Frankenstein, Part II

In the second part of Shelley's work, we are confronted with the monster yet again. But the monster doesn't seem so monstrous when it first explains its narratives. Often times, a victim of abuse takes the eventual form of its own abuser. In the first part, we see how a materialistic worldview drives a man into the overarching realm of attempting to create life and bestow upon things gifts that he cannot rightfully bestow upon anyone. In the second part, we see him forced to confront the hideous beast that he created out of his desire to control what he could not possibly control. But the beast doesn't seem so hideous. The beast asks and demands a defense. The beast is in a situation where it is not monster, but abused by another monster. One wonders who the real beast is when the monster begins giving his narrative which leads to the death of William that Justine is unfortunately blamed for and executed for. Is the real monster the abusive creator, Victor Frankenstein, who scorns his own creation or is the real monster the creation? Is the real monster that which shows sympathy and affection for this family he finds in the woods, or is the real monster the family which will scorn him and run him out because he doesn't look like them?

The beast tells his story of how he comes across a family living a small house in the woods. How he acquires knowledge of both the language and the behavior of humans from studying their movements, their tongue, and their way of life. The beast realizes the father of this family is blind and cannot see. The beast has been discriminated against in his early life for how he appears to other people. In secret, he provides help to the children of this blind man in their daily tasks. The beast is successful in the first part of his story in earning one's sympathies for him. As his story continues, one is drawn to show compassion for the beast in his circumstances. How could his creator have left him in such a condition? Then, when he decides to finally reveal himself, he shows himself to the blind father. Lady Justice always wears a blindfold. It can only be a blind man who can adequately judge the character of the individual heart, and so the beast shows himself to the blind man, hoping that his character can be judged and not his appearance. But the children see him and the son of the blind man begins attacking him and beating him. The monster can do nothing but bear the punishment. It is too great. They care nothing for how he has assisted them during his time in the woods. They care only about his appearance.

In this time, he finds many works to read including the notes of Victor Frankenstein regarding his creation and the work Paradise Lost by John Milton. It is Paradise Lost that catches the beast's attention the most. He finds himself like Adam in that he has been created for a unique purpose. But he finds himself like Satan in bringing liberty to people, suffering from an oppressive Creator. Frankenstein's notes regarding this monstrous creation of his only serves to convince him more about this. Frankenstein has a rejection for his creation. Unlike God, who declares His creation good, Frankenstein declares his creation in the most downcast terms as possible. One wonders if the creation of a monster has more to do with what is felt in the creation of it or in the actual heart of the monster itself. Should Frankenstein have called his creation "good", would his creation have been "good" in appearance and in heart? It seems as if the creation here is "good" in heart, but not in appearance. Frankenstein constantly attacks the nature of the appearance of the beast over and above all other things.

But more importantly, the monster feels alone. The monster sees in Paradise Lost how God created for Adam a mate, Eve. The monster finds himself more like Lucifer because he has been abandoned by his own creator, dejected, and does not know his own creator. The monster wants to be Adam. The monster compares himself to be a monster but the monster desires himself to be a human. The monster has human emotions. This is the creation of Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has created "life" through a means of perversion and has abused his own creation throughout its making. As a result, he has ended up with a perversion that desires revenge on his creator. But the monster does not want that revenge. The monster wants to be given a chance to be a creation. The monster desires accompaniment because he knows it is not good to be alone.

Shelley attacks a commonly held view of God here that is found in certain strands of Protestant theology. Unironically, this strand of Protestant theology originated in Geneva where Frankenstein's hometown location is. In studying and comparing Victor Frankenstein to the God of Genesis, one sees in Frankenstein, aspects that are much more like that of the Calvinist Deity than the true God. The Gods are quite different in both nature and reason, actually. The God of the Scriptures is a God of compassion, co-suffering, seeks to benefit and know His creations, calls His creations good, and desires relation. That is a God who is Love. But the God of the Calvinists is much more like Victor Frankenstein. The God of the Calvinists despises his creations, does not desire intimacy, picks and chooses where ultimately they end up, does not view all of his creations as good, and does not care if certain creations are left alone. The God of the Calvinists is incapable of desiring an individual soul because the God of the Calvinists loves only communally. The God of the Scriptures loves according to the individual heart. The Calvinist Deity is a sharp contrast to the True God, for while God is Love, the Calvinist Deity despises certain men and blesses other men. The Calvinist Deity creates certain humans directly for the Hellfire. The Calvinist Deity is incapable of stepping outside himself and stretching down to love each unique human individual or providing for their needs.

The beast starts his mission in seeking out Victor Frankenstein in order to enact revenge on the maker for detesting him. When one is bound to the Calvinist Deity, this is only a natural act of regression. The Calvinist Deity creates to oppress. It does not matter what the creation does, everything is fixed for the creation. There can be no chance of intimacy. Thus, the beast, seeing himself rejected by both creator and man, burns down the house of the family he claimed and thought of as his friends, then he seeks to carry out vengeance upon the very one who made him. The beast seeks out Frankenstein in his hometown of Geneva and seeing the innocent William, realizes this is a Frankenstein, and has no sympathy upon the relation of Victor. But seeing the woman's picture, he begins to think of Adam and Eve again and he begins to desire that intimacy that Adam and Eve were given. He demands that Victor create for him an Eve. It is unknown whether the monster will carry out his promise after Eve is created, to leave the town alone, but Victor must comply with the demand.