How Does Mary Shelley Create Sympathy In Frankenstein

“Sympathy for the Devil?”
How does Mary Shelley persuade the reader to pity Frankenstein’s Creature?

Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818. At that time, the Gothic Horror genre was becoming increasingly popular. The Gothic Horror genre combined the genres of horror and romance and is often associated with dark castles, murder and monsters. The idea for the novel came about during a dream while Shelley and her husband Percy were staying with Lord Byron. She then used that dream as a basis for a story for a ghost story competition. At the time, the Industrial Revolution was occurring and science was being developed. Scientists carried out experiments with electricity, trying to bring frogs back to life. Shelley visited an alchemist’s
The structure helps you feel sympathy for the creature as you hear three points of view – Walton the explorer, Frankenstein and the creature. As the creature’s point of view is last, you feel sympathy for him because you first hear Frankenstein’s point of view and feel negatively towards the creature, however when you hear the creature’s point of view after that, you think that Frankenstein is exaggerating and you feel sorry for the creature and what Frankenstein has done to
He is abandoned by Frankenstein after he is created. “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate.” The creature is frightened because he is lonely and doesn’t know what to do because no one had spoken to him since he had been created. In Branagh’s film interpretation, the creature is compared to a baby: He is created in amniotic fluid and can’t walk properly. That makes you have even more sympathy for the creature because it is like Frankenstein is abandoning a baby. The creature isn’t accepted by anyone just because of his looks. “…I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other missile weapons, I escaped to the open country…” You feel sympathy for the creature because he can’t go anywhere where there are people without being attacked as the people assume that he is a bad person based on his looks. As no one accepts him, the creature is always lonely. The creature is seen to be kind, especially at the cottage. “This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries,