Otherness In Frankenstein

The concept of “otherness” is a common idea throughout the world that describes how majority and minority identities are created. It is the “quality of being different or unusual” (“Otherness”). “Others”, during the early abolitionist period, were those that did not meet the European norm: white, male, and Christian. Members of the “others” were most often marginalized people, mainly those of a different race and gender. This concept of “otherness” and “others” prevented people of a different race or gender from being truly accepted into society with full rights and privileges. During this time period, “otherness” was utilized in numerous anti-slavery and anti-racism literatures. With some of the most famous poems and books in history, Mary

The poem describes the cruelty of slavery through a character’s, Luco’s, experience. Throughout the poem, she portrays religious hypocrisy of the slave traders who claim they are Christian when the practice slavery. The poem, from the beginning, exemplifies the idea of “otherness”. Within the first lines, Yearsley states, “…Hence / ye grov’ling souls, who think the term I give, / Of Christian slave, a paradox! to you / I do not turn, but leave you to conception…” (Yearsley ll. 3-6). She quickly establishes a difference between the hypocritical slave owners/ traders and their innocent slaves. However, instead of highlighting the idea that the slaves are the “other”, she paints the Christian slave owners as “others.” Throughout the poem, Yearsley does not even give these slave owners names; they are referred to as “them” or “they” (ll. 270, 272, 291). Most often, the ones depicted as savages or beasts were the slaves, but she attempts to overturn this beastly trope. Instead, Yearsley refers to them as “Gorgon”, which was a monstrous snake in Greek mythology, “brutes”, and “a vile race of Christians” (ll. 253, 352, 349). To emphasize the slave owners’ brutish and savage nature, she further demonstrates the idea of the racial “Other” with the introduction of Luco, a boy that was taken from his home and forced into