Frankenstein, as we have spoke in class, can be seen as a metaphor for race, class and gender. I think that on a deeper, more personal level it relates to the mental illnesses related to being an outcast forced into solitary.
Given no name, Frankenstein’s monster lacks an identity to give himself. Everyone portrays their own beliefs onto him creating him to be something he is not. If we look back in any point history we can see groups of people wrongly treated in this manner only to be realized as normal years later.
Being outcasted can create mental illnesses ranging from depression and wanting to die (the monster asking Frankenstein to take him out of his misery) to becoming mass murderers. Creating solitary towards a person or group can cause deep-rooted emotions that many besides the affected do not see until it is merely too late.
I agree that the mental illness aspect is very important to it. It's a more intense version of the way many groups of people have gone through in the past. By putting it into one figure, some of these problems become more extreme. You have conflicting feelings from reading his story at first, but as it goes on you start to understand that he never had a chance. Using this one figure also makes it easier to recognize what he's going through. You follow this monster from the beginning so it makes it clear how his environment is impacting him.
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