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Theme Of Appearances In Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has a micro theme of how appearances can affect the opinions of others. In today's world that theme seems to have escalated into a serious issue. In the novel it describes the consensus of the monster's horrendous look and how that has impacted him when it comes to love and affection, isolation, and relationships. In the novel Victor Frankstein performs an experiment creating a monster but because he's frightened of the look of the creature, Victor rejects his own creation.
Love and affection is an important need that everyone seeks. Towards the end of Mary Shellys novel, Frankenstein's Monster asks Victor to create a female mate so he can experience love like the cottagers expressed while the Monster stalked them. …show more content…

Victor felt isolated in the beginning of his novel which led him to create his monster, which then he rejected. The Monster then had no one, just because he was just too horrifying to look at. The monster's isolation only made him crave attention more. Frankenstein's monster expresses how “Sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation. But it was all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.”(Shelly 119) He felt alone, his creator left him and because of it he was mad, mad at victor. The monster writes how there are no women, or “eve”, to make him feel better and for that he is isolated, solely because of his looks. In real Life being isolated can make one go a little crazy, for example look at the lockdown, and everything that happened because people were isolated, like the blow up of tik tok. Despite the lockdown due to the pandemic one can feel isolated for looks as well. Although people are encouraged to share their differences, it doesn't always turn out

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When he does, he complains about being ugly and not being accepted in society due to his appearance. The monster pleads for a female companion and offers to leave Frankenstein alone if he agrees to create one. Otherwise, the monster threatens to inflict more suffering on Victor. Although he knows the process will be lengthy and laborious, he agrees to prevent any more pain from the monster.

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The creature stated that he is “malicious because [he is] miserable” (Shelley 174). The creature merely wanted someone to accompany him throughout his life who did not hate him. Hence, the creature asked Victor to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being” (Shelley 174). However, Victor refused and stated, “Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in

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The monster wants someone who will accept him so he asks Victor for a wife. Victor responds

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From the monster's point of view, isolation is a negative aspect in which he suffers from loneliness as a result of being rejected by society. Moreover, his disfiguring image makes it impossible to have any hope of socializing with a human, thus making him a destructive being. Unlike Victor, nature reveals his grotesque form to him, notably when he sees his reflection in the “transparent pool” and becomes “fully convinced that [he is] in reality the monster that [he] is” (Shelley 80). Unfortunately, the monster has the potential to be a loving human, but his attempts to make himself acknowledged in a society that is "structurally antagonistic to his efforts" have turned him into a hateful individual (Bernatchez). Thus, it is evident that both the monster, “an abandoned child,” and Victor are victims of alienation and isolation, despite the monster being forced into this position and Victor desiring it (Oates).

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Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

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Victor does not handle his monster, or his fears, well. When Frankenstein first sees his monster, he immediately “escaped, [from the room the monster was in] and rushed down stairs. p50” As the monster is an externalization of Frankenstein’s fears, this escape, this inability to so much as look at the monster, can be interpreted as Frankenstein’s inability to acknowledge his fears and anxieties. Like with anxiety, denying the monster’s existence only causes him to grow more destructive.

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“The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village. ”(Chapter 11) In conclusion to the monster feeling isolated, he wanted Victor to create a girl monster to take some of this feeling of being alone away from him. The monster believes it is only fair for himself to have another version of himself as a girl because it's not fair for him to be put out in the world alone how he is. “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.

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Victor and male characters voice their longing for companionship throughout the novel and Victor while imprisoned says, “no one was near me who soothed me the gentle voice of love; no dear hand supported me” (Shelley, 170). Later in the novel, the monster after being abandoned by Victor has no choice but to be on his own and determine what life is about for himself. The monster then returns to Victor to tell him that he no longer wishes to be the “monster” he has been perceived to be and that all he wants is to have a companion. Victor is persuaded by the monster initially because he relates the monster in wanting a companion, but Victor’s preconceived ideas about the monster’s intentions lead to Victor destroying the companion the monster asked for. Looking at ethnocentrism in Frankenstein through this lens, the planters and members of parliament that were against the abolition can be compared to Victor and the abololitionists are represented by the monster.

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The monster is spurned by society because of his horrific appearance, his body, alone and hated, unfit for the company of strangers, just as Frankenstein fears he is. He is miserable which makes the hatred grow, as he says, “all men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!” In fact, this wretchedness and enforced isolation is the monster’s main character trait, parallel to the isolation being Frankenstein’s biggest fear. Now that Victor is in college, he does not have his family to fall back upon for affection.

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Because Victor turns a blind eye to the creation, he vows revenge against him and all the people Victor loves. Even though the man receives little guidance and support, he becomes a monster similar to Victor because of his choices to do evil: murder and take revenge. Critic Magill explains, “His revenge, although excessive, is motivated” (322). The creation could have the decency to move on with his life, but one factor prevents him. His appearance restrains him from having a normal life despite the capacity for love and affection he harbors in his heart.

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The monster continues by reassuring the creator of his independent intelligence and power over the creature by telling Frankenstein, “This you alone can do”. Here, the creature assumes a role of submissiveness and reliance on Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s monster gains the sympathy of the reader who, despite condemning the murder of innocent people, commiserate with the lonely creature who is in search of an acquaintance, which he will likely never find. The monster also displays power and aggressiveness over Frankenstein; “You are my creator; but I am your master; obey!” The monster wants to desolate Victor’s heart, not by killing him directly,

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This experience allows the monster to realize, that despite being perfect beings, even beauty can experience sorrow, just as ugliness can experience serenity. The monster also learns that the family is in similar position as his own, in which they are isolated from their society due to their crimes. From this judgement, the monster is able to approach the father of the household, by disguising himself as a lowly traveller in need of shelter, the

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That is the turning point for the creation. Before he experienced rejection he was keen on the idea of love, similar to all humans. All he wanted was to be loved. But because all he ever knew was hate, he became a product of it. Had Victor nurtured him and taught him what love was, he wouldn’t have done the cruel things

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”(Millhauser). This violent rejection is a repetition of Victor’s lack of acceptance for the monster and attention to his family. Victor knows that the monster will never be able to live within society and that his ability to create life is the only hope the monster has of achieving companionship. Victor's own aversion to companionship surfaces as he, “ fails to give him the human companionship, the Eve, the female creature, that he needs to achieve some sort of a normal life.” (Mellor).

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Once the creature begins to go out on his own and learn about life and society, during his first interaction with other people he learns that he will be immediately judged based on how he looks. To start, when Frankenstein first sees the creature, he quickly runs away without any interaction and exclaims “no mortal could support the horror of that countenance” (Shelley 36). This interaction made the monster realize that even his creator could not avoid the habits of the society he lived in, and immediately ran away from him in fear because he didn’t believe he was attractive. Then after that, the creature still has enough hope to go into a village and meet other people, but he is immediately met with children that “shrieked” and one woman who “fainted” just at the sight of him (Shelley 74). In every situation where the creature attempts to interact with others, he is shunned immediately, before even being able to say a word.

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