Diversity In Frankenstein

In the small English town of Cloisterheim, whose name hints reclusion and narrow-mindedness, where diversity is seen as wrong but keeping up appearances is crucial and superficiality is rewarded, the restrictions on what is considered normal are tight. It is not surprising that Jasper, who is very well acquainted with the ways of his community, skilfully exploits them for his own gain. He availed himself of the conservative nature of his fellow citizens prone to prejudice and shunning out of disdain, fear and ignorance. By the same token, by choosing Neville as the patsy in his Machiavellian plan he hedged his bets. That his predictions were correct, attests his victim’s description of people’s behaviour towards him after Jasper accused him

He imposed an alien and abnormal culture on the town in a quid pro quod manner and he entrapped the citizens in the circumstances that they dreaded and abhorred because they considered them different and thus abnormal. Only after reading the rest of the novel, even with the large part missing, can we grasp the relevance of the period of “drowsy laughter” which Dickens felt was needed after describing the Oriental Cloisterham and its crooked cathedral tower. If Forster’s report about the story is true then the assumed last scene which was supposed to depict Jasper in prison would symbolise Dickens’s faith in English society and its ability to thrive under any circumstance, even when attacked from

Dickens considered that the inferior behaviour could be changed and corrected. Thus Helena, who had always found it easier to control her temper and behave in a “more English” way, was granted a normal English life, whereas Neville could not tame his tigerish blood and therefore, according to Forster, had to die. Neville’s temper, the fact that he flared up easily combined with his foreign origins which were seen as savage, were working against him. For that reason he was deprived of the basic human right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, the society, including his own guardian, was not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The young man yearned for normalcy which in his case represented a clean slate, a life where his reputation would not be tainted by a crime he did not commit and where he would not be inadequate just because he is who he is. But because the savage, tigerish blood in him was too