First the source of this strange desire came because of the death of his mother from which he never seemed to recover. Also, his father was against the supernatural and religion, so the creation of life was his opportunity to rebel against his father and take part in things he had always wondered about. His mother's life was taken away, so now he wanted to play god and create life, and he did. His dream came true but it didn't turn out how he had expected. Here Shelley begins to express herself using her romantic imagination but at the same time she shows how reality can sometimes crush dreams. She is also using some of her own life experiences. Similar to Victor, Mary Shelley's mother died when Mary was an infant. She was raised by her father and she quickly began to resent her step mother (Abrams). Shelley may have also been angry that her mother had been taken away and this was shown through Victor in her novel Frankenstein. .
Shelley writes in outlandish fashion of the monster that Victor created. The monster was big and hideous to look at so Victor wanted no part of his "dream" creation. The creature on its own soon becomes what R.E. Foust calls a "fantasy antagonist" in his article entitled: "Monstrous Images". He describes the novel as "an achievement of the successful fantasy text." He goes on to say, "This is because of the simple fact that the novel reconstitutes in the reader the dark and potent portion of human nature that Foust describes as part Ape and part Angel or Monster vs. Rational Man" (Foust). The monster is of course the antagonist as is true in all imagination of fantasy. The monster in this particular story goes on a killing spree killing everyone, including in a sense his creator. He lives up to the "fantasy antagonist" label that R.E. Foust has perfectly given him.
The monster himself also had his own set of dreams. One dream was to have a female companion for himself because he had no one.