In the second section of Mary Shelley’s novella Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein finally officially meets his creation. Frankenstein is back in Geneva with family because of his brother William’s death and one day goes exploring in the wilderness. When he finishes scaling some rocks, he notices the figure of a tall, dark person in the distance; this figure turns out to be the being he created. Instead of running away, Frankenstein starts yelling at the creature, who tells him to come to a nearby hut and listen to his story. If Frankenstein does not let him recount his life experiences, he warns, more people will be killed. Reluctantly, Frankenstein agrees, and the rest of the section is the creature telling his story. The monster talks about his time wandering the wilderness and being confused by even the most basic aspects of nature, most notably the moon. After much wandering, he came upon a cottage with a family in it and spent the rest of his time in a “hovel” next to it. From just watching the family every day, the creature learned how to read, speak, and understand French. Because he spent so much time in this hovel, it makes sense that the creature is very articulate. What was perhaps the most striking aspect of this chapter was the despair the monster felt because his appearance caused people to run away and treat him horribly. He explains to Frankenstein that he is very lonely and just wants a companion, much like Frankenstein himself. The way he describes the family shows how emotional he is, a quality he also shares with Frankenstein. At the end of this section, he demands that Frankenstein create a female companion for him who is “of the same species” and has “the same defects”[1]. After some debate, Frankenstein agrees and the creature leaves the hut.

The theme that I found most prevalent in this section was that of friendship and companionship. All the creature wants is to be accepted by others and have someone with whom to exist. This desire is very similar to that of his creator, Frankenstein, who values his friendship with Clerval and his relationship with Elizabeth more than anything. The monster’s tone in his narration shows extreme tenderness towards the family in the cottage (before Felix attacks him) and his unwavering eagerness to be close to other people. His request at the end of Chapter Seventeen further demonstrates his need for companionship and how this need reflects Victor’s own.

A passage that stood out to me is on page 91. It is in the section where the creature recounts the books he read during his time in the hovel. The book he describes in this passage is the Sorrows of Werter. What I found most interesting was his ability to analyze the texts he read even before his reading was fully developed. He applied the characters’ situations and personalities to his own, finding both similarities and differences between the two. Towards the end of the passage, the monster asks a series of questions about his origin that he was not able to answer at the time he read Werter. He questions his purpose in life and his future, both questions he also cannot answer. This passage shows the creation’s ability to read and understand literature and its application(s) to his own life. His constant self-reflection parallels Frankenstein’s: they both call themselves wretches and at some point question their life’s purpose.

[1] Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Frankenstein (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,

1994), 104.