The Importance Of Monstrosity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein depicts a man’s thirst for knowledge and the consequences of his actions. The main character Victor Frankenstein embraces an act of monstrous proportions and creates his own being, known as the creature. A passage from the text is spoken in the voice of the beast and discusses his distress of being considered an atrocity. It explores the theme of humanity’s natural attraction for monstrosity. The prose alludes to the debate as to whether malicious behaviour is due to a person’s nature, or to how they are nurtured. Using literary devices, the passage conveys human nature’s entwinement with monstrosity through society’s belief of the fiend being abnormal and by Victor Frankenstein’s treatment towards his creation.

However, his existence is an oddity that can find no fit. As the creature could find no place among Adam, the author incorporated another metaphor that had the creature match himself to the likes of Satan. Even though a being as cruel as “Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him” (105), the creation still experienced a lack of companionship. Both comparisons are examples of the resurrected creature not finding his place in the world. Using two opposites as categories to fit in and still being unable to match either, is an indication for the creature’s status as an anomaly. The usage of metaphors places an importance on how the creature has no actual relation to anything. It becomes contradictory that a literary device used to match two things together was incapable of even correlating the monster into any group of similarities. In the passage the monster at numerous times repeats his quarrel with being “wretched, helpless, and alone” (105). He stresses his loneliness and solitary lifestyle. The use of repeating himself enforces the point that the creature is in a search for companions. Because he was incapable of connecting with another in society his

Unlike Adam who was “guarded by the especial care of his Creator” (105), the fiend was entirely disregarded and was treated with fear. Mary Shelley uses a juxtaposition between Adam and the creature to showcase the differences both of these entities. While both were created by the hands of their masters, the treatment received was entirely unique to their own being. By contrasting the manner in which the creations were handled, it became visible how Victor differed in character compared to God. Empathy is a very humane emotion. It would take an enormous absence of empathy from Victor Frankenstein to leave what is essentially his own child. However, his deficiency in experiencing another’s emotions is due to his own nature, not from his environment. The home in which he was raised would be beneficial in increasing his levels of sympathy and empathy, hence his lack of understanding was not taught but already existing. Initially when the experiment was implemented Victor Frankenstein assumed that the creature would be beautiful (39) and incredibly handsome due to his perfect proportions such that his superiority would be evident. In reality the creature resulted to be “a filthy type of [human replica], more horrid from its very resemblance” (105) to humanity that it was only revolting. The creature utters a line of irony that questions Victor Frankenstein’s