The Proletariat In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1816 revolved around the eighteenth century. This story tells the tale of a doctor’s creation to benefit mankind turns into a psychotic monster. Mary Shelley introduces the dangers of the industrial revolution and the effects that had been faced by other communities. Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto educated the world on the political and economic struggles of the proletariat against the bourgeois. The proletariat is a term for the class of wage-earners or laborers, in a capitalist society. The bourgeois is a social order that is dominated by the “Elite Middle Class”. In the “Marxist” theory, the Bourgeois plays a heroic role by revolutionizing the industry and modernizing society as well. In Mary Shelley’s

He revolts against Victor which is similar to the proletariat who revolts against the bourgeoisie in social class struggles. The monster was created by Victor who is the bourgeoisie class, and is made up of assorted human parts. In the book, it is demonstrated that the monster was composed of various body parts. “I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials.” (Shelley 55) This quote closely resembles the proletariat class which is: “Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.” (Marx 18) The diversity in the proletariat class is symbolized by the many body parts combined to make the monster. Since the monster is foreign to many people, he is often treated differently. The monster is typically ignored and its needs are not met, because Victor thinks that he is better than him. Victor does not provide the monster with basic human rights and treats him like an object and as if it is not a living creature. The monster, like the proletariats, are obliged to live in lesser conditions and do things by themselves with no help at all. Typically in a child-parent relationship there is someone that is guiding the child so they are not alone and begin to learn how to do basic things. The monster was denied of being raised by a parent figure and had to fend for itself from the beginning. The monster even tries to communicate with Victor when he says, “I felt cold also, and half frightened, I had to covered myself with some clothes... I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch” (Shelley 119). Since the monster is treated so lowly, he was constrained to settle in an area that was inadequate. But the monster’s gigantic size conveys the large population and the strength of the working proletariat class and as well as, how the working class outnumbers the