Karen Villegas
Mr. Diedrich
Analysis Essay
February 10, 2012
Grammarly Score: 80
Frankenstein Essay Birth is a miracle, but in the case of Frankenstein’s creature, this blessing of life is a curse. In the book Frankenstein, the protagonist Victor Frankenstein plays God by creating life with his own hands. Society portrays this creature as a horrid, bloodthirsty monster, and society refuses to accept him as a human being. Frankenstein, the creator, fails to take responsibility for what he created, and leaves the creature in mere desolation, almost like an orphan. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, conveys the impression of the creature as a baby through her use of rhetorical devices, with the attempt to build pathos to evoke sympathy and contempt towards the protagonist. In the passage, Shelley relates the creature to an infant using sensory details, with the goal of creating sympathy and anger. Specifically, when the creature had awakened, “[he] felt cold… and half frightened.” The creature is truly a baby. This demonstrates the feelings of a newborn when it wakes up cold, frigid, and scared in the middle of the night. The juvenile characteristics stress the creature’s immaturity. Shelley personifies him as an infant to evoke the warm feeling of compassion. However, she subtly shifts her purpose. She also wants to instigate fury within the reader because of carelessness Frankenstein shows for his helpless child. In addition, “[the creature] learned to distinguish between the operations of [his] various senses.” The creature lacks the art of thinking and reasoning. He is just becoming aware of his own five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste, just like any other newborn. The creature is flailing around on his backside while his senses are opening up. However, he does have a desire to learn. He learns to differentiate between these bombarding senses which show growth. The reader feels pity due to the lack of experience the creature has had. On the other hand, it leads the reader to burn with rage to see this infantile creature abandoned, alone, and afraid. Also, the creature mentions the “innumerable sounds rung in [his] ears and on all sides various scents saluted [him].” The creature is now mature. His ability to hear these sounds and accept them illustrates his development. Feeling one simple sense to using multiple senses at one time shows tremendous growth. Shelley triggers sadness within the reader because she wants him or her to realize that the creature has a difficult time adjusting to the cruel, cold world. This also makes the reader feel contempt towards the protagonist for being so heartless. Overall, Shelley manipulates the features of an infant to compare it to the creature to make the reader experience sympathy and rage by using sensory detail. Moreover, Shelley stirs up the reader's emotions by utilizing an innocent tone to epitomize the creature as a baby. When people see a baby, they see innocence, they see the purity, and it fills them with a feeling of kindness and warmth. In the passage, the creature "knew, and could distinguish nothing," so he "sat down and wept." He is literally an infant. This virtuous creature lacks knowledge. Through an innocent tone, the
