Prejudice: When Assumptions Take Over Through the tests of time, one of the few things that have weathered it all is the idea of prejudice. Mankind may argue that it has evolved past this theme, but decades of slavery and other ill-doings depicts otherwise. The theme of prejudice occurs in Frankenstein, and a few different characters have strong opinions of it. Through explaining both sides of the issue, discussing two of the character’s viewpoints on prejudice, and how I view the problem of prejudice, I hope to expose the problem and aid in its solving. People, both consciously and subconsciously, are consistently exhibiting prejudicial behaviors throughout their daily activities. To begin to unpack this topic, it is important to understand …show more content…
what exactly prejudice is and how it differs from its partner, discrimination. According to Merriam-Webster, prejudice means “a preconceived judgement or opinion not based on reason or actual experience” (Merriam-Webster, 1). In plain terms, to be prejudice, someone is thinking or stating comments based on stereotypes or negative perceptions of someone or thing. This is very different from discrimination, which is to act on such negative comments or stereotypes (McLeod, 1). The characters within the text of Frankenstein exhibit both prejudicial and discriminatory behaviors, often in conjunction with one another. The challenge of exploring both sides of prejudice is that there isn’t so much two equal sides. There is the receiver of the judgement and those imposing the judgement. The viewpoint of the receiver of the judgement is most similar to the monster from Frankenstein. Without being given the chance to share who he is as a living being, he is criticized by those around him and depicted as undesirable. The villagers, as well as several other characters from the text, are examples of the side that imposes the judgement. These characters ignore the monster’s attempts at revealing his inner self and immediate impend him to live a life of solitude. Prejudice is straightforward, very black and white in nature. This clear cutness is beneficial, but isn’t always acknowledged. The first character that is affected by prejudice is the monster.
While he is typically on the receiving end, the monster still makes decisions throughout the story that depend on how others have viewed him. The first person to harshly judge the monster is its creator, Victor. The monster is composed of the compounding together of miscellaneous body parts to create something new. Upon first seeing his creation brought to life, Victor calls him a “catastrophe” and takes “refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which he inhabited” (Shelley, 37-38). While the monster is internally kindhearted, visually he is very displeasing to the eye. Since Victor, the initial creator, is not capable of looking past the posterity of the beast to see what its personality is, the monster is instilled with the idea that no one can accept him. This idea is furthered when the monster finds a strange hut and scares a man upon entering. This man “turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving the creature, shrieked loudly, and quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable” (Shelley, 78). While both Victor and the strange man were not used to the monster at the point of their first encounters, their reaction to flee from its presence seems to be a bit overboard. The comments from both of these characters shows the tolerance of prejudice from both of these characters, as they also show no remorse for their
statements. Another set of characters who share a similar mindset as Victor are the townspeople. Where Victor stopped with his prejudicial comments, the villages furthered the mistreatment by resorting to discrimination. The monster says “the whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country” (Shelley. 78). ). By physically reacting to the monster’s appearance, the villagers are displaying a more harsh reaction than solely prejudice. The menacing presence of the monster aroused a more aggressive reaction from the villagers, causing them to strike out as they felt they needed to defend themselves. This reactive nature reveals that the villagers too are accepting of prejudicial behaviors and are not afraid to go even further if they are presented with something that is very different than what they are accustomed to. The monster, on the other side of the spectrum, does not approve of prejudice. Due to the negative and harsh comments made to him by several of his fellow characters, he refers to man as “barbaric” saying that “I (he) am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself” (Shelley, 86). The negative perceptions received by the monster from those around him suggest that he too has adopted a negative outlook on himself. Only one character, throughout the entire story agrees with the monster’s statement of the “barbarity of men” (Shelley, 77). This character is De Lacy, who openly states that man is blinded by their own prejudice. The monster and De Lacy appear to be the only two characters with reason in the book, and deduce that the others will not see past outward appearance. After reading this book and reviewing the prejudicial theme within the book, my disapproval of prejudice has only grown stronger. I do not believe it is fair to judge someone based on solely their appearance. For most people, this judgement is instant and comes as naturally as breathing. This is very unfortunate and should be changed. Prejudice should not exist, as that it what creates stereotypes and other biases. Reflecting on my own morals, I do not find it acceptable to make a complete judgement of a person based only on how they physically appear. The poorest looking of people can be the kindest sole, but you wouldn’t know that unless you took the time to get to know the person other than simply drawing a conclusion about them decided on how they look. I believe that prejudice is created to be reliant on what the social norms of the times are. According to the American Psychiatric Association, pity, envy, disgust, and pride all fuel prejudice and discriminatory behavior (Chamberlin, 1). A study was conducted in 1952 where the behavior of both African American and white miners were observed both above and below ground in a southern United States city. The observers found that below ground, the social norm was for all workers to be kind to one another, so 80 of the white miners observed were kind towards the African American miners. Above ground, the social norms were different. Here, it was less accepting of African Americans, so only 20 of the white miners were kind to the African Americans. This vast difference in numbers fuels the necessity for change in how we jump to perceiving others. Frankenstein is an iconic piece of literature that has been used in schools for years to teach vital life lessons and to teach people to look critically at the literature that they are reading. Through explaining the two different perspectives of prejudice, how the characters in Frankenstein reacted to the theme, and how I perceive prejudicial behavior, it is easy to see the strive for change that needs to be made. Prejudice should not be a natural reaction to something that we encounter as new, it should be a long afterthought.
The major theme in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is the great emphasis placed on appearance and acceptance in society. In modern society as well as in the society of Frankenstein, people judge one solely on their appearance. Social prejudice is often founded on looks, whether it is the color of one's skin, the clothes that one wears and even the way a person carries himself or herself. People make instant judgments based on these social prejudices. This perception based on appearance determines the behavior towards the person. In Frankenstein, the society of that time is similar to our own today. It is an appearance-based society, and this topic is brought to the limelight by the hideous figure of Victor Frankenstein's monster to a common human being. Every human in society wants to be accepted in an intellectual way, regardless of his or her physical appearance.
First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness
The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly brings the serious topic of social prejudice to the limelight. Frankenstein shows a great example of how continued rejection from ones family or peers can cause one to revert from a virtuous being into a murderer or cause one to become suicidal. People today, as in Frankenstein, are still first judged on their physical appearance and not on their benevolence. Babies have been abandoned because of physical defects; children and adults are teased, bullied, ridiculed, and ignored because of their clothes, hair, face, body, etc. This judgmental human behavior has serious consequences, not only for the person being judged, but many times for those that are doing the judging. Often, victims of continued ridicule will finally retaliate with violent behavior.
The Creature, Victor Frankenstein’s creation, is shaped into a monster through its experiences, instead of the nature of itself, which is more expected. Victor Frankenstein, on the other hand, is shaped into a monster because of his mind’s power-hungry nature. Victor treats his creature poorly and he himself becomes wicked. While the Creature also becomes wicked in the end, its actions are more justified because multiple people treated it poorly, causing the Creature to lash out. Even though Victor Frankenstein and the Creature both turn into wicked monsters, to some extent, only one of
With nobody to reason with, Victor makes senseless decisions while he is alone. Victor begins this with his process of creating the monster. Nobody in the right mind would ever dig up graves, but that is just what victor goes and does. Once this creation is finally given life, which Victor has spent two years striving for, Victor foolishly abandons it. Victor comes to his senses to some degree after he brings life to the monster as he states, “‘now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 43). Had there been companions around Victor during this creation time, perhaps someone would have been able to guide Victor away from creating the “wretch” (Shelley 43) he so hopelessly conceived. As for the monster, he makes fairly good decisions even without guidance from anyone, including Victor, his creator. The monster has the desire to learn and gain knowledge as a genuine individual. As the monster is continuously rejected and shunned by mankind, his natural benevolence turns to malevolence. In his loneliness, the monster wrongly decides to declare “‘everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’” (Shelley 126). Say the monster was able to have comrades of some kind around him, he would not have turned to this
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
Rather, it is others who alienate it because of its grotesque appearance. The monster is quite literally ‘born’ into perpetual isolation beginning with Victor’s abandonment of it. He denies it domestic safety when he flees to his bedchamber. Victor disregards the monster’s utterance of “inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” then escapes its outstretched hand “seemingly to detain [him]” [Shelley 49]. Examining the monster’s body language as though an impressionable infant, its actions can be read as a child-like plea for its father though the absence of speech not yet learned. Instead, its unattractive appearance causes Victor to run, leaving the creature alone with no information about himself or his surroundings. Therefore, Victor’s abandonment is a crucial justification of the monster’s negative experiences with society and nature and actions in desiring community. The monster’s alienation from family is the missing first school of human nature, and the first lesson where he learns he does not belong. The creature leaves into the wilderness to learn about the world and himself on it own, only to understand his interactions are
In contrast from the creature, Victor utterly tries fixing their dispute with violence creating a great mismatch of qualities and behaviors between the idea of human and monster. Victor actively sharpens his tongue against the creature when degrading him as a “Devil” and “Vile Insect” he even goes to the extent of claiming he will “Extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed” (102). Since the creature fails in resembling a human form Frankenstein’s constantly degrades and explodes this monster. Victor’s actions are based off the creature’s appearance and not of actual threats. Furthermore, Victor’s language and actions of dehumanization towards his creation not only demonstrates narrow mindedness from Victor’s behalf, but illuminates a grand contradiction between both characters. Although Victor physically represents a human his lack of reason and empathy towards his own creation cast him as the real monster during this
He is unfamiliar and unwanted with no one to guide him through. The monster came into the world and right away rejected by his creator, this implanted that he is only a disappointment. The monster commits many crimes, for the rejection of people, because there was no reason for people to reject him other than his appearance. He was only accepted, by a man that couldn't even see; this shows how humans are shallow beings. The monster wants revenge, and mostly on Victor, for he isolated him, he will isolate Victor as well. And he is very successful as he murder Victors loved
Pride and prejudice, isolating behaviors, create a path of unnecessary destruction through the life of Victor Frankenstein. All that remains for us the reader is to figure out where our sympathies lie. What lessons we can learn from this tragic tale of the ego driven scientist and his monstrous creation.
Victor, out of horror of what he had created leaves the monster in isolation. The monster describes what it was like, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate… I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 87). At this point the monster is just an innocent child, who in his first hours has faced abandonment and such strong emotions. However, he is pure, like most babies. While he looks like a monstrosity he shows himself to be anything but. His first encounters with humans are all very negative. A man runs away screaming just at the sight of him. Villagers pelted him with rocks and chased him away. This makes him very fearful of humans. However, when he comes across the De Lacey family in their little cottage he sees how peaceful they are and he regains some hope. “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people; and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching, and endeavoring to discover the motives which influenced their actions,” (Shelley 93). He is curious little
Through the course of history many races, ethnicities and religions have been discriminated and threatened. Most of the times taken advantage of through economic and social means. This lead to their alienation from society because not accepted from the people. The cause was based on physical differences or their way of thinking. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley various social groups are represented in a specific way to convey a precise message to the audience that characterizes the novel. The monster that the scientist Victor Frankenstein creates is alienated by society because of his monstrous appearance in spite of being intelligent and sensitive. The role of the women embodies the novel’s motif of a passive one as Elizabeth waits patiently for Victor’s attention. It's curious how the author being daughter of an important feminist represents the role of women weak under men's jurisdiction. At the time females were considered inferior to males for this reason Shelley portray women characters to have little substance compared to the male ones. Another important aspect is Victor Frankenstein's life before the realization of the monster. He segregates himself from the rest of the world and closes himself for a couple of years in his apartment to realize his project. Became a mastermind of chemistry and natural philosophy and his discovery will be responsible for his own death.
Throughout every individuals life there are experiences of unfair judgments based on someone’s appearance. While this is never a good thing, it is an action that everyone takes part in, whether it is purposeful or not. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s message is very clear as she illustrates the cruel events that take place in a society focused only on outside beauty. The central message that Shelley communicates with Frankenstein, is that while appearance is just one of an individuals many characteristics; it is always a factor they are judged on regardless of all the other qualities they may possess.
Even when Victor rejects him, the monster still seeks love from society and performs unselfish acts. He seeks the love from others. Longing for company, the monster stays in the cottage without revealing him and watches the family that lives there. By watching them he learned how to speak and read. The monster tried to understand the meaning of “beauty”. He somewhat understood why people he had interacted with had treated him ill and he realized that it was because they were frighten by his hideous appearance. “The absolute other cannot be selfed, that the monster has properties which will not be constrained by proper measure”(Spivak). This goes back to the idea of “other”, now the monster himself understand that he 's different from human, that he doesn 't have the properties as human do so he must be interior to them. Furthermore we see that by watching the family in the cottage, the monster soon starts to love the family. He liked the way they had affection and love they had for each other. “The gentle manners and beauty of cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joy”(Shelly100). This shows that the monster was very loving and caring towards the family as would a innocent
Prejudice is a common issue that people have faced since the beginning of time, which is why Mary Shelley shed light on it. People seem to judge before they know the person, and just assume they are horrid because of the way that they look or act. Frankenstein is a perfect example of prejudice and how it affects the mind of the person being pushed away or bullied. Frankenstein is a compassionate and loving character, more than any other human, but with attributes people in society would consider unsightly. As the novel goes on, the prejudice changes the monster and gives him a new perspective on humans and the world he was put into.