Frankenstein essay

In the 1980’s classic The Breakfast Club, John Hughes wrote it best, “We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.” Societal normalcy is more of a false notion and facade rather than an fact. Who dictates what normal is? With every person on Earth being different, how is there a norm? The idea of what is “normal” in society is what plagues the monster in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Wanting to be a functioning member of society, the creation of Doctor Frankenstein is judged based on his physical differences rather than given a chance to show his true nature. However, society is not always to blame for a person or creatures’ adversity with society.

For Frankenstein’s creature, who will be addressed, unjustly, as “The Monster” for the remainder of this essay, society was to blame for his unfair treatment. The Monster, contrary to his appearance, had a warm heart and relentlessly tried to break through human’s prejudice to his different image. He addresses society’s harshness in a quote towards the end of the novel saying, “Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?”(ch. 24, Shelley). The Monster couldn’t have been more correct in his statement. No matter how much effort he put into adjusting to mankind’s ideals, he would never be able to overcome the instant judgment and hatred that came with his differences.

This aspect of being a social outcast is completely controlled by humans. With The Monster’s persistence in trying to conform to what human’s dictated as normal, he put his best foot forwards. Meanwhile, society couldn’t look past his physical abnormalities to discover the greatness that lied within. In real life, soci...

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...ciety proved fruitless in such discriminatory conditions. Although The Monster would do anything to be accepted, that isn’t the case for all people and creatures. Some prefer pursuing their beliefs and ideals, like Daniel in the Bible. These nonconformist decide that belonging to society and living by the norms isn’t worth their own personal sacrifice. You also have another category that believes there is no chance that society will accept them and refuse to attempt to make any connections and instead have a hatred for mankind; Grendel from Beowulf is a literary example of this outcast. Independent of which classification of outcast a person is, the one constant is society. The following quote by Mignon McLaughlin represents how societies address outcast, especially like the Danes addressed Grendel: “Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.”