The Theme Of Degradation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Society has become known for turning people who are not physically attractive into social outcasts. Movies, television shows, and even books portray the popular and well-liked characters as attractive and the smart and unattractive as the socially awkward. This problem has not just appeared out of nowhere, it has been included in novels dating back to the 1800s. In 1818 Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein a gothic novel that discusses rejection due to appearance. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the theme of rejection is portrayed throughout the book in numerous elements such as setting, tone, allusion. One of the elements Shelley uses to describe the theme of rejection is setting. Throughout the book whenever rejection occurs the setting

In several parts of the book either the monster or Victor himself is referring or comparing themselves to stories from the Bible. The monster often refers to the Bible when discussing his rejection to Victor. When Victor first sees the monster before he explains his side of the story to Victor the monster tells Victor, “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed”(pg. 70). The monster is comparing Victor to God and himself to Adam because God created Adam just like Victor created the monster. When the monster says that he should be like Adam, but instead is seen as the fallen angel, he means that like Adam the monster should be loved by his creator, but is cast away like the fallen angel was from heaven and seen as evil. Instead of seeing the good and love in the monster all Victor sees is the horror appearance and rejects him which turns the monster to evil. Victor alludes to the Bible once more in this section of the book. When the monster approaches him he calls the monster “devil” and is disgusted in thinking the monster would come to him to talk, “do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head?” (pg. 69). Again Victor tries to reject the monster solely on his appearance. In addition to comparing him to the devil again, Victor also compares himself to God. Victor threatens the monster by saying he

The monster in the story keeps reliving the rejection first introduced to him by his creator Victor. This relates to the way society stands today on the concept of physical appearance dominating media. Media such as television, music videos, and movies have given most youth an unrealistic imagination of what is attractive and beautiful and shunning people who are considered unattractive. Although this problem is more evident today, this problem has been hanging around society for