FREE ESSAY ON FRANKENSTEIN

FRANKENSTEIN

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a complex novel that was written during the age of
Romanticism. It contains many typical themes of a common Romantic novel such as dark
laboratories, the moon, and a monster; however, Frankenstein is anything but a common
novel. Many lessons are embedded into this novel, including how society acts towards the
different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used to characterize a person
by only his or her outer appearance. Whether people like it or not, society always
summarizes a person's characteristics by his or her physical appearance.
Society has set an unbreakable code individuals must follow to be accepted. Those who
don't follow the standard are hated by the crowd and banned for the reason of being
different. When the monster ventured into a town...[monster] had hardly placed [his] foot
within the door ...children shrieked, and ...women fainted (101). From that moment on he
realized that people did not like his appearance and hated him because of it. If
villagers didn't run away at the sight of him, then they might have even enjoyed his
personality. The monster tried to accomplish this when he encountered the De Lacey
family. The monster hoped to gain friendship from the old man and eventually his
children. He knew that it could have been possible because the old man was blind, he
could not see the monster's repulsive characteristics. But fate was against him and the
wretched had barely conversed with the old man before his children returned from their
journey and saw a monstrous creature at the foot of their father attempting to do harm to
the helpless elder. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore [the creature]
from his father... (129). Felix's action caused great inner pain to the monster. He knew
that his dream of living with them happily ever after would not happen. After that bitter
moment the monster believed that ...the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our
union [with the monster] (138) and with the De Lacey encounter still fresh in his mind
along with his first encounter of humans, he declared war on the human race.
The wicked being's source of hatred toward humans originates from his first experiences
with humans. In a way the monster started out with a child-like innocence that was
eventually shattered by being constantly rejected by society time after time. His first
encounter with humans was when he opened his yellow eyes for the first time and witnessed
Victor Frankenstein, his creator, ...rush out of the [laboratory]... (56). Would this
have had happened if society did not consider physical appearance to be important? No. If
physical appearance were not important then the creature would have had a chance of being
accepted into the community with love and care. But society does believe that physical
appearance is important and it does influence the way people act towards each other.
Frankenstein should have made him less offending if even he, the creator, could not stand
his disgusting appearance. There was a moment however when Frankenstein ...was moved...
(139) by the creature. He ...felt what the duties of a creator... (97) were and decided
that he had to make another creature, a companion for the original. But haunting images
of his creation (from the monster's first moment of life) gave him an instinctive feeling
that the monster would do menacing acts with his companion, wreaking twice the havoc!
Reoccurring images of painful events originating from a first encounter could fill a
person with hate and destruction.
We as a society are the ones responsible for the transformation of the once child-like
creature into the monster we all know. The public needs to know that our society has
flaws and they must be removed before our primal instincts continue to isolate and hurt
the people who are different. With such a large amount of technology among us, some
people may wonder why such an advanced civilization still clings on to such primitive
ways of categorizing people.