the novel rather than in the play. The monster begins his journey a purely innocent and kind being, but because he has to suffer the misfortune of having such a monstrous appearance he is condemned by society. Frankenstein tells the story of a benevolent being persecuted by man, and has the reader questioning who the real monster is.