Loyalty To The End
Mary Shelley imbues this Creature with a generous amount of empathy, which aligns her with the British empirical philosophers such as John Locke and David Hartley, who placed emphasis on sympathy as a marker of moral behavior. 31 The fact that society fails in its ability to sympathize with the creature is evidence enough of the absence of morality and common decency. As a result, the creature is a prime example of isolation. Essentially, the Creature does not begin as the cruel and monstrous murderer, but rather is a product of the lack of sympathy from society, and more importantly from his creator, Victor. Even being the source of the Creature's misery, a dying Victor earns his "child's" loyalty as the Creature drapes himself over his dying "father" and exclaims, "Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self devoted being! I...destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst". 32 As if facing the reality he has painfully known all along, the Creature beholds his dead father and states, "Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer me". 33 Regardless of whom the students side with—Victor or Creature—my expectation is that they close the cover of Shelley's novel with an expanded understanding of the power of man—through words and actions—to empathize and lift up his fellow man, or to aid in the destruction of one who seeks some minimal type of compassion. Hopefully my students will choose the former with which to lead their lives.
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