"Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. I read it, as I had read the other volumes which had fallen into my hands, as a true history. It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. I often referred the several situations, as their similarity struck me, to my own. Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator; he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from beings of a superior nature, but I was wretched, helpless, and alone."

Here, the monster in the novel is telling his creator, Victor Frankenstein, about the feelings he had reading John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. Hmmm…we didn't know monsters could read.

This speaker may be a "monster," but he has emotions. And the reason we sympathize with him in the novel is because he's just like us: he feels "wonder and awe," he feels helplessness and wretchedness. Even when he's just reading a book.

The point is, Mary Shelley portrays the monster as an emotional being, full of feeling. It's emotions that make us human—so what if we were born in a science lab?

Pretty eloquent monster, dontchathink? A big chunk of Mary Shelley's novel is the monster telling his story. Above, he's speaking in the first person, which forces the reader to see things from his point of view. We feel his emotions and his alienation as he feels them. It's a great way to get us to empathize with him.