This Thing Of Darkness: Racial Discourse In Frankenstein

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In “‘This Thing of Darkness’: Racial Discourse in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, the author Allan Smith explained three major points by focusing on postcolonial criticism and Frankenstein. The first idea Smith stated was monstrousness. In Shelly’s novel, Victor Frankenstein gave voice to people who were traditionally neglected from the society, including alien, inferior, and monstrous people. The monster was composed by Bavarian human and animal parts, and his otherness was “identified as grotesque and of a lower order”. Frankenstein described his creation, “He is eloquent and persuasive… but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice” (184). His description demonstrated his dissatisfaction of his creation which he thought would be a perfect human being. Even though the monster became erudite, it did not bring any good for him. The monster became greedy to have a female monster, and have people to talk with. …show more content…

Throughout the novel, race and slavery were mentioned frequently. Shelley wrote, “the whole period during which I was the slave of my creature” (132), “For an instant I dared to shake off my chains… but the iron had eaten my flesh” (139), “a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth” (144), “I was the slave, not the master of an impulse” (195), “the prospect of that day when, enfranchised from my miserable slavery” (134). Author used rhetoric to emphasize anti-slavery revealed that slaves were awakened in the long term suppression

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