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My mother read Frankenstein to me when I was 6 years old. I remember drifting off quite often during the tale and understanding little of the tricky vocabulary. I remember two things about my conversations with my mother about Frankenstein.

First, it takes about 10 repetitions of a word for someone to KNOW what it means (she told me this when I apologized for stopping her all the time to explain things) and secondly, that we both felt bad for the monster.

Luckily, with the second reading, my vocabulary has improved but my feelings about Frankenstein's 'monster' haven't changed. I still empathise with him. In fact- I feel that his character is perhaps the most real of all those found within the book. I feel more for his predicament then I feel for the death of Frankensteins wife, brother and friends.

There is no doubt that the murders were terrible things- but I don't feel that Frankenstein's monster is a terrible person. In fact- I feel he is a symbol of all that it means to be human.

Really links to this idea of 'is it better to be happy and ignorant vs. unhappy and knowledgeable'. Frankenstein's monster hates his creator for bringing him into the world- for giving him KNOWLEDGE. Shelley argues in favour of ignorance....