The Cruelty Of Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein

Thesis Statement: In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature’s identity as a monster is due to societal rejection, isolation, and misinterpretation.

For as long as man has encompassed this world, the divisive enigma of humanity has prevailed. Seeping its way into each generation, while sparking heated conversations, it has become evident that there is much we do not know about what truly makes us human. Regardless of our genetic composition, philosophers often ponder the deeper meaning of humanity. We know that, biologically, recreating the genetic makeup of a human does not yield humanity, so what is the missing aspect? Humans -have the ability to contemplate their own existence in this world. Awareness of existence. This driving force enables us to analyze situations while placing ourselves within them. Our involuntary ability to understand the impact of our actions and the affect they have on others causes us to be inherently human. Our actions evoke strong emotions within us that allow us to learn through our experiences. We retain the resonated feelings of certain occurrences and apply them to others in order to deduce outcomes. Often this facet of mankind is taken for granted, yet we are reminded, through both literature and hypothetical scenarios, of its importance. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, constitutes as one of these profound reminders. Shelley develops a theoretical story in which the humanity of Frankenstein’s monster is questioned. Despite having the accurate organs and framework of a human, Shelley causes the reader to seek the missing aspect that is preventing the monster from being human. Likewise,

Frankenstein is a classic written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that has captured readers’ imaginations since the nineteenth century. The moral of Frankenstein was that a lack of companionship will lead to self-destruction. Lilo and Stitch, the Disney adapted version, has the same moral. Each teach the same, basic lesson that companionship and friends are generally positive things, yet they told different stories. Their stories, at first glance, are almost unrecognizable from each other. When comparing the two versions, one might ask how the morals remained the same despite the drastic alterations that Disney made. However, if one were to take a look at the changes that Disney made he or she would understand how. In Lilo and Stitch, Stitch (Disney’s equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster) is a protagonist while the monster is the antagonist in the original, Stitch makes friends whereas Frankenstein’s monster suffers throughout the entire book without so much as a friendly gesture, and as a result, the endings are completely different as well.

 "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?" This question, posed by Captain Robert Walton on page 22 of Mary Shelley's immortal Frankenstein, lies susceptible to interpretation to mean the ambition of man in one sense, but in another, the collective persecution and prejudice inherent in mankind.

As the monster had no one to teach him he did not know about fire and

Frankenstein’s loved ones, his wife Elizabeth Lavenza and his son Wolf, soon die one by one by the monster’s hands as the monster seeks revenge for the mere creation of his life, and even Victor dies himself soon after. These are the occurrences that shaped the tragedy of the story because of the monster’s fooling coexistence in silence among human beings that, however, was not so peaceful in reality as Victor suspected it would be when he let the monster flee prior to its creation, giving no importance to any possible outcomes of his creation. The monster feels abandoned, even casted out in a way because no other person sees a living being within him that deserves compassion and respect due to his appearance. Walton’s final letter describes the monster’s words as Victor lays on his death bed with the monster gazing by his side, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” (Ch.24).

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 crimes and punishments of the 1800’s were cruel, unusual and inhumane. These horrific punishments added suspense and gore to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. It is implored that Mary Shelley was impacted by witnessing these tragic events which resulted in her transitioning her thoughts into her novel. These brutal punishments have been going on for hundreds of years in England and were recently were stopped in 1964 .

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illustrates the essence of alienation, a degree of isolation from individuals or an environment, through the creature of Frankenstein. Unlike Victor’s self inflicted alienation, the creature does not choose theirs, but is forced upon it by the rejection of humans regarding its hideous demeanor. Upon awakening, Victor’s scared look is its first imprint of humans, and “unable to endure the aspect of the being… [Victor] rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing [his] bedchamber, unable to compose [his] mind to sleep” (84); abandoning it like a newborn child. Although a monster, it still has the innate desire to be loved and accepted, but having no lineage and been rejected by its creator, founds a village, however “the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted.

Stephen King once said,” Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win”. In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein creates a monster who he despises and who later kills his youngest brother, his best friend, and his wife. He indirectly causes the deaths of Frankenstein’s father and servant Justine. Though it is suggested the monster is not real and Victor Frankenstein himself is to blame for these deaths. Did Frankenstein really create a monster or is the monster the darkness in his heart? Victor Frankenstein never made a monster who came to life and tried to destroy him but rather the darkness inside Frankenstein, which was always there took over and destroyed all he held dear.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines feminism as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Over the years, the genders have not been treated equally. In the Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, feminism subtly influences the characters and plot of the book. Frankenstein is a feminist novel because of the perfection displayed in the female characters, the destruction of the female creature, and the depiction of nature as a female.

Science is truth, candour, fidelity, damage and destruction — a loud and clear call of civilisation. More so, in today's context — the epoch of wonders and also devastation. A case in point: New York and Washington, Mumbai and Paris, or the daily dose of dismal violence in Kashmir, a Paradise Lost. They are tragedies never before incarnate in history.

The author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, shows a story of an ambitious scientist whom desires to create life but in turn creates a monster. Victor Frankenstein, a mad scientist, rejects his own creation of his monster and simply put it aside as if it never happened. Throughout this novel, Victor Frankenstein through his unspeakable acts shows that the monster is the victim of his own creator.

Frankenstein is one of the most famous and adapted novels of all time, and many say that Mary Shelley invented the genre of science fiction through it’s creation, but can Frankenstein add feminism to its list of virtues? At first glance, it seems not. The novel focuses mainly on the conflict between two men, and the main female character in the novel, Elizabeth, falls into the classic gothic trope of the perfect, angelic heroine, who has little to no flaws or agency. Yet upon further examination, it is clear that Shelley parodies and builds on the trope of the perfect woman in order to expose the flatness of female characters in Gothic literature, ultimately giving Frankenstein a feminist tone.

In the history of humanity, we were taught that beauty was good and scary was evil or bad, but little of humanity did not hold on to those accusations. It does not matter what someone looks like on the outside, it is what is on the inside that counts. People who are perfect on the outside might be terrible on the inside.