Frankenstein - ch. 24

Well this is a depressing end. Victor spends the last month or so of his life seeking revenge. Victor chases the  creature all over the place. The whole intent of Victor's pursuit was to defeat the creature. Victor even goes to the length of asking Walton to kill the creature if he is unable to. I am not sure if Victor's speech to Walton's men was to convince them to advance for his own sake or whether he just wanted to give them deep advice before he passes. The points he makes are valid and Walton even agrees that all he was thinking was continuing forward. A parallel is created between Walton and Victor when Walton feels guilty for the death of men in his crew because of his scientific desire to reach the pole. This is similar to how Victor felt guilty for the deaths of people from the creature he created during his scientific pursuit.

The creature's appearance at the end creates more sympathy for the creature. All the creature has seen in sadness and upon seeing his creator die, he has nothing left to live for although his intentions towards his creator were evil. The creature is similar to Victor as well. The creature agrees that he should be destroyed and his remains destroyed so that no one can know that he existed. The creature does not want another creature to be created to suffer just as he has.

Frankenstein - ch. 22-23

In my opinion, these two chapters are the most emotional chapters of the book. This is most of the reason why I am in favor of Victor throughout the story. When Elizabeth sent Victor the letter saying that she suspects he loves another woman, I admittedly almost cried. I have been this whole novel for this freaking wedding to happen, and now I am learning that it may not happen. One can only imagine my temporary displeasure. Then of course the honeymoon has an abrupt ending. This is one of the many times throughout the story where I thought that Victor seems to lack common sense. Did it never occur to him that he should at least have someone keeping an eye on Elizabeth or maybe he should have protected her? Why would he think that the creature was coming for him? Victor is an intelligent man, but he lacks the common sense that makes the readers think he is an idiot. There is another parallel between Victor and the creature later in this section. Victor also feels detached from humanity even though he is not met with violence like the creature is. However, he seeks aid from the magistrate to find the creature. Of course, the magistrate politely refuses, and Victor responds with the not so polite response, "'how ignorant art thou with thy pride of wisdom (149)!'" I mean who wouldn't respond by calling the magistrate an idiot?

Frankenstein - ch. 18-21

Now the readers finally get to hear what they have been wanting to hear the entire novel; Victor and Elizabeth are getting married. However, there is no joyous tone when reading this portion of the novel. Let's remember that Victor is telling the story and he has a melancholy tone because he knows of the tragedies ahead. Victor also knows that he has a terrible act to perform before he can rest. The construction of the creature's partner seems to be going well until the creature appears during the creation process. A whole number of thoughts run through Victor's head such as the creature's procreating. Just as any sane person would react upon thinking of the hideous creature reproducing, Victor destroys the creature's partner. This may be one of the last sane acts that Victor performs. The creature scares the pants off of Victor when he says, "'I will be with you on your wedding night (123).'"

Upon Victor's arrival to Ireland, he is met with rudeness. Initially, I thought that Shelley was just trying to the say that the Irish are a rude people, and I was slightly offended until I kept reading. This time, Victor is the one on trial following the second creation process. Even though he is exonerated, Victor is  still sickly and he is paranoid. I think there are parallels between Victor's mental and physical health. Whenever Victor goes through an immensely stressful situation, he becomes deathly ill.

Frankenstein - ch. 16-17

Following the creature's failed encounter with the DeLacey's the question is posed: is humanity the true monster? Humanity continually judges the creature based on his appearance. According to the creature, he claims that he was originally a creature of love and kindness. If the creature speaks the truth, then humanity is the real monster. Humanity even sees the creature's kindness, but immediately responds with disgust. For example, the creature saved the girl from drowning and the man's response is, "...he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired (101)." This man saw the creature's benevolent act and responded by shooting him. This scene evokes sympathy for the creature who has continually been rejected by humans. Another interesting part of the story is that the creature cannot seek medical treatment because humans are too scared of him. The creature is completely detached. These events cause readers to believe that the creature became evil because humanity only show him evil. However, there is the other side to the argument  Victor claims that the creature is inherently evil. If this is true, then the creature is most likely just using his power of persuasion to fabricate these stories to cause Victor to sympathize for him.

Frankenstein - ch.13-15

The creature continues his story in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. As Felix's lover arrives, the creature is given a fortunate circumstance to his situation. This is pretty much the only lucky thing that happens to the creature during his whole miserable life. The creature shows his intelligence through his superior advances in learning the french language faster than Safie. The creature's learning process is an important account of how the creature was able to become so articulate by the time he encountered Victor on the glacier. We also get an insight into the history of the DeLacey family. Although this seems insignificant it does help to detail that the family he is observing is a pure and caring family. This family is the creature's best hope to make friendly contact with humanity. Despite the creature's good hopes and the slightly successful initial encounter with the blind father, the creature is still rejected in a similar manner to how he had always been accepted. This shows that all of humanity has the same reaction to the creature because of his outwardly appearance. I still find it hard to believe that Felix is able to inflict damage on the creature. Shelley writes, "Felix darted forth with supernatural force and tore me from his father..." I mean come on I know the creature is not fighting back and all, but seriously the creature has got like super powers. I feel it should have been more like Felix ran into a brick wall and then the creature walked out casually.

Frankenstein - ch. 11-12

Now the creature begins telling his story. I find it interesting that the story begins with Walton telling this whole story to his story about Frankenstein telling his story to Walton now about the creature telling his story to Frankenstein. That is a frame story if I have ever seen one. The creature tells his story about his travels and how he scared everyone he ran into. The story that amused me the most was the one about the shepherd who upon seeing the creature, "ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable." Then the story gets plain creepy. The creature observed every action of the family consisting of the blind father, Agatha, and Felix. As a sort of thanks for his observing them, the creature helps the family by bringing them fire wood or clearing a path of snow. The creature wants to learn to speak in order to communicate with the family. The creature is surprisingly intelligent and finds a way to vocalize some words. Obviously, the creature found some sort of way of learning to speak intelligently as shown in his conversation with Victor. The creature claims that he has a gentle demeanor and he planned to use this to win over the family. If the creature has a gentle demeanor, then why did he kill William?

Frankenstein - ch. 9-10

The death of Justine causes Victor to become remorseful because of his creation and all it has done. Upon seeing Victor depressed, Alphonse gives Victor advice, "...but is it not a duty to the survivors that we should refrain from augmenting their unhappiness by an appearance of immoderate grief?" Victor believes this advice was no good to him, but I believe it was. Alphonse tells Victor not to let this prevent him from experiencing joy. I believe the events have calloused Victor and made him incapable of experiencing joy. This is advice that is applicable to Victor, but he seems to have disregarded this, blinded by his hatred for his creation. Victor hardly sleeps, like he did during the creation process. He goes on a journey across the mountains and across a glacier. While on the glacier, Victor sees the creature in the distance. The only thing going through Victor's head is that he wants to kill the creature. Then the creature and Victor converse until the creature convinces Victor to follow him to his hut so that he can tell Victor his story. The creature can talk!? I did not really think about that at first.