The book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a horror tale about a scientist and his creation of a sentient creature, leading to tragic events for both the creator and his creation. This helped develop the imaginations of many readers during the 19th century. This story interprets the theme of isolation and social rejection of the “other”, by looking through the creature’s struggle with their own identity, rejection from society, and a mission to find some sort of acceptance. Although these themes in Frankenstein are not directly addressing race of any kind, it heavily resonates with the discussions of racism and discrimination in society. In the 1800s, Mary Shelley had a “friendly fiction-writing competition among friends” to see who could write …show more content…
Shelley’s narrative shows that language can not only be negatively used as a tool for racism, but how it can be potentially used to humanize people when trying to understand it. The violence and vengeance that occurs repeatedly in “Frankenstein” also mirrors the historical events of racial violence in society. As the monster keeps getting rejected by the people, it resorts to violence that validates the humans’ action and cruelty against it. The monster could not take the abuse from society, or its own creator anymore and even stated in the novel that “If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear” (Shelley). The cycle of this violence is a good demonstration of the racial tensions where prejudiced actions against minorities lead to more of the same actions and thus cause the horrible cycle to repeat. The story shows us that the violence towards the monster because of how it looks caused tragic outcomes for the people, and that this can relate to real life with society and racially discriminating against