"Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in water or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail image and that inconstant shade"(Shelley 85). In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, an aspiring scientist, creates a creature of amazing proportions, and yet shuns it out of his laboratory. After these events, the monster learns that he is indeed hideous, and attempts to greet some people living near his hovel. This doesn’t go well, so he becomes hateful towards humanity. The villages around the creature shun him away like his creator, thus making him believe that all humans are just as evil. In the
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He is considered an outcast because even his own father/creator disregarded him as a human, thus creating a 'monster'. His physical look is what differentiates him from society, but that is not the only thing. The creature’s actions later in the novel make him into a monster like everyone believes him to be. Shelley writes, “Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”(33-34). This certain piece of text shows how hideous and frightening the creature really is, and therefore why he is considered such an outcast. A normal human being wouldn’t look like the creature, and this leads to society shunning him because of their …show more content…
Most of the time it doesn’t go well. This could be given to the fact that humans are afraid of the unknown, and in Shelley’s case, this fear is towards the creature. Society today has less and less to fear, but back in 1818, there was a lot of things yet to be discovered, therefore the novel had a better connection back then. Even now though society is afraid of the ‘dark’ and what they can’t reach, i.e. space, the supernatural etc. In the novel, the creature wishes to meet with the de’lacey family and goes to the father first. “‘That is indeed unfortunate; but if you are really blameless, cannot you undeceive them?’ ‘I am about to undertake that task; and it is on that account that I feel so many overwhelming terrors...but they believe that I wish to injure them, and it is that prejudice which I wish to overcome.’ …’ I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuade me that you are sincere’”(87). M. De’lacey is unknown of the monster’s looks and therefore can not judge him based off of them, but his family has sight and can clearly see the monster’s horrible looks. This quote goes deeper than this, however, and can connect to society in a shocking way. People nowadays only care what you look like, and if you are some different skin color or have some disorder, they will treat you with either anger or disrespect. At this point in the
He is considered an outcast because even his own father/creator disregarded him as a human, thus creating a 'monster'. His physical look is what differentiates him from society, but that is not the only thing. The creature’s actions later in the novel make him into a monster like everyone believes him to be. Shelley writes, “Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”(33-34). This certain piece of text shows how hideous and frightening the creature really is, and therefore why he is considered such an outcast. A normal human being wouldn’t look like the creature, and this leads to society shunning him because of their …show more content…
Most of the time it doesn’t go well. This could be given to the fact that humans are afraid of the unknown, and in Shelley’s case, this fear is towards the creature. Society today has less and less to fear, but back in 1818, there was a lot of things yet to be discovered, therefore the novel had a better connection back then. Even now though society is afraid of the ‘dark’ and what they can’t reach, i.e. space, the supernatural etc. In the novel, the creature wishes to meet with the de’lacey family and goes to the father first. “‘That is indeed unfortunate; but if you are really blameless, cannot you undeceive them?’ ‘I am about to undertake that task; and it is on that account that I feel so many overwhelming terrors...but they believe that I wish to injure them, and it is that prejudice which I wish to overcome.’ …’ I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuade me that you are sincere’”(87). M. De’lacey is unknown of the monster’s looks and therefore can not judge him based off of them, but his family has sight and can clearly see the monster’s horrible looks. This quote goes deeper than this, however, and can connect to society in a shocking way. People nowadays only care what you look like, and if you are some different skin color or have some disorder, they will treat you with either anger or disrespect. At this point in the