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Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley

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In Frankenstein, nature and anatomy are linked, and through an innate reaction, these differences are rejected. Despite the monster language skills, passion, and cognizance, society rejects him due to his ugly form. Several differences between Frankenstein and his monstrous creation exits, but at the same time parallels do. However, Victor is accepted by the society and the monster is rejected. Victor’s and the monster’s problematic childhood, both result in their mutual destruction. The idea of conforming to the society that rejects him seems unfit. The monster, in particular, is an outcast from society, and the reader empathizes with his subsequent rage of being outcast. His isolation allows for the realization that an “increase of knowledge only discovered to [him] more clearly what a wretched outcast” he is (Shelley 145). Even though the novel Frankenstein focuses on the cultural struggles of society during Shelley’s lifetime, the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement during the time of the novel, focuses on trying to question our own perceptions, whether it be accepting an idea or a person or a monster that is “shunned and hated by all mankind”; the ideas of the Enlightenment fail to reflect on the society of Frankenstein (156). After looking at the monster, people come to an instant realization about his internal qualities. Although judgment of internal qualities is believed to be based off those qualities, the judgment of external appearance masks the judgment of

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