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Mary Shelley's Monster Culture

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After reading, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” the monsters that came to mind were shape shifters, sirens, Frankenstein, Davy Jones’s sea crew, and the most influential monster of them all, humans. For example, monsters that are shape shifters or sirens fit into Theses II and III for a variety of reasons. Thesis II states that monsters are always able to escape by “its propensity to shift”, traits of which shape shifters and sirens lucidly posses as their threat to mankind. Shape shifters can alter their entire appearance and sound in order to fulfill their needs of survival, and sirens can completely transform their demeanor and emotions in order to draw in the desired crowd to control a situation. Thesis II also discusses how a monster will alter in a change …show more content…

Another group monsters that fit into one of the Seven Theses is Davy Jones crew. As this might come off as an unusual choice for a monster, it can be undoubtedly categorized into Thesis V. Thesis V declares that monsters stand as a warning against exploration and that curiosity is more often punished that rewarded. In summation, boundaries need to to be respected or there will be consequences, which is what turned Davy Jones crew into a form sea monster. They sold their souls to Davy Jones to be on the sea, and the consequences cost them their appearance, mobility, and took away their after life. This coincides with how the book says the primeval giants tried to plunge the world into anarchy, but were punished by getting shattered by Olympus’s thunderbolts. Last, but certainly not least, is the human, the ultimate monster and root of evil. The human fits into almost every thesis in some way. They fit into Thesis I, II, IV, V, and VI. The human signifies something more than just a body, a human is more so about emotion and mentality that sets us aside from other animals, and in this human mentality has become socially constructed by evils in

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