Just finished Frankenstein. I've been driven to distraction trying to figure out just what, precisely, is wrong with the two main characters.

Victor's account of his early life includes several instances where he suddenly and inexplicably loses interest in things he was previously passionate about, culminating in the inexplicable abandonment of his life's work which sets off the events of the latter part of the book.

As for the Monster, he would have one believe that his murderous behavior was the result of the abuse he continually suffered, but that falls short. The 1800's had no shortage of people who had been rejected and trampled on by society, and the vast majority of them did not turn to murder as an outlet for their sorrows. Furthermore there were vast demographics in that time that had it significantly worse than the monster did, native americans, austrailian aboriginies, slaves, and even just the bog standard homeless, who - lacking the monster's self-sufficiency - are forced by necessity to live within the societies that rejected them and continuously trampled them down. But these wretches did not as a rule turn to murder the way the Monster did. Furthermore still, none of the people that the monster murders are people who have wronged him or whose deaths could ameliorate his position. The Monster has in him some uncommon propensity for murder and bloodshed.