How Shelley and Fowles Present the Socially Excluded Essay

The classic gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley details the relationship between two significant figures, Victor Frankenstein, and his unnamed monster. The critical relationship between such characters causes many literary critics to compose the idea that they are bound by nature – inadvertently becoming a single central figure (Spark). This provides provoking thoughts on the duality of mankind, revealing the wickedness of human nature. The role of the monster as an alter ego to Victor is an ideal suggestion, as their characteristics in the story consistently change; from predator to prey, depressed to angry, pitiful to cruel, these are all characteristics shared between both characters at different times of the novel. These

may lead to a life of violent crime or murder. The Creature, as we see

Through recognition of his isolation, abandonment and rejection the creature is moulded to be a character deserving of sympathy and understanding. Nevertheless, through his later actions, particularly the murder of Elizabeth, Shelley challenges the reader’s preliminary perception of the character as a victim of an unjust society. Aided by the evocative emotive language surrounding Elizabeth’s death, in which her “lifeless and inanimate body” is described as “bloodless” and “thrown across the room”, the depiction of the creature’s act is illustrated as savage and violent. This results in the creature, being presented as inhuman, unforgivable, and ultimately a murderer. Consequently, the reader is influenced to feel an unwavering lack of sympathy towards the character, despite his struggle throughout the text. Reforming the perception of the character, Shelley challenges the reader to broaden their view of the creature and question whether he is worthy of

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader feels great sympathy for the female characters in the novel. The characters Caroline Beaufort, Elizabeth Lavenza and Justine are characterized as good hearted and upright woman, but nevertheless face an injustice death. In Frankenstein, women in the text are being destructed through an inevitable miserable fate to get the idea of the passive woman that devotes herself to the benefactor and her lack of agency across, in which is demonstrated in the passivity of Caroline, Elizabeth and Justine’s role that leads to their misery.

Laura Claridge state that Frankenstein is well recognized as a tale controlled by Mary Shelley‘s personal disturbed family relations, but she set off one step more to formulate a point that the real topic has avoided criticism. She stated that tale display the failure of humans that are unable to parent their children in such ways that they will be capable to take part in the world rather than backing away from themselves. Claridge hold up her account from the viewpoint of numeral diverse characters. She illustrates how Victor Frankenstein’s acts, are the normal reaction to his own neglection as an offspring.

“Equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently” (Sciglimpaglia). Today, United States still deals with many civil rights issues that bring to the forefront the issue of prejudice. People being prejudiced against leads to them feeling isolated or separated from society for just being different in one way or another. A sense of resentment or anger develops as the treatment continues. This anger leads to people doing rash things or brings out the best in people as in the case of Martin Luther King. Even today some sixty years after the Civil Rights Movement “ended”, there are still many protests and injustices taking place. Similarly, in the nineteenth century novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the “monster” suffers from mistreatment which leads to many of the same issues that people across the world suffer from today. An excerpt on Shelley’s background from Frankenstein states that her life, especially as a young adult, was “sad, melodramatic, improbable, and even tragic” with her mother dying at a young age (v). Shelley herself admits in the introduction that the story was born from a nightmare she had, giving reason as to why the story is so evil (xii). The isolation and prejudice which the monster experiences throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is to blame for his aggressive behavior towards Victor.

Mary has experienced what the true meaning of social justice is like. What does social justice have to do with Shelly’s Frankenstein book and why it is compared to the modern world? Her book explains some reasons why some of her characters have encountered social justices and injustices and their relationship to this. Mary also points out some evidence from the text and uses them to what extent that people do in society when it’s corrupted.

Mary Shelley’s Gothic Romantic novel Frankenstein creates a critical social commentary on the human drive within scientific development and the effects of social class and gender in societal treatment within the environment and conflict of the creature and Victor Frankenstein. Shelley, rather than beating around the bushes, clearly portrays several questions of egotism, use of knowledge, justice versus revenge, and nature versus nurture, blending into an observation and inquiry of the errors of the human race and its consequences, affecting the thought process during reading into a search for conflicting opinions on society’s treatment of specific peoples.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines the very nature of humanity through the juxtaposition of two characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature. The curious creature has an innocent desire to learn whereas Victor Frankenstein pursues his blasphemed ambition. The creature has a sincere desire to belong in the human world but he is incapable of properly presenting himself whereas Victor Frankenstein isolates himself from humanity to hide his guilt. The sympathetic creature is an innately good being who was turned evil by a rejecting society whereas Victor Frankenstein is full of hatred and revenge. The creature’s actions and qualities weighed against those of his creator in a moral

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the theme of cruelty is used to advance the plot of the story. The cruelty expressed by Victor and society towards the monster is what propelled him to commit acts of violence. This behavior represented by Victor and society shows that they are single minded and unwelcoming to anything that looks out of place, even if they have good intentions. The way the monster is shunned by society and by Victor advances the plot by triggering the angry and vengeful side of the monster and pushing him to murder the people close to Victor.

The name of Mary W. Shelley somehow hidden behind the fame of her best known work, Frankenstein. The story of Frankenstein has past through the years without being forgotten, while the name of  Mary Shelley is unknown to the general public. Following the plot of her own story, Mary Shelley is, somehow, the "victim" of her creation. Frankenstein can be seen as the story of a terrible monster who threatens society. It is the purpose of this essay to illustrate that it is actually society that has made a monster of Frankenstein.  

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one revolving around Victor Frankenstein, a young and brilliant scientist with an almost obsessive fascination with the secret of life. Finally, while working alone in his laboratory one night, he creates what he wanted--a living being out of the organs of a dead man. The monstrous creation at first is gentle and loving, but is soon forced to hide away from society due to humankind’s fear of its appearance. The monster is enraged, and seeks to take revenge on its creator, Victor Frankenstein, and does this through the killing of his little brother, best friend, and wife. The monster then heads to the North Pole to seek refuge, where Frankenstein then seeks out the monster to end the life of his creation once and for all. Instead, Victor is fatally wounded by the monster, and the story ends with the monster accusing mankind for its lack of compassion before disappearing into the Arctic Sea. Through a close analysis of the main characters and settings of the story, it can be concluded that Mary Shelley’s novel is, above all, about the theme of alienation and the innocent victims that are affected by it, a theme that is also prominent in Fyodor Doestoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the very familiar phrase to ‘not judge a book by its cover’ is evidently ignored by the world and one of the main characters; the Monster is the victim of society’s judgement. This novel is about the story of three characters, beginning with Robert Walton. His desire for knowledge takes him to the Arctic Ocean leading to his isolation. Walton’s adventure is the reason why he had met the next main character in the midst of his own downfall; Victor Frankenstein. Victor takes the story back to the beginning of his tragedy with his similar desire for knowledge. He isolates himself until he has the right amount of knowledge to create the last main character; the Monster. The Monster is an outcast throughout the story and is often misread until his own point of view is revealed to the reader. Due to anger and jealousy, the Monster is in rage with Victor leading to Victor’s death. It is easy for the reader to feel sympathy towards the Monster within this story because his good intentions motivate him to take good actions proving that he is good. Also, as a result of the Monster being an outcast, the reader can connect personal feeling and experiences creating pathos for him. The Monster’s upbringing is yet another reason to feel sorry for the Monster because of his lost opportunities in life. Within Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the Monster obtains the same desires and needs as any human being but cannot fulfill any of his aspirations due to

Throughout Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates an idea that without human connections the lives of individuals and society as a whole would suffer dramatically through her dynamic characters and their contrasts with the monster. She demonstrates that companionship is a natural necessity for all living things by describing Clerval’s effect on Victor. The idea that the roles of paternal figures influences all creatures and their interests is also portrayed in the novel. Both relationships of friendship and creator with creation not only has an effect on the individual, but also all of society, as Shelly shows that one’s decision can affect the world around them.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a horrific novel that avoids strong and independent female leads. It is hard to believe the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, an important feminist, could write such a thing. Within Frankenstein, it seems as if Mary Shelley is demoralizing women by keeping them fairly absent and focusing upon men in the novel (Behrendt 1). Shelley acts against women by making the three main narrators of Frankenstein men. Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster all narrate this haunting tale. However, these central characterized men make plentiful mistakes throughout society. One may think, therefore, that Shelley’s treatment of Dr. Frankenstein and Walton actually acts as a female critique of male ambition since the characters both possess an insensitivity that leads to their downfall (Aldrich and Isomaki 3). Perhaps, in her novel, Shelley is actually showing how women are instead a backbone to society. Mary Shelley makes a truly feminist point within her well-known literary classic, Frankenstein.