Issues related to identity occur many times in Frankenstein. The topic of discovering one’s identity is prevalent in most works of literature. Discovering one’s sense of self, is a crucial part of how we survive. As human beings, we strive to belong and know who we truly are. Finding our own identity factors into many different things such as gender, ethnicity, and religion. Frankenstein is the creator of the monster. The creature eventually finds that he’s an individual. He leaves his creator to find himself and runs away. The creature has a huge sense of a loss of identity as he’s been separated from the person who made him.
Love plays a huge role when the monster is finding his identity. When it was created, it was banished by everyone even Frankenstein. The monster received no love in his life, which later affects his own identity. His creator sadly chose not to have a relationship with him. Earlier in the book the monster recalls that he has ‘no father who watched his infant days and no mother had blessed him with smiles and caresses’ (81). Not being able to interact with other human beings made the creature feel out of place from everyone else. He wants to feel and be a part of something important. That’s why he was so fascinated by the De Lacy family. When he goes to Victor for a family relationship, he is sadly rejected. It is heartbreaking to see him get constantly let down for something that’s out of his control.
The monster isn’t the only character in the novel struggling to find identity. Victor eventually has issues with accepting himself. He became so obsessed with his experiments that it caused him to isolate away from the important people in his life. Victor’s mannerisms of not interacting with people, shows the detachment between him and the human race. This later came with results that affected the monster. In the beginning of the story, Victor was shocked of what he became capable of. “I found so astonishing the power placed within my hands. I hesitated for a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it” (32). Victor is losing his identity which causes the monster to become confused with who he is to himself and other people.
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When Victor left, the creature became responsible for taking care of itself. The monster was curious to figure out what its purpose in life was. The creature sadly questions, “What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans” (Shelley,120). This caused the monster to become, angry and bitter towards humans because of its bad experiences. It’s sad how the monster portrayed itself because of the way it was treated. This makes sense due to the horrible interactions with human beings. Since the creature is lacking human connection, most importantly family, it doesn’t know who and what it is. People easily form an identity by a response to the environment that you came from.
Maybe the monster would’ve had a better understanding if, Victor explained how life works. The monster went through life not knowing its identity because of how Victor raised it. The only way he had information was from its traumatizing interactions with humans.
The monster isn’t human, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to treat it poorly. The monster was smart and observant to the environments it witnessed. Yes, the monster doesn’t understand its role, but it had witnessed enough human interactions to understand what’s right vs. wrong. The creature understands that the rules don’t apply to humans because it doesn’t look like everyone else. All it wanted was to be loved, which is something everyone strives for. The creature faced many ups and downs throughout the book, but it soon realizes that it’s an important individual.
