Monster Theory In Frankenstein

812 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on depiction of monsters in literature

Edward was found to be guilty of being a monster by the court. I find this verdict unjust and fundamentally flawed. Although, evidence was presented that Edward fits some definitions and theories presented by Cohen and Carroll; he did not fit them all. Edward is unconsciously fitting the role of a monster without being able to defend himself. Although he fits some definitions he does not fill all, therefore, he cannot be characterized as a monster. Edward knows that he is different and vulnerable to other people's judgment which is why he disconnects from society. The fact that he is different and acts differently then everyone should not classify him as a monster. Also, the confrontation with Jim should not be viewed as evidence for his conviction but for his defense. Furthermore, the verdict against Edward should be overturned.
Edward fits all seven monster theories presented by one of our key witnesses- Cohen. The seven theses are: (1) The Monster’s body is a cultural body; (2) The Monster always escapes; (3) The Monster is the Harbinger of category crisis; (4) The Monster dwells at the gates of difference; (5) The Monster polices the borders of the possible; (6) Fear of the Monster is a really a kind of desire; (7) The Monster stands at the threshold of becoming. However, he did not fit the definitions presented …show more content…

However, the town automatically assumed Edward attacked Kevin. This was partially because he had been found in someone's house and because of the fear they had of Edwards capability. The town suddenly realized that this was a child who was born in solitude and did not know all the social norms and possibly the difference between right and wrong. However, what I find interesting is that town only noticed this after they had found him commit something out of the norm. We see the town's true emotion toward Edward at the end of the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Frankenstein By Mary Shelly

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first, The Monster is very kind and sympathetic. He has a good heart, as shown when he collected firewood for the family on the brink of poverty. Like every other human creation, he was not born a murderer. All the Monster wanted was to be accepted and loved by Victor Frankenstein and the other humans but instead he was judged by his appearance and considered to be dangerous. The Monster says, “like Adam, I was created apparently united by no link to any other being in existence…many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (page 105). This line is an important part of the novel because the Monster lets it be known how like Adam he was created into this world completely abandoned and like Satan he is angry with those people who have found contentment and satisfaction in their lives. The rejection and unwelcome feeling he is faced with, is the main reason the Monster becomes a killer. Watching another family show love towards each other made the Monster realize how alienated he truly was. He did not know how to deal with his pain and emotions so he murders as

    Read More

  • My Life As A Muslim In The West Grey Zone Summary

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s essay, “The Monster Theses,” he analyzes the characteristics of a "monster" and explores the course in which they are created. He interprets monsters creation in six different ways; claiming initially that they are symbols and representations of culture. "The monster in an incorporation of the outside." (Cohen, 460). Cohen defines the monster as an outsider to the cultural world in which they are. "The monster is a difference made flesh" (Cohen, 459), Cohen describes how the difference are what makes us human or "flesh."

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Jeffrey Dahmer Vs Grendel

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The only motive that there was was to completely control a person… and keep them with me as long as possible, even if it meant just keeping a part of them.” Using this statement, Jeffrey Dahmer offers his insight about what made him the cruel, demented being people have known him to be for the last 25 years. Many questions still remain, however. How do we, in society, define the term “monster”? What makes a monster? What shapes our perceptions of monsters, and how do these perceptions change over time? Several centuries passed between the time of Grendel from the epic poem, Beowulf, and the Milwaukee Monster, Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance. Grendel is a creation of the Anglo-Saxons, whose culture

    Read More

  • How Harper Lee makes Mayella Ewell a Vulnerable yet Contemptible Character in To Kill a Mockingbird

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Tom Robinson?s trial begins, evidence begins to show that Tom Robinson is actually innocent. When Mr Ewell takes the stand we see that he is not a soft hearted person because he is blaming Tom Robinson for something that he has not done,

    Read More

  • A Psychoanalysis of Edward Gein

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Possibly the first crime that Edward committed was killing his older brother. This has significance on the psychological level because Edward’s older brother began to disagree with their mother’s world perspective and I believe this was the motivation for this crime. He loved his mother very much possibly to the point of Parent-Child Relational Problems and could not handle that his brother began to discredit her. Edward was not charged with killing his brother because they were burning a marsh and it was determined to be asphyxiation from the fire. It is suspicious because his brother was not in an area that was burned and his body was found with bruises.

    Read More

  • The Influence Of Creature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    The creature was created with the intention of goodness and purity but because of this, he wasn’t equipped to deal with the rejection of his creator. After Victor Frankenstein’s death, Robert Walton walks in to see the creature standing over his friend’s lifeless body.

    Read More

  • Edward Theodore Gein

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Edward Theodore Gein was born on August 27, 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin”( A+E Networks). Ed never really had a normal childhood, a childhood where your parents love you and you lived normally. Ed grew up in a household run by his mother who was a “religious fanatic” (A+E Networks). His mother raised Ed and Henry on her beliefs and ideals she also told them that “if they had sex before marriage they would go to hell” (Bell and Bardsley). George Gein their father was an alcoholic and when intoxicated would become angry and violent. George had no role when it came to raising the kids there mother “saw him as a worthless creature not fit to hold down a job, let alone care for their children” (Bell and Bardsley). “Augusta their mother would try to keep Ed and Henry from the world but that was unsuccessful because they had to go to school”(Bell and Bardsley). Their mother opened up a grocery store in La Crosse in order to get away from the city and better the family’s life. With the money she had saved up they moved to a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin the place where Ed would commit his crimes. In Ed’s teenage years he would be bullied all the time and had no friends, people in his class thought that he had feminine qualities because of the way he acted. Another reason he wasn’t able to make friends was because if tried to make friends his mother would scold him and punish ...

    Read More

  • The True Monster in Frankenstein

    1764 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is a monster, really? Is it really a Creature that has three eyes instead of two, with pus seeping out of every crevice in his face and an abnormally large form? Or is it someone with a mind so corrupt it rivals that of Satan? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story within a story that centers on the tale of a man with an immense thirst of knowledge and a fetish to imitate the Creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a lot like the Greek mythological tale of the Greek God, Prometheus, and his brother, Epimetheus, who were assigned the task of creating man. The story captivates the theme of monstrosity. Mary Shelley wrote the novel in a form so the reader’s opinions never stray far from sympathy for the monster and apathy for Victor Frankenstein. The novel looks at “Monstrosity” and “Humanity” in a deeply analytical way.

    Read More

  • Monstrosity in Frankenstein

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    The monster of the novel is often misattributed with the name, “Frankenstein.” However, Victor Frankenstein can ultimately be considered the true monster of this tale. His obsession would lead to the corruption of his soul and the creation of two monsters—one himself, and the other, the creature. In attempting to take on the role of God, nature would become a monster to Victor and destroy his life. These elements of monstrosity in Frankenstein drive the meaning of its story.

    Read More

  • The Effect of Frankenstein's Monster

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Countless situations created in life will always have some consequence, whether the outcome is a positive outcome or a negative outcome. During the novel, Frankenstein, there are many incidents portrayed through the characters that have both a positive outcome and a negative outcome, no matter the type of situation. The majorities of the situations that are conveyed in this novel almost always have a negative outcome because of the way the effects damage and hurt the innocence of the other characters in the story. In this novel many of the negative outcomes are a consequence of a hideous monster, known as Frankenstein’s monster, which was created by the hands of Victor Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Jealousy Movie Analysis

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Specifically social isolation. Social isolation is the lack of social interaction with society or friends (Miller, 2011), neither which Edward had because he was not fully educated by his creator yet. Edward was all by himself in the mansion up the hill after his creator died. Because the creator died before he could teach Edward the basic lifestyle etiquette, Edward had hid himself in the mansion the whole time void of social interactions until Peg decided to venture into the mansion in hopes of selling cosmetics and ended up bringing Edward back to her home. The social isolation that Edward experienced since the death of his creator was quickly eased from him after he got introduced to the townspeople. The talent Edward had for having scissor as his hand was impeccable. He managed to capture the attention and trust of the townspeople in a short amount of time he was there. However, the attention that Edward had when introduced to the townspeople was short lived after he was arrested by the police for breaking and entering a home. Edward went back to his mansion after a few unsuccessful attempt of reconciliation with the townspeople. The study by Ahmetoglu, Swami and Chamorro-Premuzic, (2010) stated that reconciliation tactic was used to maintain positive relationship but it did not worked for Edward when he was trying to get back on the good side of the

    Read More

  • What Is A Monster?

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Peter Brooks' essay "What Is a Monster" tackles many complex ideas within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the main concept that is the title of the essay itself. What is the definition of a monster, or to be monstrous? Is a monster the classic representation we know, green skin, neck bolts, grunting and groaning? A cartoon wishing to deliver sugary cereal? or someone we dislike so greatly their qualities invade our language and affect our interpretation of their image and physical being? Brooks' essay approaches this question by using Shelley's narrative structure to examine how language, not nature, is mainly accountable for creating the idea of the monstrous body.

    Read More

  • External Conflict In Frankenstein

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    A monster is usually viewed to be a supernatural creature that humans judge based on looks and not necessarily on personality. In the novel, Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the monster is a creature Victor creates but abandons immediately because he is horrified by his own creation. Due to the monster’s appearance, society does not give the creature a chance to show his true self. Therefore, the monster faces an external conflict because of Frankenstein’s and society's rejection, making it difficult for him to blend into his new life. Victor creates the monster because of his unusual compulsion of aspiring to be like God. However, Victor does not know how to treat or be responsible for his creature. Victor Frankenstein is the true monster

    Read More

  • The Monstrous In Frankenstein

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.

    Read More

  • A Monstrosity in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frankenstein shows that what looks like a monster in appearance my not be and what looks normal on appearance may be a monster. While a scary ugly creature may look like a monster a true monster is formed from within and is scene through actions. Along with this knowledge is power and power has the ability to make monsters. The pursuit to know more is a never ending road that leads to lies, secretes, and monstrosity. “How much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow,” while knowledge is boundless and beautiful an excess of anything can create a monster.

    Read More

More about Monster Theory In Frankenstein

Open Document