The Creature's Turning

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Throughout the creature's development, one common theme that seems visibly apparent goes along with the saying, "ignorance is bliss". One can find this when reading of the creature's accumulation of knowledge and his resulting demeanor. There is a great resemblance between the creature and one of his many learning materials, Paradise Lost. He speaks of the book and its plot of people rebelling and waring against God. He finds similarity in this to his own life immediately however many differences ensue, such as: God is a perfect being, Victor is not; God would not abandon his creation, Victor did; and lastly, what is most easily noted by the creature, Adam had a companion, he does not. All of this knew information that the creature learns from Paradise Lost, Sorrows of Werner, and Safie's history lessons, he relates all back towards himself. They fill his mind with numbing questions such as, "Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?" (Shelley 91). Not only in his lessons does the creature feel more wretched, but also in the lessons he receives though real life. Before, while he was still ignorant of the cruelness of the world and the pain it could inflict, he was happy and hopeful in his small universe spent stalking the cottagers he cared for. However, when he finally attempts to reach out and fails when his "protector" attacks him with a stick, he learns that he is truly hopeful and incapable of any companionship. He also learns of the injustice of the world first hand, when he is attacked by a man after he saved the man's daughter. In this lessons, the creature is filled with grief and much hatred towards the human race.