I wonder if people think you're a victor disciple because you keep crying about how the fandom likes the monster more than victor
The only reason why you would draw that conclusion from that fact is because people on the other side of the fence generally tend to idealise the character of the creature so heavily that they can not see any other perspective, and immediately assume that people who are inclined towards giving more credit to the sympathetic nature of Victor’s character must view him in the same way as they view the creature (eg. entirely a perfect helpless victim capable of no blame for his actions). We, or at least I, do not view him in the same way.
For example, and this has annoyed me for a while now, I have often heard people state that William’s murder was “accidental” or a “just a mistake” because it wasn’t premeditated, intentionally using language to soften it, emitting details to present in a light to make the creature seem less culpable — despite the direct description of this event,
“I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet. I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph: clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.’”
How do people think that child abuse works in the real world? I’ll give you a clue, most children killed in domestic incidents aren’t going to be tortured by a moustache twirling villain, it would probably be a situation eerily similar to this. I genuinely do find it concerning how many people will baby-fy the creature despite it being clear that he’s rapidly reached an adult level of development by the time he speaks to Victor, and use that to completely dismiss his actions, but describe the actual child character as “annoying” or a “brat” for… let me check my notes here… being scared of a towering demonic entity attempting to kidnap him? But it’s okay because the grown man was abused as a child. Yes, thank you guys, very progressive.
Yet despite my prior comments about real domestic child abuse, William is not the creature‘s child, he has no obligation to be around him, this event takes place as the creature is actively attempting to kidnap him, the creature is not unintelligent by this point in the novel as this event takes place only shortly before Victor meets him, and yet audiences grant a ridiculous amount of grace to his character in this plot point where they scream abuse and abandonment at Victor for perpetuating very typical neglectful behaviour for, again, someone experiencing post-natal depression, which the entire aftermath of the creation scene mirrors heavily.
I think Victor is an evil bastard! Yet strangely nobody ever actually discusses the evil shit he does, because it doesn’t directly hurt the creature — again. Most internet Frankenstein fans on that side of the fence do not care about anything in the novel that isn’t about the creature. So the real shit you can blame Victor for gets swept under the rug, too.
“I pursued nature to her hiding places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance.”
“I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.”
“The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.”
I could make like, a list of crimes or at least implied crimes from those quotes alone that would be very reasonable to hold Victor accountable for, but the only times these things are brought up is simply in reference to “how dare he make the creature” or maybe if we’re real lucky “look at this evil man trying to be a woman lolz.” Can we address the sexual themes of the novel in a manner vaguely more nuanced than ‘Victor as a dominating masculine force’ for one moment? Can we address the 1823 text, “my voice became broken, my trembling hands almost refused to accomplish their task; I became as timid as a love-sick girl, and alternate tremor and passionate ardour took the place of wholesome sensation and regulated ambition.” Can we address the shift between the dominating and submissive role that he takes on through the creation process and its inherent links to the sexual horror of femininity as the birth of the creature thrusts him into a biologically female role instead of us readers living in a delusion that he maintains a consistent masculine identity throughout the novel— I mean what. Sorry off topic. Anyway can we just state it like it is and say that he’s an evil pervert, perpetrator of scientific/medical malpractice, very likely a thief/graverobber as if the records for all the materials he took for the creature were so readily available then it wouldn’t be difficult to prove that he did it (which is a key plot point), and an animal abuser. Can we. Most valid and accurate criticism. And yet nobody wants to talk about it on the casual internet or in a more ‘fandom’ context for zero reason and yet are fine with excusing child murder and sisterwives but no yeah sure whatever precious baby creature huh
Victor is not innocent. The creature is not innocent. Families are complicated, and that’s a fact of life, but especially in a fucked up family, you will very rarely find a perfect victim. I firmly believe that so many people who view the novel this way are still stuck in the 14 year old “fuck you, dad!” mentality instead of maturing into a normal adult with any semblance of nuance. I LIKE the creature! I do feel sorry for him! I’m just not blinded ridiculously to the fact that he also sucks, and represents symbolically, in my opinion, a lot of terrible things. I also like Victor a lot. I am also not blind to the fact that he sucks and does a lot of terrible things. It just pisses me off when people act like he’s the devil for the most sympathetic actions of all time and then turn a blind eye to the list of depraved crimes in the corner. And, most importantly, when people turn a blind eye to the fact that Victor and the creature are fundamentally intertwined. So many things that Victor does are things that the creature also does. Everyone lock in.
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