I can't help but feel pity and compassion for Victor Frankenstien from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Though his creation was a murderer, it was Frankenstien's actions that drove the creature to kill, and to act like that monster that everyone thought he was.
Frankenstein's first sin was to experiment with the laws of nature and create life not in the natural way, but by using a beaufitul force of nature to animate a collection of limbs and other body parts that had been very cruedly sewn and stitched together. His second offense was abandoning his creation after seeing what a monstrosity he'd brought into the world. This is neglect and abandonment. A parent would never get away with neglecting a child with physical or mental deformities, and neither should Victor Frankenstien's actions be forgiven. It is a parent's job to guide their children- teach them right from wrong. Victor Frankenstein failed miserably at his duties and obligations as a father. It was this carelessness and abandonment that drove his creation to become and evil mastermind and a true monster.
Still, I can't help but to feel compassion for the man. The whole story is a flashback, and he's reflecting on the decisions he's made in his life, and most likely regretting them. Mary Shelley used very little dialogue in the story; almost to the point that it becomes painful to read. She goes in depth and describes the torment, the tragedy, and tha pain that he is enduring. In this way, she makes the reader feel and share his pain. She forces the reader to empathise with him, whether they want to or not. At the time that he's telling his story, he's an old man, weary from the suffering he endured as a young man and from the constantly having to stay on the move, running from his past and running from his monster. His actions were reprehensible, but I shed a tear or two for him, and I feel more compassion than contempt for him.
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