Victor's creature evolves from a naive child looking for love to a cynical and deeply psychically wounded being who lashes out against the pain of his rejection with violence. This can be shown through the four methods of characterization: what others say and think about him, what he says about himself, his dialogue, and the narrative.
When the creature first comes to life, he is rejected by his creator, who cannot bear the horrible appearance of what he has created. Victor shows an outsider's view of the monster when he records that "breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" as he gazed on the creature.
The creature, rejected and orphaned, and gradually realizing his appearance terrifies people, then hides in the forest. At this point, he yearns toward the good and is still filled with the naive hope that he can find love if he can be befriended by pure, good-hearted people. He believes he has found such a family in the De Laceys, a poor family who live in a cottage in the woods. He observes them closely and admires them greatly.
From the De Laceys, the creature learns what a loving family is like. He also realizes, as he says, that "no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses." He becomes sadder, and as his consciousness of self grows, he asks,
What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.
Yet, as the creature tells his story, he learns
additional love and reverence for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half-painful self-deceit, to call them).
He also finds, in an abandoned trunk, books such as Paradise Lost that give him a context for understanding his own life. He realizes more fully he has been wronged by Victor, his creator, and not treated with the love God bestows on his creations. When the De Laceys reject him in horror, his bitterness and despair increase. We see through them that even the best of people find the creature frightening and horrible. Then we see how the creature turns to self-hatred, calling himself a "cursed" creature. Finally, he turns to hatred of the De Laceys:
I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.
The creature's evolution into a clear-sighted if angry and bitter being who can rationally assess his situation becomes clear through the dialogue he has with Victor on the top of the Alps. He explains that he has been rejected by humans and so demands—a rational demand—that Victor build him a bride, as otherwise he will be all alone. The creature also shows through this dialogue the evolution of the harsher side of his character when he threatens to harm Victor's loved ones if Victor doesn't comply with his demands. The creature, however, speaks eloquently and very humanly to Victor, saying,
I am malicious because I am miserable. . . . Shall I respect man when he condemns me? . . . If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundredfold; for that one creature’s sake I would make peace with the whole kind!
Significantly, through his speech, the creature even moves the emotions of Victor, who loathes him. This reaction from another shows that though monstrous looking, the creature can raise sympathy. Victor says,
I was moved. . . . I felt that there was some justice in his argument. His tale and the feelings he now expressed proved him to be a creature of fine sensations, and did I not as his maker owe him all the portion of happiness that it was in my power to bestow?
Yet, as the narrative shows, both recording these events after the fact and through dialogue that makes the murders more immediate, when Victor tears apart the mate he is building for the creature, the creature responds by killing his loved ones.
At the end, the creature shows his remorse for his killings and a value system that believes in justice. He tells Walton he will kill himself:
I shall collect my funeral pile and consume to ashes this miserable frame, that its remains may afford no light to any curious and unhallowed wretch who would create such another as I have been. I shall die.
This end is foreshadowed in the grief over his existence he feels as soon as he realizes he is unlovable. For example, when the De Laceys reject him, he thinks,
Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?
We note, too, that though he could have destroyed the De Laceys, he doesn't. This prepares us for the way the creature will turn his pain inward and decide to destroy himself at the end.
Shelley carefully builds the creature into a complex character who we sympathize with while recoiling from his evil acts. She does this through his internal musings, his dialogue with others, others' responses to him, and the narrative of events that already occurred. The creature, though a monster, comes across as very human because of his mix of good and evil and the way his environment has formed him.
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