The Use Of The Word Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

800 Words4 Pages

Just as mentioned before in Mary Shelley’s days, scientists believed that someday they would be able to reanimate corpses, so although Frankenstein’s ‘mad scientist’ studies, examinations and experiments seem to be intense, Shelley, even if just loosely, based them on some of the scientific debates and discoveries. Her main influencer being Charles Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin and Luigi Galvani. Back then, it was not uncommon to share scientific ideas in poem form, which is why Darwin published a poem called “The Temple of Nature”. He developed a theory called “spontaneous generation” in which life could be created out of inert matter or it could be restored to seemingly dead matter. Galvani, however, became famous for his experiments with electricity, his experiments showed that electrical …show more content…

While I prepared this paper, it was striking to see how the usage of the word monster developed, from not only the outward appearance but moreover to one’s behavior or character. Which might derive from the early assumption that a person’s outward appearance is bound to make a clear statement about his personality. Sure, it is an undeniable fact that the outward appearance is a tool to show character and personality, however the assumption that a person might be a little too stark on the dark side of life just because he likes tattoos and piercings, hence is studded with them is purely prejudiced. Prejudice is the monsters’ main problem. If his creator had not been afraid of his appearance -which still is ridiculous since as established before, Victor made this creature and he made him huge on purpose, yet again to see this huge creature in action was an angst- inducing experience- the monster might not have turned into this revenge seeking creature. However, that is beside the point as then Frankenstein would not have been