Frankenstein's Monster Explication
The Development of Frankenstein’s Monster: An Explication of the Creature’s Tale A baby is born helpless in the world, innocent and naïve. In the quest for personal development, nature itself was the enemy for Frankenstein’s monster. Mary Shelley compares the helpless creature to that of a baby, and without the help of his creator, has to teach himself about the outside world around him. By using naturalistic sensory imagery and the creature’s personal grown and development, whether he is learning to differentiate between his senses or how to walk, the monster is emphasized as a newborn child. At the start of the creature’s story, the plot was moved solely by the basic human sensations of the creature. The monster, a newborn, stated that “[a] strange multiplicity of sensations seized [him] and [he] saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time” (lines 4-6). He was only able to use his senses on a primary level and could see only the dimness in the night. There was a personification of the night around him as saying that it “came over [him]” in order to show that the monster could not even tell that darkness was not a living thing (line 10). After seeing strange bodies walking around the woods at the edge of his view, the monster was determined to learn how to walk in order to avoid any danger. Just as soon as he set his mind to it, he quickly went from walking to running. In doing so, the creature learned to differentiate between his senses and how to control his own body. After learning to walk and control is body, he tried to learn how about the nature around him. The reflection of his internal shift is mirrored in the overall shift in setting from night to day. “[He] was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; [the] feeling [of] pain invade[d him] on all sides” (lines 36-38). He felt the heat of the rising sun and wanted shelter, felt hunger and wanted food, and felt cold and wanted clothes. As much as he wanted all these things to quench his desires, his