What could be the most significant word in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein in relation to theme?As part of a thematic assignment that was...

This is quite a profound question. I would simply use the
word 'monster'. Ii would then be appropriate to consider the use of the word 'monster'
by Victor, and whether the scientist deserves the epithet more than his
creation.

An exploration of chapter 5, where the creature
comes to life, could provide a context for close
analysis.

I
beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of
the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened,
and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his
cheeks.

In this passage we
see Victor facing his creation and its attempts to smile and communicate with him. It is
Victor's callous actions as he rejects the new being he has made which mean he is more
deserving of the term 'monster' than the being he imbued with the
term.

Frankenstein is ashamed and embarrassed by his
creation largely because of its ungainly appearance. This shows the scientist to be
shallow in the extreme. Here he seeks to conceal the being from Henry
Clerval

I
dreaded to behold this monster; but I feared still more that Henry should see
him.

He is so terrified by
his own work that he imagines it overwhelming him - a foreshadowing of future
events:

I
imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously, and fell down in a
fit.

Victor, the giver of
life, becomes incapacitated by the enormity of his responsibility and has to be nursed
back to health; all the time brooding on his
creation:

The
form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I
raved incessantly concerning him.