Social Responsibility in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Wicked Social Practices Frankenstein essays

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Wicked Social Practices Depicted in Frankenstein 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). This wouldnt have happened if society did not consider physical appearance to be important. 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.

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