In many novels throughout American and Non-American Literature, enemies often share striking similarities. In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and his Creature are two sides of one person. Victor is to his Creature as Dr. Jeckle is to Mr. Hyde. As Dr. Jeckle created Mr. Hyde, so did Frankenstein create his Creature, whom was never named. They are unwillingly attached and inseparable. Both despise each other, and strangely enough, both despise themselves. There is a power struggle between the two foes. Worst of all, both end up alone.
Perhaps the greatest similarity between Frankenstein and the Creature is their great animosity for one another. The Creature told Frankenstein himself that he " declared everlasting war against the species, and more all, against him who had formed me and sent forth to this insupportable misery."(113) The Creature hates Frankenstein for creating him, but most of all for abandoning him. Victor also hates the Creature, but for a different reason. Victor shouted in rage, "Scoffing devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee miserable fiend, to torture and death. Never will I give up my search, until he or I perish; and then with what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my pilgrimage," (198) as he thought about all of this loved ones that the Creature killed as the result of abandonment. Victor and the Creature have a true vengeance for one another, or so it seems.
The true source of Victor and the Creature's animosity is their unparalleled hatred for themselves. Victor blames himself for the deaths of his friends when he says, " I am the cause of this-I murdered her. William, Justine and Henry-they all died by my hands."(136) This is essentially true because it was Frankenstein who created the Creature and made him a monster by abandoning him. It is Frankenstein who is the monster himself for not taking responsibility for his actions and then by trying to keep him a secret from the world around him.
