Social Responsibility in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Frankenstein: Social Judgement

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 anything different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used by society 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 that 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). *** CAN YOU USE [HE] HERE AS A PRONOUN SINCE YOU JUST SAID “MONSTER”?***From that moment on he realized that people did not like his appearance and hated him because of it. If the villagers hadn'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.

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