Frankenstein: Round Characters

                One of the most remarkable qualities of Mary Shelley’s writing style in Frankenstein is her ability to create such complex characters with intricate personalities and circumstances which makes labeling or stereotyping them quite a challenge for the reader. In fact, Shelley’s development of the round characters of Victor Frankenstein and the creature are perhaps the most compelling aspect of the entire novel. To begin with, Victor Frankenstein is certainly a round character due to the fact that his intentions and actions seem to contradict one another. On one hand, Victor can be seen as the protagonist, for he began work on the creature with nothing but good intentions; furthermore, he certainly never intended for the product of his experimentations to lead to the death and destruction of so many lives. In reality, the reader is likely to feel a great deal of sympathy for Victor’s character. After all, he worked obsessively for two years to create something which he was passionate about and hoped would induce wonderful discoveries in the scientific field which would prevent death; ultimately, however, he detested his creation from the moment of its first breath, and the life of his creation eventually led to the destruction of his own. On the other hand, however, Victor can be seen as an antagonist in the sense that many of his passive and indifferent actions actually led to the demise of his family and friends. While Victor never directly intended for any of his family or friends to die, he certainly could have taken more proactive measures to ensure their health and safety. For example, rather than fleeing from his creation after his initial repulsion to it, Victor should have remained to care for his creature. In such circumstances, the creature would have been much more likely to have maintained his inherently good nature and not reverted to evil and malicious actions.  When considering all these facts, determining whether Victor is a purely good or somewhat irresponsible character is nearly impossible, thus making him a multidimensional, round character.

                The creature’s thoughts and actions make him an even more complex and round character than Victor Frankenstein is. Upon hearing of the first two years of the creature’s life, in which he was rejected by every single human he came into contact with, including the cottagers whom he loved so dearly, the reader is sure to feel a great deal of sympathy for the creature. After all, he initially displayed nothing but a good-natured and generous demeanor throughout the entirety of his life and wanted nothing more than companionship. However, the creature also fostered an uncontrollable rage which overtook his good intentions and drove him to the point of murdering a number of innocent individuals in an act of revenge. The fact that the creature often expressed joy and pleasure in these murders makes his character repulsive and presumably evil. However, at the conclusion of the novel, after he has effectively watched Victor and every single one of his family members and friends die (with the exception of Ernest), the creature then expresses genuine remorse to Robert Walton, causing the reader to again feel a certain amount of sympathy for the creature. He tells Walton, “But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless… you hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself” (Shelley, 165). Thus, Shelley clearly mastered the manipulation of round characters in her novel.