The Monster Behind the Scenes
Uploaded by Jeremeamia on Aug 18, 2002
Throughout the last century, the movie and theater industries have been creating and recreating movies about Frankenstein, the monster. He has been depicted as a gigantic, ugly monster with incredible strength that walks around searching for his next victim. In the original book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Monster is not depicted as a complete savage, but is shown to be more of a person. The Creature is intelligent and is an outcast from society.
Regardless of the Creature’s horrific appearance, he was very a very intelligent individual. When the Creature is telling Frankenstein about how he first learned about communication, he says, “This reading had puzzled me extremely at first, but by degrees I discovered that he uttered many of the same sounds when he read as when he talked. I conjectured, therefore, that he found on the paper signs for speech which he understood, and I ardently longed to comprehend these also; but how was that possible when I did not even understand the sounds for which they stood as signs?” (98). The Creature is able to recognize patterns in the speech of DeLacey. He is then able to infer that symbols on the paper represent the words that DeLacey has been using. Much like his creator, Frankenstein, the Creature yearns for knowledge. The Creature later recounts the story when Safie begins to learn French. He explains, “Presently I found, by the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them, that she was endeavouring to learn their language; and the idea instantly occurred to me that I should make use of the same instructions to the same end. The stranger learned about twenty words at the first lesson; most of them, indeed, were those which I had before understood, but I profited by the others” (102). His intelligence begins to develop very rapidly at this point, as he is able to discern between certain words and start to learn new ones along with Safie. How a monster that was just recently brought to life can learn to speak is an amazing feat. The Creature later recounts how begins to comprehend French when he says, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate...