As Victor is building his creature over two years of his life, Victor is convinced that the creature is beautiful and wills him to live in his experiments. He has given him long, flowing, black hair, white teeth, black lips, a gigantic stature, and yellowish skin stretched over the huge body frame. The skin, of course, is stitched together as it comes from different people. Keep in mind that Victor has not visited home in all this time, so he has been distanced from family and loved ones as well as neglecting nature and exercise--all of this is crucial to Romantic works--(look for evidence of the following: the individual, love of nature, supernatural, imagination, emotion vs. reason).
One night in November, when the rain is falling and it is very late, Victor is successful in bringing his "beautiful" creature to life. Only now that the creature is opening it yellowish eyes and looking upon his "father," Victor is repulsed. He runs from the creature and hides behind the curtains hanging from his bed. The creature, curious about his creator, follows him and pulls the curtains back. He grins a hideous grin at Victor, and Victor again screams and runs. He has realized that the creature is not beautiful, but absolutely frightening to behold. Victor leaves the apartment, always looking behind him to be sure the creature isn't following him again, and spends the night in the streets scared and confused.
Victor's reaction is Mary Shelley's way of telling the reader that the creature should have never been created in the first place. He was playing God in doing so, and this was definitely a fear of the Romantics in the age of industrialism and scientific advancements. This is underscored by the fact that every time Victor does something that isn't right, he becomes ill and feverish. As Shelley writes, Victor is still walking around the morning after he abandons his creature, and Henry Clerval discovers him in the street. Victor falls victim to a horrible fever, from which Clerval nurses him back to health...this will take several months. Shelley also uses weather to show you want is going on inside a character. If it's storming, especially sunny and beautiful, or abnormal in any way, take a close look at the character "on stage" at the time.
Mary Shelley is also focusing on the parent-child relationship here. Shelley herself felt abandoned by her mother who died in childbirth. So, she has Victor abandon his "child" just after it's born and at its most vulnerable. She is pointing to the fact that it is the parent's responsibility to take care of and love unconditionally ANY life he or she brings into the world.
Hope this helps you! This is a wonderful book...one of my favorites. I hope you will learn to love it, too.
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