It’s a book with multiple interpretations, like any halfway-good bit of art. Only absolute schlock has moral clarity.
The monster obviously isn’t the good guy, as he strangles children.
The baizou thing of “the monster was good” makes no sense. Take any other murderous incel or child-killer and apply the same. Most people who do heinous murders didn’t have easy lives prior to that; it’s not a justification.
But the monster gets to give his side of the story a lot, in long monologues. I feel some people took them monologues too literally, said, “This is the message of the book”, and I took it as the distorted ravings of monstrous psychology, with his subjective validity.
Hate when people say this. The monster does horrible things to innocent people, whereas Victor doesn’t really do anything out of malice. And everyone always talks about what a fine gentleman Victor is every time they mention him.
Moreover the quote is basically, “knowledge is repeating a fact you heard somewhere, wisdom is repeating a glib misinterpretation you heard somewhere”