Autodidact In Mary Shelley's 'This Thing Of Darkness'

For my research paper, the topic I am interested in is autodidact. The potential thesis is autodidacts develop the abilities of self-recognition through exploring themselves.

In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the monster moved to a village after escaping from Victor Frankenstein’s house. In his observation of people living there, he gradually knew people were afraid of him. In addition, he learned the feelings that he did not know how to categorize them before, which he discovered the senses of light, dark, cold, thirst, and hunger. By stealing food from a family, the monster brought the unhappiness of the family. Hence, he learned poverty was the fundamental of despair, which was considered as a common social problem. The monster developed his senses by observing other people, as an infant looking around the world. As an autodidact, he distinguished whether his actions were correct by looking at villagers’ expressions.

The monster learns to speak from eavesdropping the villagers’ conversation, and he masters his ability to read by reading books that he found in a satchel. He is eager to learn about the world around him. (115) From observing villagers, the monster realized his otherness.

Allan Smith expressed his views of autodidacts on “‘This Thing of Darkness’: Racial Discourse in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”. In the eighteenth century, the world was formed by masters and servants, and slaves were mostly appeared as black people who had the lowest social class. These servants were totally controlled by masters who dominated their mind in unconsciousness, only left them with movable bodies. Even though self-study leads to slaves’ realization, they did not have any opportunities to escape. Therefore, the only way for servants to find freedom was following a reliable master. Both the monster and servants expressed their eagerness of finding freedom in