Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Frankenstein’s unnamed creature, made from reanimated matter, lives a pained, violent life on the outskirts of society and serves as the novel’s antagonist. His grotesque appearance frightens anyone he meets—including his own creator—and prevents him from ever making a human connection. As the novel progresses, readers learn that the creature was born good but becomes corrupted because people automatically treat him like a monster. It is significant that the creature never has a name. Much like his constant isolation from society, his lack of name—and therefore lack of an identity—dehumanizes him.

The creature’s transformation from kind and caring to murderous raises the question of Nature Versus Nurture. The creature is clearly gentle and loving in the beginning. He performs anonymous acts of kindness for the De Lacey family. He is moved to tears by their music and eagerly learns their language. The creature can articulate his affinity for the De Laceys and his innate desire for human contact, and his eloquence shows he is capable of reason. However, endless rejection causes the creature to become violent and murderous. It begins when the De Lacey family rejects him. Though he originally hoped society could grow to love him for his virtues, he realizes that he will never be accepted by humankind and declares war on all people. Eventually, this anger is singularly focused on Frankenstein, and the creature aims to kill his creator’s loved ones so he will be as lonely as the creature is.

The creature repeatedly states that he does not enjoy killing the innocent, like Frankenstein’s younger brother William. Looking back at “the frightful catalogue of [his] sins” (203), he is amazed that he is “the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness” (204). Just as Frankenstein believes his crimes make him unworthy of human connection, the creature knows he can seek no sympathy.

Several times, the creature compares himself to the biblical figures Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he is the first of his kind; unlike Adam, he was abandoned by his creator and has a hideous form that prevents him from being accepted. Thus, he determines he is more like Satan, who was cast into Hell by his creator, but he emphasizes that unlike Satan, he committed no crimes prior to his rejection. The creature resents Frankenstein for Neglecting the Duty of a Creator and denying him a female companion.

At the end of the novel, the creature stands over Frankenstein’s dead body and wishes he could ask forgiveness because his “heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy” (202). Ironically, the creature’s attempts to find acceptance among humanity made him into “the meanest animal” (203)—the very monster humans assume he is. Like Frankenstein, the creature regrets the knowledge he gained. Once he became aware of society’s inability to accept him, he is miserable and vengeful. Seeking retribution only leads to further pain and suffering. His promise to die by fire represents his destruction at the hands of knowledge.

Robert Walton is an amateur ship captain whose letters to his sister, Margaret, are the frame of the novel. Walton is portrayed as idealistic and malleable, and his tender professions of love for his sister show he is gentle-hearted.

In his letters, he tells Margaret of his hope to discover unexplored places and open passages to new lands. The voyage is perilous, and Walton and his crew eventually find themselves trapped by ice. They spot Frankenstein amid the ice floes, bring him aboard, and nurse him back to health. Walton admires Frankenstein, who he can tell was once refined, and eventually loves him, in part because they are very much alike. In particular, Walton’s desire for glory mirrors Frankenstein’s. When he describes his belief that “[o]ne man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of knowledge” (13), Frankenstein shares his story in hopes of warning Walton against unbridled ambition.

Whether Walton heeds this lesson is unclear; after hearing Frankenstein’s story, Walton asks him the secret of creating life, earning chastisement. However, Walton also laments that his quest put the lives of his crew in danger and writes that, if they die, his “mad schemes are the cause” (196). He ultimately returns to Europe, though he regrets that he does so in an “ignorant” state, suggesting he has not entirely abandoned his dreams.

Henry Clerval is Frankenstein’s childhood friend. He is described as a kind, noble-spirited man who cares deeply for Frankenstein.

Clerval’s character serves as a foil, or contrast, for Frankenstein. While Frankenstein is from a more illustrious family, Clerval is the son of a merchant. Frankenstein’s interest in science is counterbalanced by Clerval’s gravitation toward languages, literature, and ethics. Frankenstein is also prone to “violent” fits of “temper,” while Clerval is a man of “chivalry and romance” (23).

Clerval’s joyful, poetic spirit often comforts Frankenstein. He acts as a nurse to Frankenstein when the latter falls into a fever following the creature’s awakening. He helps his friend reconnect with nature after a dark period of separation from nature and human society. Later, when Frankenstein and Clerval tour England together, Frankenstein is “desponding and sorrowful” (139), whereas Clerval is “alive to every new scene, joyful when he [sees] the beauties of the setting sun, and more happy when he [beholds] it rise and recommence a new day” (139).

Clerval and Frankenstein do share a similar ambition, however. Just as Frankenstein seeks glory through science, Clerval “love[s] enterprise, hardship, and even danger for its own sake” (23). He too dreams of becoming “one among those whose names are recorded in story as the gallant and adventurous benefactors of our species” (23). He plans to travel from England to India to assist “the progress of European colonization and trade” (144).

Frankenstein’s friendship with Clerval is a comfort the creature can never hope to gain. So, after Frankenstein destroys the creature’s companion, he murders Clerval in retaliation. With Clerval’s death, Frankenstein loses not only a beloved friend but also a connection to his idyllic childhood. Clerval is presented as perfect and ideal, making Frankenstein’s heartbreak even more severe.