How Does Frankenstein Relate To Belonging

At first glance, the gothic novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley appears to be a simple monster story, where a man creates a monster, and the monster goes on a rampage. However, there is more to it than meets the eye. As you delve deeper, you can see that Shelley uses the narratives of Walton, Frankenstein, and the monster himself to show how people desire friends, how they want to be accepted by society, and what happens if they are not. These ideas are present in all three characters, but Shelley primarily focuses on the monster in this story, as an epitome of the tragedy of not belonging and having no friends. Victor Frankenstein and Walton feel the need to have friends. A clear place where Shelley shows this is when Frankenstein finishes

At first, he is abandoned by Frankenstein, who runs away from him when he is just “born”, because he looks ugly. Later, he is roaming Switzerland and scares a farmer away, due to his appearance. The monster wants to talk to someone, and for someone to love him. He takes shelter close to a cottage owned by the De Lacey family, and he begins to love them. Finally, he gets the courage to go up to them and introduce himself, but they run away screaming. Notably, the blind man still talks to him, since he doesn’t see how big and ugly the monster is. The monster begins to resent humanity because of this rejection, and promises to wage war on people. When he changes his mind to save a girl from drowning, he gets shot because of his appearance. This is the last straw for him. He realizes that nobody loves him, and feels like he has nothing to lose. This is the place where all he wants is revenge, and he declares war upon Frankenstein and the human race. As one can see, the monster starts out inherently good, and becomes corrupted due to people rejecting him from society for the way he looks. Shelley shows this as wrong, and she thinks that people should be judged by their actions, not their appearance. This connects to enlightenment thought of that time, with new ideas of how society should be organized, not based on nobility or aristocracy, but on merit,

The monster explains, for example, how he has nothing left to live for, as he has nobody who cares for him, and he is an outcast from society. Therefore, he has nothing to lose and wants revenge on Frankenstein for abandoning him, and he wants Frankenstein to feel what he feels. He kills Frankenstein’s family to make him feel alone, the way the monster himself feels. This emphasizes how people have an inherent need to be accepted by society, and have people who love for and care for them. In addition to this, Frankenstein’s monster threatens to “be at his wedding”, if Frankenstein doesn’t create a female companion for him. After the monster killed most of Frankenstein’s family, his wife was one of the few people left, and the monster threatened to kill her in this way. Even though the monster was moral and kind to begin with, he is now threatening to murder, just so he can get his purpose in life, a companion. This shows the extent that people will go just to not feel alone, and to have a friend/companion in their lives. People are willing to commit heinous acts just to feel like they belong and to have a companion or friend in their life. People are social animals, and we evolved to work in a society and be accepted by it. If we are not accepted by society, if we are outcasts, our