Frankenstein; or, the Human Prometheus is arguably the world’s first work of science fiction. Conceived by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley during a friendly competition with P.B. Shelley and Lord Byron, this novel has been in the public eye for centuries. However, through a process of osmosis and inaccurate adaptations, many misconceptions about it have sprung up.
In the novel, Frankenstein’s unnamed monster is not a mindless brute, nor is he the noble but tragically misunderstood character many adaptations show him as. Victor Frankenstein is not a brilliant scientist trying to further human knowledge, but a college dropout.
So who is the true villain of Frankenstein?
Victor Frankenstein
Our protagonist is undoubtedly a genius. After all, he did find a way to create a new form of life. However, this brilliance is counterpointed by a complete inability to see past himself or think about the consequences of his actions. Victor’s creation is motivated solely by greed and a desire for the fame that such a creation would have brought him. He believes, in his hubris, that his creation would worship him as a god.
And perhaps this could have been the case had he acted responsibly. However, Victor is horrified by his own creation and chooses to abandon it. When the creature disappears, he chooses not to think about it, hoping that it will simply vanish. Think about this for a moment — he is essentially the creature’s father. This would be the equivalent of leaving your newborn son to die because you find him ugly. Can we really fault the creature for hating him?
After William dies, Justine is framed for his murder. Victor knows that she is innocent, that it was the creature’s doing — and yet he does nothing. Perhaps he would not have been believed, but he still could have made an effort. But he remains silent, and Justine is hanged.
The creature finally approaches him, narrating the tale of its lonely life and demanding that Victor make it a companion. Still feeling nothing but disgust for his own creation, he agrees only under duress. Yet Victor is plagued by fears of yet another monster, who may birth a new race of monsters. He destroys her at the last minute, dashing the creature’s final hope for companionship.
Victor is still unable to see past himself and does not realize that the creature could target others besides him. His arrogance leads to the deaths of Clerval and Elizabeth. Still, even at the end of the novel, he refuses to learn from his mistakes. He feels responsible for those the creature has killed — but still views it as inherently evil, failing to see that his treatment is what turned it into the monster it became. He encourages Walton to continue on his doomed journey, and begs him to continue his vengeful crusade and kill the creature.
The Creature
So if Victor is the villain, that must mean that the creature is the hero, right?
Wrong.
True the creature was abandoned by his creator and left to fend for himself in a world that hated him. Despite his brilliance and his initially kind-hearted nature, he was judged as a monster due to his physical appearance. Whenevr he tried to help others, he was attacked. Even the man who made him reviled him, and refused to provide him with a companion. I would argue that his hatred of Victor is completely justified.
And yet, it is not Victor that he targets. The creature murders a six-year old child, then frames an innocent woman of the crime. He kills Clerval and Elizabeth, two kind and compassionate people who had not harmed him in any way, simply because of their connections to Victor.
In the end of the story, it was the creature who felt remorse for his actions. While Victor never truly changed, he regretted his actions and begged him forgiveness. He is easier to sympathize with than Victor, his actions more understandable, but equally unjustified.
So who is the Villain?
Frankenstein is not a story of clear-cut good and evil. The New York Times puts it best —
While her (Mary Shelley’s) story has most often been interpreted as a cautionary tale about the dangers of modern man’s hubris as he pushes the limits of scientific knowledge — and it certainly is that — it is also, more powerfully, a story about the failure to recognize the humanity of those who don’t look like us, and how that failure of sympathy itself engenders monsters.
Victor Frankenstein was an egotistical, short-sighted man who refused to look past his creation’s ugliness. The creature was treated as a monster by society, and became a monster as a result. So which one is the true villain?
In my opinion, both of them.