I believe that the monster deserves sympathy from society. He is the monstrous creation of a confused man, and he receives no instruction or assistance at integrating himself into normal society. As the reader we know that the monster is capable of intelligent thoughts and rational reasoning. He explains to his creator that he is "content to reason with [him]" (104). In fact, his reasoning is so convincing that Victor initially agrees to create a female similar to him, but then he betrays the monster and goes back on his promise. The monster has been taught to not trust others and to use force to get his way, hence the murders. The monster is a rational being who has been trained by his creator to use force to evoke a response rather than intelligent reasoning which failed him.

I believe that humanity sympathizes with the monster. He is very depressed because of the way that people treat him. The monster is a misunderstood and gentle soul. He has human-like emotions and feelings, but people treat him like a hideous beast because of his appearance. He craves affection, but no one will give it to him, not even his creator. The monster claims that even the Devil, “the enemy of God” had friends and companions, but he is alone. In Chapter 24, the monster says, “Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding” (165). The monster is not just a wild demon but a creature deprived of affection and friendship. Humanity is able to sympathize with the monster’s miserable situation. “But, in detail which he gave you of them, he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured, wasting in impotent passion” (165). The monster has suffered through feelings of depression and unhappiness, which makes people feel terribly for him. This is a case of the monster being very gentle in nature, but because he has been neglected and has not been nurtured, he has become a violent, misunderstood creature.

I think that the monster does deserve sympathy in some respects. It is not his fault that he was created and he should never have been abandoned by his creator. People should have given him a chance instead of assuming that he was evil. He has been searching for love and acceptance since his creation; however, everyone is mean to him. "I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?" cries the monster to Frankenstein. Every being needs food, water, shelter, and love. The monster is able to provide the first three of these needs on his own. All he asks for is love but no one is willing to give it to him. By nature, the monster is very loving and caring. However, as a result of how he has been treated since his coming to life, he has become angry and depressed. These negative feelings cause him to be mean in some cases. "I am malicious because I am miserable," he explains. Therefore, the monster deserves a lot of sympathy from humanity because it was humanity that shaped him to be the beast that he becomes. If someone had just shown him affection and acceptance, he would never have become malicious.

The "monster" of Frankenstein does deserve some amount of sympathy. The "monster" states that he wants a female companion because he feels that "[he is] malicious because [he is] miserable (pg. 104)." He even realizes that Frankenstein, his creator, "would tear [him] to pieces, and triumph (pg. 104)". The "monster" deserves sympathy because he is despised by his own creator. All the monster wants is a "creature of another sex, but as hideous as [himself] (pg. 105)". He doesn't ask for much, just one who can love him the way he deserves. The "monster" only wants another creature so he can feel what humans do: love. He is terrifying to all who see him because of his looks. They do not give him a chance, therefore he feels he needs a companion who can help him cope with the frustration he feels. His own creator abandoned him, which makes him very deserving of sympathy. He is very compassionate, yet he feels much anger towards the humans who do not accept him simply due to his frightening looks. He is willing to go away forever with his companion so as not to deal with any humans who will judge him. If Frankenstein had not abandoned the "monster," it is likely he would not be so frightening to people, though it would keep people from being sympathetic towards him.

Yes, i believe the monster has earned sympathy. He was not asked to be created. He should have the same rights as any other humans having been created in their image. he has been afforded no affection and as such he says "I am malicious because I am miserable."(pg.104). The monster has done wrong but he has also made attempts to amend them. He offers to go away from the rest of the world if he can be given one person who "felt emotions of benevolence towards" him, he would "make peace with the whole kind" (pg. 105). He desperately wants to have someone to love, just like any other person. He has from birth been lonely and never known the love of another, even his creator Frankenstein. Frankenstein deserved to be put in his own inescapable misery by the monster when he took away the monster's hopes after months of patience, "Do you dare to break your promise?I have endured toil and misery: I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of Rhine, among its willow islands, and over the summits of its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England, and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare to destroy my hopes?"(pg.122). The monster has held up his end of the bargain, yet Frankenstein resents the monster and the harm he could do with a companion, instead of helping his "child" to have the happiness any father should give.

The monster has earned some sympathy because he did not wish to come into this world and is miserable while living in it. "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me" (pg.97). He says how miserable he is living his life that should not even be his. He thinks his life should have been taken from him before he had done anything bad.

I believe that the monster earns sympathy from the reader because it yearns for love and affection, just as humanity does. For instance, Shelly emphasizes this idea with Safie and Felix. Felix is unhappy until he is reunited with his lover. The monster does not understand why society reject him. He longed for a mate, however Victor failed him and he continued to make Victor's life hell until he died. The reader can especially sympathize with the monster when he says that "even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation," however the monster is "alone" (165). The monster gains sympathy when he says this because the devil is a creature so wicked and mischievous, with only bad intentions, yet he has companions. However, the monster is good and yet he remains alone.

Yes, the monster has earned sympathy, because he tries to do good but is rewarded with hatred. Multiple times in the book he tries to help someone. However, every time he is hunted or shunned by the people. A specific example of this is when he tried to help a girl who was "drowning". When doing this, a man thought he was going to harm the girl so he shot the monster. Every time something bad happens so he gets sympathy because it is the people in the story who are the real monsters. "She fell into the rapid stream...[he] saved her...every means in my power to restore animation...on seeing me, he [the man] darted towards me...he aimed a gun... and fired." "This was then the reward of my benevolence!" (pg.101). The monster was punished were he did not deserve it.

I think that the monster deserves some sympathy. As evidenced from our last debate, he has definitely earned ours. When the monster says: "I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?" the Reader cannot help but feel sorry for him. How many of us would be able to stand it if, seeking only affection and love, we were "shunned and hated" by all we approached? The monster says "If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature's sake, I would make peace with the whole kind!" He only wants something -- anything -- to accept his hideousness and love him. We can see that his true nature is gentle and kind. He gets his hope built up when Frankenstein promises to make him a mate, but then when he destroys the half-formed woman, I think it truly drives the monster completely insane. Can a reasoning being endure that much stress and hardship? Many have gone crazy from much less.

"Shall each man," cried he, "find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn." This is a case where nurture has changed someone into something else. Does Frankenstein really deserve to be happy while the monster "grovel[s] in the intensity of [his] wretchedness?" I think that's what makes him such a great monster; he's relatable -- we can understand why he does what he does.

The monster does deserve sympathy from humanity. It’s evident that the monster was created for no apparent reason and with little thought to it. Nature plays a role as the monster observes the relationships among the people. He wants to feel accepted and have someone to relate to. The monster puts in a request to have Victor build a companion, “Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! My creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!” (page 105). In a way the monster attempts to develop a father-son relationship as he makes him feel guilty and to nurture him into happiness as parents typically want best for their children. It’s ironic that Clerval was writing to Victor about being alone, “’I had rather be with you,’ he said,’in your solitary rambles, than with these Scotch people, whom I do not know: hasten, then, my dear friend, to return, that I may again feel myself somewhat at home, which I cannot do in your absence’” (page 119). Victor eventually ruins his project to build a woman monster and goes to see Clerval, to his dismay however Clerval is dead. Initiative and lack of understanding the monster’s power attacks Victor and could have easily been avoided if Victor sympathized the monster.

Yes, I believe The Monster did deserve sympathy, especially from his own creator in Victor. The Monster was a creation by Victor and was completely abandoned after creation. Victor made no attempt to even console or help The Monster besides enraging him further by killing his work in progress (companion for The Monster). The Monster was an outcast from the get go because of his hideous appearance, although he made attempts to conform to human society. Victor's convoluted plan to ostracize his entire family and people he cares about to become a great chemist was flawed from the beginning. The Monster had no guidance or companions to call friend in a world where he was created by a human. The Monster's actions were a representation of Victor's consciousness that longed for human companionship. That is exactly why Victor was extremely grieved when he found out about the deaths of his family members, because he understood that it was not The Monster who was at fault but it was ultimately him. Page 97 expresses The Monster's extreme grief: "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I love? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?"

The monster does deserve some sympathy from humanity for when he is exclaiming "this was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone" (page 101), he is bewildered on how he can not receive accolade for a good deed when he meant well. The monster just gets judged on his appearances and everyone assumes that he is up to no good and he will do wrong.

The monster deserves humanity's sympathy because he is utterly alone in the world which is a condition almost universally disliked. Everyone strives to find some commonality between themselves and others or to find some unifying force, but the monster lacks the ability to do either of these things. There is no one else like him, and when he begs Victor to "create a female for [him], with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies," his request is ultimately denied (pg 104). Not only is the monster different than everyone else but he is painfully aware of his incurable loneliness and considers himself "cut off from all the world" (pg 105). The monster's inherent loneliness is not his fault, so he deserves people's sympathies.

Truly, the monster was born as a gentle being, yet the reasons in which he was created were sinful. Frankenstein created the being out of selfishness and pride. Although, the creator’s wish of creating life was granted, the creation did not live up to the expectations. Frankenstein was unhappy with his child and decided to leave him out to fend for himself. Without a fatherly figure to guide the being into one who knows from moral and immoral and good and evil, the monster was doomed to fail. I believe that all that happened to Frankenstein was in turn his own fault. Frankenstein was faced with thousands of opportunities to admit the truth, to tell his family that he had given life to a monster. Even so, Frankenstein lied to his loved ones and they died. When the monster realized that he was alone, he asked Frankenstein to cure his sorrows. Frankenstein was demanded to “create a female for [the monster]”(104). This was to only request the monster formally made to his master, and when he was denied happiness the only thing that made sense for him to do was retaliate. At the end of the novel, Frankenstein died and left his creation alone. The monster was denied happiness again, for he took joy in seeing his master chase him. When Walton confronted the monster, telling him his is a wretched demon, the monster responded: “Am I thought to be the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me? . . . I, the miserable and abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. . . You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself”(165). The monster just wanted what every human being craves, love. The monster wanted to feel the warmth of someone smiling at him and the comfort of knowing you have a shoulder to lean on. It was in his nature to want this, but he was nurtured to be a monster. I think that the monster deserves humanity’s sympathy, for it was our lack of sympathy that transformed him into a monster.

I believe that up until the murder of Elizabeth, the monster earns sympathy from the reader. Before that point the "monster" is seen by the reader as a creature trying to be human. He has to learn the basic survival skills; he knows virtually nothing. He especially hooks the readers sympathy in his want for companionship. He says that if he had a woman "monster to be his companion, the "gratification" would make him content (pg. 105) and that that would "free him from the misery [he] felt".

There is one time where the monster deserves society's sympathy. This is seen through the response of Walton on page 163. The monster said over the dead Victor, "that is also my victim" pg 163. By Victor's death the monster is now free from the murders of the others. Yet the monster was indeed the death of Victor. However, Walton had suspended his duty to kill the monster by a "mixture of curiosity and compassion" pg163. The monster displays deep remorse for Victor's death on page 164. In the end Walton lets the monster go. The monster goes forth to die a lonely death. Hence, sympathy is made complete with that notion on page 166.

On the other hand, the monster has not been accepted among society. He questions why he lives, why he appears repugnant, and why his creator does not show the care and love to him like the cottagers show each other. The monster was self-motivated; he taught himself to articulate sounds and has observed the sentiments sensed by human beings. Although the monster understood murdering the young boy was iniquitous, he was not taught the full-blown consequences of his actions. The monster killed the nephew to receive Frankenstein’s attention as well as make Frankenstein suffer for not being there to nurture him. The monster is like a child at the stage of grasping the concept of right and wrong but not fully understanding the situation. When the monster asked Frankenstein to “create the same species, and have the same defects,” (p. 104) he wanted someone he could relate with. In Frankenstein’s family, each member has the support from another while the monster does not. Because the monster is not given, a chance throughout society because of his appearance allows him to earn sympathy.

A case can be made for either side of this argument. The monster is a human, but not completely. He has cognitive skills and the ability to reason, but doesn't always use them. An example of this is when he strangles the boy on page 102. He recognizes that the action was wrong, but does not stop himself because he possesses an inherent rage and desire for revenge. The sympathy comes from the reader's understanding of the monster's circumstance and his exile from any social interaction because of the simple fact that Victor had created him in such a manner that he was the most hideous creature any person had ever seen. His regret and inherent social barriers are what give him the sympathy of the reader.