Analysis Of Margaret Atwood's Short Story 'Lusus Naturae'

Individuals are usually judged by their superficial appearances and not by their characteristics, which could cause a wrong perception of an individual true self-leading their status and identity to become an outcast from the society. Furthermore, it could lead an individual to have psychological effects on their mental health. For instance, it could lead an individual to obtain the feelings of emptiness and hopelessness, to conclude with a decision to commit suicide. Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Lusus Naturae,” is written in a first person perspective, in which the protagonist tells the story herself. The readers of the story are able to know what is going on in the protagonist mind and how she is feeling throughout the story. However,

The setting of the story both involves a town with a judgmental perspective that is involved with outer appearances. In “Lusus Naturae,” the protagonist of the story faked her death so that she could finally be accepted in a way that she would not become a hindrance to her family from the society. The people in town and even her family did not want to acknowledge the fact that the protagonist was still a human being; therefore, she was conflicted with the society in which to keep on living or to die. When the family of the protagonist suggested that it was best for her to fake her death she agreed to it and stated, “Now that I was dead, I was freer…” (Atwood 227). Exemplifying the horrific relationship that is between the protagonist and the society since she was an outcast and no one wanted to understand her health issues she would rather be free than worried about her appearances. As the protagonist is faking her death, she is now becoming even more isolated from the society because of the choice that she had made for her family to become a part of the society. Consequently, it also foreshadows the ending of the short story in which the protagonist of the story killed herself due to the town’s people who wanted her to become nonexistence. In the poem of “Richard Corey,” the protagonist, however, was conflicted with the fact that he had no social life even though he had

The protagonist of both genres is characterized in a way that causes them to become an outcast from the society; however, in "Lusus Naturae" the protagonist is portrayed as a freak while in "Richard Corey" the protagonist is portrayed as a king. By the perspective on how the townspeople viewed the characters in the story, it leads both of the protagonists to become an outcast that affected their mental health. Thus, causing them to commit suicide. Therefore, both of the themes in the different genres show how isolation occurs by characterization and external