Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a gothic romance, and it deals with conception of love as a necessity in life. It is the thesis of this paper that it is Dr. Frankenstein, not the creature, who is the true monster, because he allows his creation to come into this world but he is not prepared to give it the love and attention that it needs in order to function.
Shelley is ironic in her ability to contrast the monster's need for love with the fact that Dr. Frankenstein seeks out true love with Elizabeth, his foster sister and later his bride. This is why the monster, in order to exact his revenge, visits the doctor on his wedding night: "I will be with you on your wedding-night!" (Shelley 172). By breaking into the nuptial chamber, the monster is able to strangle the bride.
On one level this is indefensible: the creature has killed the beautiful Elizabeth. Shelley eventually metes out the punishment for Frankenstein's monster, and at the end of the novel he vanishes out over the ice field to certain death.
But when one returns to the key section in the book, it is obvious that the monster has been made of human parts, though he is so ugly that it is impossible for him to gain any love from others. Sickened by his fate, the monster becomes violent in other ways that show he needs love or caring as
much as he needs the air he breathes.
The monster is at first horrified when Frankenstein himself shrieks at the sight of him in his bedroom. Later, when the creature leaves Frankenstein's chambers in Ingolstadt, he thinks that he might find the love he so desperately needs in a neighboring town. But everyone he meets screams and runs away.
This is the crucial stage for the monster, because he has broken away from Victor Frankenstein's influence, and he hopes to find acceptance and love from the villagers. But, because he is totally shunned by them, he winds up strangling William, who is Frankenstein's younger br...