After a certain period of time passes, the creature mentions his strong desire for love. He eventually approaches the cottagers he was watching and the only person home was the blind father. The blind man accepts him into his house and displays a glimpse of love to the monster. On the other hand, Frankenstein was able to obtain love much easier than the creature. Although it was easier for Victor, he shows his desire for love in a letter he wrote to his father: “My dear father, re-assure yourself. I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely.
I never saw any woman who excited; as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection my future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union” (Shelley 108). Here Frankenstein’s love for his Elizabeth is displayed and characterizes his desire for love (Cantor 110). In Victor’s youth he shows the desire towards Elizabeth: “Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house-my more than sister—the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures” (Shelley 31). This shows another instant of non-neoclassicism.
The marriage of an adopted sibling is highly improbable, and the fact that the marriage works shows the unrealistic nature of the scenario. Next, both Victor Frankenstein and the creature have moments of deep sorrow, when the monster loses his only hope of companionship and Victor loses the ones he loves. The monster shows his sorrow after being rejected by the cottagers: “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world.
For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom” (Shelley 97). The creature leaves where he was abandoned to a cottage of the Delacey’s, there he learns about humanity. After learning he accidentally drives the Delacey’s apart from him, causing great depression and anger (Frasait). The monster is said to be a replica of Frankenstein. The monster has no control over his aggression and continues to murder his creator’s loved ones. Although, this aggression is spurred on from the rejection and sorrow that humanity has placed on him (Cantor 117).
The creature’s ultimate sorrow is caused by the denial of a companion (Byron). Similarly, Victor Frankenstein also experiences deep sorrow through the loss of his loved ones. Frankenstein states his confusion in this situation. “I was bewildered in a cloud of wander and horror. The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife; I know not that my only friends were safe from malignity of the fiend” (Shelley 141-142). One of the first sorrows Victor experiences is the death of his mother.
This sad truth occurs on his way to college. This death is the main drive for Frankenstein creating the monster (Cantor 114). After creating the giant creature, Victor runs away and shuns his creation. Then Victor Frankenstein finds out his youngest sibling, William, died. This leads to the execution of Justine Morritz. Later in the novel Victor’s wife, Elizabeth, is murdered by the creature. In the end Clerval and Victor’s father are also killed (Frasiat). Frankenstein feels the sorrow of these losses due to his sensation of responsibility he had in their deaths.
After all, he made the creature who had murdered all those he loved (Severino 7). This shows a form of sensibility and mysticism throughout Victor’s scenario, because of the amount of people he has lost and the mysteriousness of the situation. Victor and His creature show their relation to one another through the commonality of sorrow. Frankenstein has lost loved ones while the creature has been betrayed. They are both slaves to their impulses causing them to fall further into their sorrow (Levine 45).
Victor Frankenstein shows his despair and regret of ever making the creature: “As time passed away I became more calm: miser had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for me was the consciousness of them” (Shelley 131). This shows the unrealistic state Victor came to, he had created something out of non-living parts, which continued to haunt him, linking back to non-neoclassicism. The creature and creation both have a strong desire to overcome one another.
Neither Victor nor the creature is willing to forgive. This shows their individualistic tendencies toward each other. They are constantly against each other due to past sorrow (Schmid 19). Victor has created and given life to this life to this creature that has destroyed so many of his loved ones. Also he desires to destroy his creation, but he ultimately knows this will not make up for the dead loved ones (Guyer 93). Together, Victor and his creation are in a constant state of sorrow, allowing them to portray a sense of sympathy towards the other.
The sorrow that both of them experience links back to the romantic time period of sensibility and unrealistic situations. Lastly, Frankenstein and the creature both display their desire for love and are examples of non-neoclassicism. The neoclassic period is described by William Harmon as follows “Deism was advancing, and the rule of reason resulted in a literature that was realistic, satirical, moral, correct, and affected strongly by politics” (320). The experiences Frankenstein and the creature endure are not close to being realistic or moral, and this shows the non-neoclassical approach of Mary Shelley.
Victor Frankenstein comes to a point of thinking he is in a dream state, “told me to forcibly that I was deceived by no vision, and that Clerval, my friend and dearest companion, had fallen a victim to me and the monster of my creation” (Shelley 129). This shows the unrealistic circumstances of Victor being tormented by something he created with his own hands. The idea of this situation happening is nothing like the real world. Victor Frankenstein and his creature want to gain friendship from those around them.
The creature shows his desire for friendship during his dialogue with the blind cottager, Mr. Delacey: “I am an unfortunate and deserted creature I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me, and know little of me. I am full of fears; for if I fail there I am an outcast in the world forever” (Shelley 93). The monster longs for a friend and fears the rejection of the people in the world. The creature is denied a companion from his creator.
Also the monster is isolated from the world after being denied friendship from the Delacey’s (Byron). In addition, Victor Frankenstein states his longing for friendship in his dialogue with Captain Walton; “But I enjoyed friends, dear not only through habit and association, but from their own merits; and wherever I am, the soothing voice of my Elizabeth and the conservation of Clerval will ever be whispered in my ear” (Shelley 153). Victor explains the friends he once had and shows how he enjoyed friends, not out of selfish ambition, but for the fulfillment of one another.
He explains that he will remember them forever. Ultimately the lack of friendship in the beginning of Frankenstein’s life leads him to create the monster (Severino 5). Creating the monster would fix Victor Frankenstein’s problem of friendship, and he would have a friend he could claim as his own. This situation shows another area of sensibility in the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his creature. In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is a perfect example of the Romantic time period. The monster continually calls out for sensibility from the romantic.
The monster has a desire for companionship, and implores of his creator to make him a being of his own species. The monster also desires to be accepted by mankind. The final way the monster displays sensibility is through his desire to learn. He displays his capabilities of learning at the beginning of his creation, and continues to grow throughout the novel. Victor Frankenstein shows the individualistic, mystic, and love of nature side of romanticism. He displays individualism through his desire to be his own creator. He also rejects the help from others, and strives on selfish ambition.
Victor shows the mysticism, through gaining power of being his own god. Finally, he shows a love for nature, through taking the time to breathe and admire the beautiful countryside around him. Romanticism is concluded in the comparison of the two characters, and how similar their situations are. Victor Frankenstein and the monster both have a strong desire for love from others around them. They also show great passion for sympathy from others, which they do not necessarily receive. Their situations are unrealistic, and portray the case of non-neoclassicism.
Both Frankenstein and the monster experience deep sorrow throughout the entire novel. This experience is heightened when the monster is denied a companion and Victor loses all of his loved ones. In the end, both Victor and the creature share their desire for friendship, which neither fully obtain, due to the circumstances of the rejection and bitterness. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, displays the aspects of Romanticism through Frankenstein and his creature; they display sensibility, individualism, love of nature, non-neoclassicism, and mysticism.
