Question

Which sentence best reflects the theme of guilt in Frankenstein?

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (excerpt)

For whilst i destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were for ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me? Why do you not hate Felix, who drove his friend from his door with contumely? Why do you not execrate the rustic who sought to destroy the saviour of his child? Nay, these are virtuous and immaculate beings! I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice. But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. There he lies, white and cold in death. You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart in which the imagination of it was conceived, and long for the moment when they will meet my eyes, when it will haunt my thoughts, no more.​

Answer 1

Answer: “You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself. I look on the hands which executed the deed; I think on the heart in which the imagination of it was conceived, and long for the moment when they will meet my eyes, when it will haunt my thoughts, no more.​”

Explanation: The monster shows regret and feels distress for the things he has done. He shows that he, at the end of the day, knows and perceives the how monstrous he is. As he says "You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself." I think this talks a great deal about how we see the beast. Through and through, I felt all through the story outrage for the beast. I felt like he had executed endless individuals and destroyed endless lives. As opposed to censuring Dr.Frankenstein for making the beast in any case. I think this statement truly shows how the beast accepts he is fit for being good, anyway everything around him has impacted him to turn into the beast he is. That he was set up for disappointment and nobody detests him more than himself.