The monster does not earn sympathy in some respects. He was wronged by Frankenstein, "I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?"(pg. 122). He deserves sympathy for the mistreatment he has had by his creator, but he does not deserve sympathy for the murders he has committed and the state of mind that the monster has placed Frankenstein in. After each murder, Frankenstein is sent into a miserable and sick state of existence, "I lay for two months on the point of death: my ravings, as I heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval."(pg.130). The monster had a right to be upset with Frankenstein, but he could have left the others alone. He knew the difference between right and wrong, from his time of watching the people in the cottage. The monster should not have killed the others because they did not even know of him nor did they create him. His grudge was with Frankenstein and he should have punished the source of his pain, not Frankenstein's loved ones.

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 of Frankenstein is misunderstood like many of us. He had started off loving humanity in general, but grew miserable upon the realization of the cruelty of humanity “ ‘ Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but I am not alone, miserably alone?’”(pg.69) . People have been judged many times in life. Whether or not you have realized it the words and the actions you display affect the others around you. The monster is the protagonist. The reader has felt the emotions of loneliness and abandonment before. The monster also has the progression of understanding which each of us has had before. When we grow up we each eventually learnt to understand the words and actions of those around us. This is what happens to the monster as he inhabits the hovel “My thoughts now became more active, and I longed to discover the motives and feelings of these lovely creatures”(pg.80). It is hard to ignore the curiosity the monster has much like that of an infant.

Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He is the character that the audience can most emphasize with Frankenstein. He suffers the loss that humans can relate to. Frankenstein says on page 49, “Yet, as I drew nearer home, grief and fear again overcame me.” It is here he talks of the loss he feels after losing his brother due to his own mistake of creating the monster. The reader understands the grief that Frankenstein feels after losing someone. Everyone has lost someone before. Not only that, everyone has made a mistake that affects others, “the filthy daemon to whom I had given life. What did he do there? Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murder of my brother?”(pg. 50). The thought of making the mistake that affects another has happened to many of us. I have caused problems before that have resulted in it inconveniencing others besides me. Frankenstein displays the grief and the thoughts any other human would in his situation and reacts in the same way.

Victor Frankenstein is driven mad with the ambition he has for his work. Henry Clerval ambition is channeled towards a different idea. Clerval is more concerned with the feelings of others than himself and often sacrifices for others. Frankenstein on the other hand is driven by his own wants and needs. The two are compared side by side within chapters five and six with the way the react to Frankenstein’s depression.

Frankenstein has been driven since the end of chapter four with the desire to animate life into an inanimate object. He has done so within chapter five, “I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” (pg. 35). It was after this incident that the Frankenstein is stricken with the realization of the ugly monster he has created. It also shows the shallow opinion that Frankenstein has of outer appearances. The lack of responsibility he takes for the monster also shows the amount of maturity Frankenstein has, “The porter opened the gates of the court, which had that night been my asylum, and I issued into the streets, pacing them with quick steps, as if I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the street would present to my view.” (pg. 36).

Clerval on the other hand, finding his friend in a time of distress shows the maturity to take responsibility for Frankenstein, by nursing him back to a sane state of mind. He not only forgoes his education for the sake of Frankenstein, but also writes back to Frankenstein’s family to ease their minds. It is his selflessness and the maturity he shows in the time of distress that portrays Clerval as a better being than Frankenstein.

While Frankenstein and Clerval reacted differently, it affected the way that the audience would portray the characters. Frankenstein is seen as weak and the Clerval seen as the strong. It gives the audience a reason to hate Frankenstein and love Clerval, which makes his death in the end seem more traumatic.

Chapters five and six are much focused on the depression that the monster sends Frankenstein into. The way that Victor Frankenstein and Henry Clerval react to Frankenstein’s depression show the true features of the characters. It reveals the self-serving nature of Frankenstein and the pleasing disposition of Clerval. While Frankenstein clearly appreciates the effort that Clerval puts into trying to return him to a normal state. He states, “‘Dearest Clerval,’ exclaimed I, ‘how kind, how very good you are to me. This whole winter, instead of being spent in study, as you have promised yourself, has been consumed in my sick room. How shall I ever repay you?’”(pg.39). However, Frankenstein has no real interest in the way that he is affecting Clerval. While he acknowledges the fact that he has affected Clerval and his learning, it never stopped him from using Clerval as his nurse to cure him of his depression. The same depression he had brought on himself.

Clerval on the other hand is a very pleasing person and focuses not on the education of himself, but on the healing of Frankenstein. He had begged his father to come to the college to learn more for his profession “’ You may easily believe,’ said he ‘how great was the difficulty to persuade my father that all necessary knowledge was not comprised in the noble art of book-keeping,” (pg.37). He not only sacrifices his time at the college, but also the time it takes to write Frankenstein’s letters home since he cannot. The admiral tone the author takes towards Clerval portrays him as the ray of sunshine in Frankenstein’s life. Clerval is ray that is constantly leading him out of the dark.

The literary interpretation of the book is affected because the main character in this case is portrayed and the worst person in the book. This gives the theme of the book a darker twist and leads the reader to think of the protagonist in the worst light possible.