Fear And Ignorance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein '

In “Frankenstein” the local villagers attack a young wandering soul that has been abandon and left to learn of life without the love or care of a parent or protector. The support or opposition of the villagers’ actions are what leads the reader to create their vision of the theme. Many question what the intentional theme is for the story and how the theme that one sees is used to describe oneself. Some will say that what the villagers did was fine because of the soul’s appearance as ugly monster. They may also say that the theme supports the use of harsh judgement due to fear and ignorance and how it is acceptable and can have no tangible repercussions. My position is that this is not the theme of “Frankenstein” and that the theme is that dire consequences occur when we harshly judge by our own ignorance.

Justice should always be upheld because without justice there is no way to live peacefully without constant fear of being wrongfully accused and punished out of the blue. We know the villagers act without justice when they attack the monster. “He is pursued by the ignorant villagers, who think he is evil and dangerous because he is ugly and makes ugly noises.” The lack of justice is shown through the reason they attack which is based on his appearance. They also don’t even try to communicate with the monster to gain a better understanding of the situation which means that they chose to stay ignorant. Ignorance should be avoided in judgement and the choice of judgement is what can decide one’s fate and that decision of fate shouldn’t be left to people who do not truly know the situation beyond their own