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Effects Of The Halo Effect On Frankenstein

1967 Words8 Pages

This paper examines the effect of the prejudicial and negative treatment of Victor Frankenstein’s creation and how it motivates the creature to retaliate against society and Frankenstein despite desiring to live a peaceful existence. Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, revolves around Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who lives to regret creating the creature, initially believing him to be an evil entity owing to a prejudicial bias. This paper also applies certain psychological theories such as the Halo effect to solidify claims about how the creature was othered and in turn, how that affected the creature and prompted him to retaliate. Negative treatment, here, refers to ostracism and othering that the creature underwent. The definition …show more content…

The Halo effect is a significant one. It is the tendency of people to form positive attitudes toward one aspect of the entity that influences the judgement of the whole of the entity (Greenberg et al. 144). Also known as the “what is beautiful is good” bias, it implies that the attractive appearance of an entity enables people to form positive attitudes regardless of the nature of the entity’s other attributes. Similarly, an unattractive appearance is attributed to negative attitudes towards the entity regardless of the nature of other attributes of the entity. Apart from the the Halo effect, physiognomy, the study of one’s outer appearance and the insight that it provides on their character traits, was a popular trend in the 18th century. Hence, the “evil” countenance and the unattractive physical appearance of the creature was attributed with an “evil” personality by everyone around him. This also explains the reason behind Frankenstein’s averse attitudes towards the creature. This bias also extends to William Frankenstein, the younger sibling of Victor Frankenstein. When the creature approached William with an intention of befriending and training the young lad to be his friend, the creature had assumed that William would be free from the kind of impression that prompts people to attribute physical qualities with personality traits. Much to the creature’s disappointment, William was indeed impressionable by the Halo effect. Additionally, William had also assumed that the creature intended to eat him even though he had not declared any such intentions to him. The visual had failed the creature in integrating into

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