The suffering in Frankenstein is undeserved. How far and in what ways do you agree with the view of Shelleys presentation of suffering free essay sample

‘The Suffering in ‘Frankenstein’ is undeserved’ – How far and in what ways do you agree with the view of Shelley’s presentation of suffering? Frankenstein’s characters suffer in a couple of ways, psychologically such as through loneliness or through emotional pain of the death of close ones, and physical suffering. Shelley herself was an only child, so could have been considered lonely when she was younger, and her mother died, which is obviously a death of a close one. While suffering is deserved by some of the characters as they bring it upon themselves, some of the characters are not deserving of their suffering as it is thrust upon them. The creature’s suffering is, at least initially, the most undeserved. He is brought into the world by Frankenstein and is then left, and becomes lonely. He is also treated badly by people for the way that he looks, which is not something he can help. We will write a custom essay sample on The suffering in Frankenstein is undeserved. How far and in what ways do you agree with the view of Shelleys presentation of suffering? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The creature says â€Å"There was none†¦ who would pity or assist me†¦ I declared ever-lasting war against the species†¦ and against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery†. These are the reasons he gives for changing the way he was – kind and good as society had gone against him. This starts with the destruction of Felix’s house after the creature is beaten for visiting his father. It is here that he takes vengeance, and continues his vengeance elsewhere by killing those close to Frankenstein. As the being takes revenge after being hurt by the De Lacey family, he must have been born good, but society changed him because he had not done anything wrong before this point. This would mean that on one hand, he doesn’t deserve to suffer as he did because it is the fault of society that changed him. However, because he had a moral compass and free will, he should know what he was doing was wrong, and could therefore be deserving of the suffering he endures. He murders, among others, a young boy called William. William did not want to befriend the creature as the creature had wanted him to, and was subsequently killed. We know that the creature has a moral compass after reading books from the De Lacey household, and it would seem that he knew what he was doing was wrong. I believe that the being did not deserve the suffering, however, for the fact that he only became bad because of others. It would mean that if he was born into a better society and treated better by its people, he would not have done what he did. Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, was deserving of the suffering he endured because a lot of it was his own fault. He keeps his family members at a distance to protect them; however, the protection of his family was probably a cover for wanting to be alone to create the being. He ran away from his own creation, and was egotistical, arrogant, and self-serving. He suffers from illness, the loss of family and friends, and is haunted by the thought of the pursuance of the creature. Frankenstein created â€Å"A new species (that) would bless me as its creator and source†. As you can tell from the quote, the creation was all for selfish reasons and he did not think of the consequences that would occur, leaving the creature, and not looking after him. This led to the creature being lonely, and the suffering caused to Frankenstein was in revenge for this – the creature began killing his family members. Elizabeth in the book is killed, but in the theatre production by Danny Boyle, Elizabeth is raped before being killed, increasing the suffering caused for Frankenstein in the play than compared with the book, and also of course for Elizabeth herself. Also, Frankenstein had gone back on his promise of creating a female being at the request of the creature, which tells you that he treated the creature poorly, showing his deservingness of the suffering he had. His egotistical tendencies can be seen when he refers to Justine – â€Å"The poor victim†¦ felt not as I did, such deep and bitter agony†, showing that he believed his suffering to be worse that the suffering of someone was tried and found guilty of something she had not done. I believe that overall in the book, suffering is undeserved. Frankenstein is the only character that truly deserved to suffer, while the murders of others such as Clerval and Elizabeth were completely undeserved. It could be argued, however, that the reason Frankenstein acted as he did was because he lived in a patriarchal society, where his characteristics were encouraged and were expected. Keeping the being a secret also had a huge impact. Most of the events occurred through the lack of knowledge of the creature to anyone but Frankenstein. For instance, William would not have been allowed to get in a situation with the being to be killed, and if Frankenstein had told the court how Justine was innocent, she would have been found not guilty of this murder.