The Unlikable Creature in Frankenstein

missing, and that she ‘smelt too horrible’. This tells that his mother, Linda, was an alcoholic, and that she’s either ruined her body through drinking, or gave birth to John at a very old age. Therefore, John probably wasn’t brought up properly, and so we feel sympathy for him.

Moreover, the Creature is forced to educate himself because of his father’s ignorance, and so, he starts comparing himself to Adam, in the book ‘Paradise Lost’, after he has educated himself by reading. He says that ‘Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence… But he had come forth from the hands of God… I was wretched, helpless, and alone.” This further enlists our sympathies for the creature because it tells us that he’s had no-one to relate to; as he doesn’t have a proper father or any brothers or sisters. Therefore, Shelley has made him out to be a lonely, miserable Creature, with no-one to go to (mainly because no-one can stand looking at him).

In Brave New World, Huxley presents John as being an outsider in the reservation, and he has to educate himself about their values: their religion, their morals. He teaches himself English by developing an infatuation with Shakespeare. He is similar to the creature in the sense that he is out-casted from society, and he has to teach himself morals and values.

Furthermore, Shelley creates the creature as an innocent being; and we see this in his delight in nature, “the trees shaded me with their foliage… I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound… proceeded from the

throats of little winged animals”. The Creature’s innocence in describing his first contact with nature incentivises a belief that he is not a monster, but in fact just a regular human being with emotions and sound. Also, at the beginning of chapter 13, we see the Creature’s first contact with spring: “the weather became fine, and the skies cloudless… bloomed with the most beautiful flowers and verdure”. Once again, we see the more loving and caring part of the Creature; a more primitive side if you will, which shows us that any harm done is not intentional.

In Brave new World, we feel sympathy for John, because he is pretty much forced by Bernard to be toured around World State facilities. This wouldn’t be so bad, if he wasn’t terrified by many of the things around him, for example Bokanovsky twins (“the savage had broken away from his companions and was violently retching”).

The Creature, in chapter sixteen, saves a drowning girl in the woods. When, however, the man sees her in his arms, he tears her away from the Creature’s arms and runs off. Then, when the Creature follows the man, the man shoots him: “This was the reward of my benevolence. I had saved a human being from destruction….I now writhed under the pain of a wound.” This action from the human makes us sympathise for the Creature, as, even though his actions were virtually heroic, he is simply shot at, and wounded. This is obviously unfair in the Creature’s, and our, point of view. The man doesn’t even think to ask the Creature about the girl, but simply resorts to

violence because of his prejudice against the Creature’s appearance.

In Brave New World, John visits Eton, to see how, he learns, upper caste boys and girls are educated. As we can relate to John so heavily in this book, because of his background (which is extremely similar to ours – mainly for the fact he is naturally born), after we hear how the children are conditioned to accept death, we feel sympathy for John, because he is forced to live in a world which is so controlled it’s scary “death conditioning begins at eighteen months… {They} spend two mornings a week at the Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days.

In Frankenstein, Shelley further makes us sympathise for the Creature when he describes what mate he wants “I am alone and miserable, man will not associate with me… My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create”. This is the first time we read solidly about how lonely the Creature actually is. We learn from this that he hasn’t yet been able to even get close to a human being because they instantly turn him away because of his looks (he almost became properly acquainted with DeLacey, if it wasn’t for his children’s return, and Felix attacking him.) His demands for the female Creature are for her to be “as deformed and as horrible as [himself]”.

This shows us that, terribly, the Creature is actually aware of how ugly he is. This makes us feel sorry for the Creature, but also

makes us feel hatred towards Victor, because he’s the one who made the Creature, so it was unfair not to try and construct him to make him look less ugly. Also, the times the Creature had been rejected were down to Victor, it was never the creature’s fault. So, in reality, Victor should take the blame for the Creature being attacked, avoided, and even being wounded by a bullet. In Brave New World, John is referred to as a ‘Savage’ by the people of the World State. We feel sympathy for him, because quite clearly, John is the only one with any sense of emotion, or even self-control; because the people of the World State are conditioned not to. We see John’s emotion and self-control at the end of chapter 13 when Lelina starts to ‘tempt’ John by removing all of her clothes and kissing him. However, John doesn’t give in to lust; “instead of also saying ‘Darling!’ and holding out his arms, the Savage retreated in terror… ‘Whore!’ he shouted… ‘Get out of my sight’. This shows us that john has a sense of self-control, and he won’t simply give into to lust.