Frankenstein: DeLacey

First off, I want to start this blog by commenting on the unbelievable use of description and imagery in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  "In the meanwhile also the black ground was covered with herbage, and the green banks interspersed with innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes, stars of pale radiance among the moonlight woods..." (Shelley, 83).  Secondly, the role of the DeLacey family is critical in this novel.  The creature learns details about humanity that would have been impossible to comprehend had he not been observing this family.  I noticed that, at the beginning, the family's actions led him to love the human race and seek their acceptance and companionship.  They were his first real example of what love was.  He saw the way they took in sweet Saffie as though she were their own.  She was not a part of there family, she was an outsider, she was different.  In his mind, the creature was just the same; why wouldn't they accept and love him in the near future as well?  The family inadvertently taught the creature how to speak, how to communicate, lessons on the history of mankind, etc.  However, the DeLacey family also educated the creature on the evils of man.  I couldn't help but ache for and with the creature when, at long last, he had worked up the courage to make contact with the father, only to be attacked and rejected by the rest of the family.  The creature could have remained in peaceful, blissful ignorance of life's evils had it not been for the DeLacey family.