In "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, Doctor Victor Frankenstein is fascinated by life and death, particularly life, and through his scientific studies decides to attempt to build a body and restore the lifeless body to animation. He succeeds, but once he brings the body back to animation he looks his creation in the eyes and immediately believes that the creature is a monster. Indeed, after only a few moments of animation, he defines the creature as a wretch. He then runs away and when he returns his creation is nowhere to be found. Many other events occur where the creature comes into contact with humans and they also consider it a monster. He even goes so far as to shoot the creature after the creature has just saved the life of this man's son. Although everyone considers the creature a monster, after careful examination we discover that, "like father, like son", this monster is no more a monster than the one who creates it. When we compare the two we find that they are more similar than they realize. For example, we see that they are similar in the sense that they both start with good intentions. Stephen Jay Gould states: "He is born capable of goodness, even with an inclination towards kindness, in case the circumstances of his upbringing require this inclination." (Gould 4) The “monster” only wants to be loved by humans and live among them without fear of persecution. As George V. Griffith states, the Monster is "Childish in his innocence, the monster only wants to be loved, but receives no love from either his 'father' or anyone else in the human community." (Griffith 1). He loves humans and wants to show them his love and compassion in the hope that they will accept him. He first shows his love to a family living in a... middle of paper... without knowing that the monster's malice is due to others mistreating him, so Victor's argument simply seems like an excuse to abandon his job. .” (Thripp) From this source we see that this was indeed Victor's turning point towards complete malice towards the monster. After careful examination of the book and through the help of other critics we come to the conclusion that "like father, like son" Dr. Frankenstein is truly as much of a monster as the monster he created. Works Cited Gould, Stephen Jay. "The human nature of the monster." Natural History Magazine (1994): 6.Griffith, George V. An Overview of Frankenstein. Critical essay. Detroit: Literature Resource Center, 2011.Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Bantam, 1981.Thripp, Richard. Victor Frankenstein: downtrodden hero or veiled villian? February 20, 2008. July 17 2011 .