It is evident that the Monster’s way of self-education is admirable. By watching the cottage-dwellers from a distance and examining their actions and their behaviors, the Monster slowly develops his own habits. Unfortunately, due to his appearance, the Monster is aware that will not be accepted by the cottage people, “Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in water or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail image and that inconstant shade (Shelley 9)”. This is seen when Felix, Safie, and Agatha return back to their home, come to realize there was a giant monstrous being conversing with their father. Despite the Monster’s acquired knowledge and respect for the cottage-dwellers, the cottage people do not accept him as a human being. This goes back to Steven’s point about how Gothic “represents” the revolutionary ideas and emotions of the 18th century, while also trying to “contain” those ideas and emotions within a “conservative structure”. This is because Gothic was seen as the foreign and unordinary. Gothic demonstrated themes of horror, fear, the extreme, and the dark. According to the cottagers actions, the Monster was depicted just like that. Additionally, his actions are presented as a horrific product of “revolutionary” activity (i.e. Dr. Frankenstein’s experiment), despite his good intentions. It his physical appearance that sets him back.
