Often the actions of children are reflective of the attitudes of those who raised them. In the novel Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is the sole being that can take responsibility for the creature that he has created, as he is the only one that had any part in bringing it into being. While the actions of the creation are the ones that are the illegal and deadly, their roots are traced back to the flaws of Frankenstein as a creator.
Many of Frankenstein's faults are evident in the appearance of his creation. It is described as having "yellow skin", "dark black hair", "eyes sunk into their sockets", and "black lips" (Shelley 56). Frankenstein, having chosen the parts for his creature, is the only one possible to blame for its appearance. Martin Trop states that the monster is "designed to be beautiful and loving, it is loathsome and unloved" (Trop 64). Clearly, it is Frankenstein's lack of foresight in the creation process to allow for a creature that Frankenstein "had selected his features as beautiful," (Shelley 56) to become something which causes its creator to say "breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (Shelley 56). He overlooks the seemingly obvious fact that ugliness is the natural result when something is made from parts of different corpses and put together. If he was thinking more clearly, he would have noticed monster's hideousness.
Another physical aspect of the monster, which shows a fault in Frankenstein, is its immense size. The reason that Frankenstein gives for creating such a large creature is his own haste. He says, "As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make a being gigantic in stature- (Shelley 52). If Frankenstein had not been so rushed to complete his project, may be he would not have had to deal with such a physically intimidating creature.
