FREE ESSAY ON FRANKENSTIEN PARADIGM

FRANKENSTIEN PARADIGM

The Frankenstein Paradigm 
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a complex novel that was written during the age of
Romanticism. It contains many typical themes of a common Romantic novel such as dark
laboratories, the moon, and a monster. However, Frankenstein is anything but a common
novel. Many lessons are embedded into this novel, including how society acts towards the
different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used to characterize a person
by only his or her outer appearance. Whether people like it or not, society always
summarizes a person's characteristics by his or her physical appearance.
Society has set an unbreakable code individuals must follow to be accepted. Those who
don't follow the standard are hated by the crowd and banned for the reason of being
different. When the monster ventured into a town...he had hardly placed his foot within
the door before the children shrieked, and one women fainted (Shelley 101). From that
moment on he realized that people did not like his appearance and hated him because of
it. If villagers didn't run away at the sight of him, then they might have even enjoyed
his personality. The monster tried to accomplish this when he encountered the De Lacey
family. The monster hoped to gain friendship from the old man and eventually his
children. He knew that it could have been possible because the old man was blind, he
could not see the monster's repulsive characteristics. But fate was against him and the
miserable had barely conversed with the old man before his children returned from their
journey and saw a monstrous creature at the foot of their father attempting to do harm to
the helpless elder. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore the creature
from his father (Shelly 129). Felix's action caused great inner pain to the monster. He
knew that his dream of living with them happily ever after would not happen. After that
bitter moment the monster believed that the human senses are insurmountable barriers to
our union"(Shelly 138) and with the De Lacey encounter still fresh in his mind along with
his first encounter of humans, he declared war on the human race.
The monster's source of hatred toward humans originates from his first experiences with
humans. In a way the monster started out with a child-like innocence that was eventually
shattered by being constantly rejected by society time after time. His first encounter
with humans was when he opened his eyes for the first time and witnessed Victor
Frankenstein, his creator, rush out of the laboratory. Would this have had happened if
society did not consider physical appearance to be important? No. If physical appearance
were not important then the creature would have had a chance of being accepted into the
community with love and care. But society does believe that physical appearance is
important and it does influence the way people act towards each other. Frankenstein
shouldn't have made him if even he, the creator, could not stand his disgusting
appearance. There was a moment however when Frankenstein was moved (Shelly 139) by the
creature. Frankenstein felt what the duties of a creator (Shelly 97) were and decided
that he had to make another creature, a companion for the original. But haunting images
of his creation gave him an instinctive feeling that the monster would do frightening
acts with his companion, wreaking twice the havoc the monster has caused. Reoccurring
images of painful events originating from a first encounter could fill a person with hate
and destruction.
We as a society are the ones responsible for the transformation of the once child-like
creature into the monster we all know. The public needs to know that our society has
flaws and they must be removed before our primal instincts continue to isolate and hurt
the people who are different. With such a large amount of technology among us, some
people may wonder why such an advanced civilization still clings on to such primitive
ways of categorizing people.