![]() ![]() The creature, who once saw beauty in hope in nature and humanity, is now filled with darkness. But now vice has degraded me beneath the meanest animal” (273). I was nourished with high thoughts of honor and devotion. He speaks these words to Walton, “Once I had falsely hoped to meet with beings, who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of bringing forth. The monster’s final interview with Walton is the most telling of the drastic changes in his views on society, justice and injustice. ![]() With these murders, the creature opens his soul up to the same evil that hangs over society. Since Frankenstein ruined the monster’s only hope of love, it is only fair and just, in his eyes, to destroy those people that Victor holds dearest. The creature’s need for vengeance becomes all-consuming. After this, the monster begins to seek a justice not of friendship and acceptance, but of revenge for his creator’s sins. Frankenstein, however, cannot live with the implications of such a creature and destroys it before it is completed, at the same time destroying the monster’s last chance at happiness. The other major event that forces Frankenstein’s monster to reconsider his views of justice and injustice occurs when, after realizing that he will never be a part of human society, the monster begs his creator to make him a female, a partner with whom he can satisfy his desire for the love and care that he did not receive from the De Laceys. Although this was not his first time being rejected from society, it is by far the most traumatizing, forever changing his views on the supposed goodness of humanity. While these books teach the creature about the failure of society and the lack of justice in the world, the rejection by the De Laceys once he finally reveals himself to the family is his first real example of this. The creature tells Frankenstein that the books “produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection” (151). Milton’s Paradise Lost is particularly influential to the creature the creature thinks of this work as nonfiction, and compares himself to Satan, “wretched, helpless, and alone. Frankenstein’s monster comes to an even greater understanding of humanity and justice through his readings of the books he found one day while scavenging for food. The creature’s time with the De Laceys exposes him to the love and connection shared by these people, but it is through the family that he also comes in contact with his first example of evil and the vices of mankind, through the story of the newcomer, Safie. He finds great pleasure with his current residence in the hovel besides the shack, stating, “It was indeed a paradise, compared to the bleak forest, my former residence, the raindropping branches, and dank earth. For the first time in his short life, the creature feels that he has found his place in the world, his justice. The monster becomes a secret member of the family, observing the habits of Felix, Agatha, and old man De Lacey. ![]() While he does not have a complete understanding of the make-up of a family, the monster senses the care and love that the three people have for each other, and desires to share in this closeness. This becomes a reality for the monster through his encounters with the De Lacey family. He was created into this world, so it seems only fair to him that he receive a rightful place in it alongside his human counterparts. The definition of justice is, to the creature at this point, acceptance. ![]()
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