Horrific Punishment In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The desire to belong is natural in most humans. Even though we understand the struggle of belonging, we, as humans still persecute others who are different. This exclusion is, in itself, a form of bullying. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley exemplifies this phenomenon of human behavior when she shows the maltreatment Frankenstein’s monster receives for his unattractive physical features and how he attempts to communicate with others in order to put an end to his isolation. Despite the monster’s benevolent nature, he is still alienated because he is different. Through the use of the monster and his discrimination, Mary Shelley shows that humans are not that different from the monster in the way we seek others; and those that persecute others are the real monsters.

“Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch” (Shelley 57). This statement is how Mary Shelley successfully portrayed the overall negative consensus of the industrialization of Europe in the 1800s in her novel Frankenstein. This story parallels the world’s transition from nature and emotion to reason and truth which was the primary cause for the industrial revolution. Though the revolution brought new technology and knowledge, people felt as though they were enslaved by this sudden change. This is clear through Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein and the ‘wretched monster’ that would forever change the world.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English author who lived in London during the Romantic period. Born to radical intellectual parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, Mary Shelley’s life was full of fascinating and tragic experiences, ones that no doubt inspired her while she was writing her gothic horror classic Frankenstein. Due to this, Frankenstein can be considered an indirect reflection of Shelley's own turbulent life, as well as the political, economic and sociologic beliefs of her time. One specific theme highlighted in Frankenstein was the concept of the death of an innocent child, William, which is reminiscent of the tragic deaths of two of Shelley’s own children. “William is dead...murdered!” (Volume I, Chapter VI, p 109).

The image below is a primary source of people being hung in the Middle Ages for murdering. The authors perspective is shown how he has drawn people hanging down while there are people watching them to show them not to do this. The viewpoint of the author is to say not to do this otherwise it will happen to you. The crowd around the punished people are there to show the seriousness of the punishments providing a warning and awareness of the consequences. It could lead to death and torture for the rest of their lives, this reflects to the authors point of view. Overall, Crimes and Punishments in the Middle Ages were very hard for people to escape. Authors presented a lot detail to show how life was strict back in the Middle Ages. Images that

The true nature of human beings, when they are born, is kind hearted and gracious, but their own species tarnishes them and they turn malignant. One piece of evidence to support my claim incorporates quotes from the book Frankenstein. In the beginning of the monster’s expedition , he is innocent and sympathizes with the Delacey family. The monster explains how he was sad when they were sad and would feel whatever they felt (Shelley 75). But, this all changed when the human species rejected him for his appearance. His character went from well behaved to atrocious. After not getting accepted, many unfavorable thoughts had crossed his mind and he desired to do many bad things (Shelley 92). When reading these quotes, the reader can comprehend that

Under the different Kings and Queens of Britain, executions were common in these time periods. The many different types of executions that took place and have many unique differences. Why the executions took place, how were the speeches carried out, and how were they staged is something that needs to be examined. There are many sources that explain these different situations and it is a very interesting subject to examine. Each of these different monarchs varied in the way they carried out these executions and had different reasons in why these executions needed to happen. These executions were dependent on many different factors. One of these factors is the gender of the ruling king or queen calling for the execution in this specific

Executions of the 18th and 19th century were a lot more theatrical and it was a whole production compared to those in modern day. I think that these difference are impacted by those understanding punishment and that what society thought was deterring crime, really was not. Once people were aware that this did not help crime control and people became aware of the suffering, it allowed people to reflect and ask “why are we doing this?” To believe in capital punishment is one thing however to hang someone from a rope where they are clearly suffering is obviously grotesque and inhumane. During the invention of the press and the popularity of that, I think this also played a role of people not feeling the need to attend these events. Further, moving them to Newgate just affirmed that they were not necessary for the public to go to. There must have been some sort of a turning

What differentiates Mary Shelly’s novel, Frankenstein from the majority of horror novels are the very real and timeless themes it explores.  The overriding theme of the novel - scientific investigation without consideration of morality and responsibility is still an important topic in today’s world.  “Perhaps the reality of cloning and genetic engineering makes this theme more relevant today than when Frankenstein was first published”(Patterson). This theme, along with the more subtle themes of revenge, the inability to accept those who are different, and the inability to control one's destiny are all themes which separate Frankenstein from other novels in the genre.

The criminal justice system is supposed to be fair when it comes to determining the punishments for those who commit crimes. But fairness is not always the case. Too often, people who are innocent are given punishment, people who are guilty, are set free, and there is much judgment based on sex and social rank. When people are poor, they are believed to have more of a reason to commit a crime than those who are ranked in upper class. As for unfairness when it comes to sex, the justice system is built on males, especially back in the day, when men were seen as higher up than females. The unjustness of the criminal justice system is brought to attention in Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein.” In the novel, three different murders take place

Humans are known for bestowing their judgment irrationally and based on the “book cover” of a person, they may degrade their fellow human into the worst positions of the social ladder. Mary Shelley, in her novel Frankenstein, expands on this perspective by using mood and tone to parallel with the circumstances of an event occurring in her novel with shifts throughout the context of the book, symbolized by the changes in nature and seasons. This shift is made frequently between the agonized, desperate, frightful, maybe even suicidal mood and tone with the occurrence of dreadful acts of murder and execution, to the more calming, soothing, optimistic and life-full during a physical and spiritual recovery.

     Romantic writer Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein does indeed do a lot more than simply tell story, and in this case, horrify and frighten the reader. Through her careful and deliberate construction of characters as representations of certain dominant beliefs, Shelley supports a value system and way of life that challenges those that prevailed in the late eighteenth century during the ‘Age of Reason’. Thus the novel can be said to be challenging prevailant ideologies, of which the dominant society was constructed, and endorsing many of the alternative views and thoughts of the society. Shelley can be said to be influenced by her mothers early feminist views, her father’s

Anguish, pain, torment and suffering are all a part of our day to day lives. These may issue from a variety of causes such as great deprivation, hardships to emotional and physical loss. Many texts, such as that of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly in the early 1800's, depict unalleviated suffering caused by living within societal norms. However very often, these sufferings are inflicted upon people by one individual and in the case of Frankenstein, this source is Victor Frankenstein. This statement becomes evident when examining the intersecting cultural beliefs of gender, class and ethnicity of the time.

In the Romance novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley she illustrates themes of innocence and revenge. The book focuses on a wild scientist named Victor Frankenstein. The novel goes through many stories and perspectives on the life of Frankenstein's creation. Throughout the novel the monster tries to prove to the society that he is not a horrible creature and that his physical attributes do not represent him. Although he tries hard to accomplish this goal, society does not believe him so the monster decides to get revenge on Frankenstein. The society is responsible for the deaths that occurred in the novel because they assumed he was a certain way based on his looks, their violent towards him, and they mentally hurt him with their words which turn him evil and make him obsessed with revenge.

The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, was a piece written in 1817 during a time when women weren’t considered to be adequate authors. Shelley’s work is both intriguing as it is thought provoking. She brings to light the true nature of society and life altogether when tested. She factors in how the outside world can influence our choices in writing. George Levine from “The Ambiguous Heritage of Frankenstein” and Benjamin Truitt from “Frankenstein Critical Analysis and Literary Criticism” both share their opinions about Shelley’s piece of written work.

If everything was done correctly, the execution would be finished in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, that was not usually the case, and the deaths were slow and painful. The end results of a hanging consisted of the eyes popping out of their sockets, protruding tongue, bloated face, defecation, and severe jerking of the body and appendages (Descriptions”).