From Frankenstein’s perception throughout the story the audience sympathises with his views to think that the monster is evil, Shelley purposefully uses vivid descriptive language to convey the image across; she also purposefully used oxymorons to create a contrast that works in a negative way on the monsters appearance. “These luxuriances only formed a more horrid complexion with his watery eyes” This quote shows that Shelley has illustrated the fact that the monster has some good features but they only contrast with his “shrivelled complexion” to create a repulsive fai?? ade.
The readers from Frankenstein’s point of view can only imagine a representation of a horrendous fiend but this perception changes completely when the story jumps to the monsters narrative. When the story is told through the monsters insight it affects the reader enormously as we can sympathise with the monster and justify why he has done what he did. Shelley cleverly uses emotive language during the monsters narrative to convey his feelings and sensations to the reader. By giving the monster the 5 senses; sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing she makes him feel like a human being to the reader instead of a beast.
Shelley also uses flashbacks through the monster to make the reader sympathise with him. The monster commences his tale by telling Frankenstein how he felt when he was “born”; this creates a sense of innocence around the monster, as all newborns are linked with innocence. As the monster is also portrayed as an abandoned and rejected child we can sympathise and justify his sins because he has had no father figure to guide him and teach him right from wrong; this also reflects on Shelley’s own life during that period as her father stopped talking to her throughout the time she wrote Frankenstein.
The sense of rejection is heightened for the monster as he was such a disappointment to Frankenstein who created the monster with such high hopes of “beauty” but when Frankenstein realises what he has done he sees his creation as an “abhorred monster”. This engages in our sympathy with the monster since he didn’t ask to be created.
