Its So Freaking Sad And Scary - Tumblr Posts
And YET, as I will never not think about,
he didn’t restrain himself from taking away that very thing from other people who never harmed him.
He still is an utter monster, but only because the apple didn’t fall far from the tree after all.
He, this intelligent marvel, wizened so far beyond his short years, admitted to knowing full-well the difference between right and wrong, between compassion and cruelty, and he still committed heinous atrocities out of selfish motivations.
He knew the receiving end of prejudice and still let his own view of the world, and life itself, be shaped so consumingly by his frustration with humans and his creator- By his fear over his love, the same as those who shunned him most. He knew the value of life and the innocence of the young, and then through his misplaced rage, he murdered a child, bare handed, and coldly condemned a guiltless woman to die an unjust death.
He loathed his father for the mistakes that saddled him with fumbling around in a world that set him up for constant torment, and his ultimate response was to seek his maker out, and either coerce him into fulfilling the demands of an admitted murderer, or inflict the same pain upon him while taking down many more uninvolved innocents in the process.
Yes, Victor is the single cause behind the entire tragic chain of events throughout the novel, but the monster clawed and fought to give himself the miracle of his own agency to break the cycle, and, instead? I think he has more than proven that he wasn’t exactly picking daisies since his birth either.
Because at the end of the day, Frankenstein’s creature still is a monster, but even more than that, and I think something thematically amazing
He is a living monument to his father’s worst flaws and mistakes.
And truly, appearances aside, I like to think the real reason Victor is so viscerally repulsed by his creation is because he must also realize that on some level, unconscious or otherwise.
Like Victor, his creature is a well educated prodigy, and amazingly read in many subjects…. Yet, they are both wretches not made any happier from the knowledge they craved after.
Like Victor, the creature is filled with such deep and moving passions for the beauty in the world, yet cannot help but let his instability and short-sighted impulses sabotage his every effort to find the connection with others he lacks.
Like Victor- gifted with power and ability beyond that of all other living men, only to turn that fortune into a burden and irreparable harm for others around them.
Like Victor, the creature is a hypocritical, miserable, self-hating, vindictive coward, through and through.
There’s a frighteningly likely elucidation to be made here that this poor creature could be the self-inflicted, unforgiving punishment of Frankenstein’s own guilt and making.
I often wonder if when he looks upon this son he so failed, if he sees the ugliness inside of himself. Were you a man so twisted and lost in the world too, who spent so long running from and ignoring himself, how else could you react, but to scream in terror once you were finally forced to meet your reflection?
Everytime I read Frankenstein, the same line makes me put the book down and stare at the wall. It’s my favorite line in the book; it has its own highlighter color in my annotations. The first time I read it, I literally detoured after my last class just to tell my lit teacher how much I liked the line because I couldn’t wait until second period the next day. Here’s the line:
“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
This is said by the creature. He wanted to live. He wanted to live life so badly even though he had had such a difficult one. He still loved the song of the birds and the smell of the flowers and the joy in the world even if he never got to truly experience that joy. I just. AHHHH.
He wanted to fight for a life he never got to live.