"Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!" How does this statement...

This passage enlightens the theme of creation by Man as God. As God created Adam, gave him life, and placed him in the Garden of Eden, Victor Frankenstein brought his Creature to life, allowing him sensations as well as a spirit, and the Creature eventually finds himself alone in the woods, his own Garden of Eden. But in Victor’s case, he deserted his creation. As Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Creature learned to know what kind of world he lived in, and what fellow creatures were in that world with him. However, in keeping with the Enlightenment theory of tabula rasa, that people are born a “blank slate” and it is the environment and society that teach us good and evil, the Creature started out as blank though basically good. He expected good in the world, but all he found was rejection and hate. In other words, it is Victor Frankenstein who is the monster, not the Creature. The Creature simply reflected back on the world what the world gave him. He recognizes that it would have been better if he had never been brought to life, both for himself and for others.