ipl-logo

Frankenstein And Rappaccini's Daughter Analysis

832 Words4 Pages

The Bounty Placed on Beauty There is one trait that society values above all else. Men and women around the globe empty their wallets in the pursuit of this trait. It has given people careers, but it has also destroyed people’s lives. As a society, humanity has put too much weight on appearance and beauty to the point where one’s initial value is determined by how aesthetically pleasing he or she is. This theme—the ugliness of society and its excessive desire for beauty—is heavily illustrated in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter. Frankenstein and Rappaccini’s Daughter show how much humanity despises ugliness and how much humanity praises beauty. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, society looks down upon Frankenstein’s creature solely because of its appearance. People who have never encountered the creature before are terrified of its appearance, and, therefore, terrified of it. The creature recounts its first …show more content…

Once Giovanni realizes he has become conflicted with Beatrice’s curse, he confronts her and accuses her of intentionally “[filling his] veins with poison” (Hawthorne par. 126). Outraged, he claims Beatrice has made him “as hateful, as ugly, as loathsome and deadly a creature” as her (Hawthorne par. 126). Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Rappaccini’s Daughter show how humanity is obsessed with aesthetics to the point where it becomes a primary determinant of one’s value. This theme is not just heavily present in Frankenstein and Rappaccini’s Daughter—it is heavily present in everyday life. An individual who is overweight will automatically be discriminated against and deemed invaluable. An individual with tattoos and piercings will not receive the same treatment as an unpierced, tattoo-free individual. Mankind has proven that valuing others based on beauty shows humanity’s true

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Scott Westerfeld's Uglies And Leviathan

    1129 Words  | 5 Pages

    Imagine a dystopian future where brainwashed people are made to believe in a biological standard of beauty. Imagine another world where the events of World War One have been altered to include fabricated beasts and steampunk-like machines. Scott Westerfeld has created these worlds with his distinct style. His style is clearly evident in Uglies and Leviathan.. Westerfeld’s style is made up mainly of simile, imagery, and characterization through a character’s thoughts.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Frankenstein And Edward Scissorhands

    1140 Words  | 5 Pages

    The gossiping housewives of Edward Scissorhands are prejudiced against Edward because of his looks and gossip behind his back. Tim Burton’s satirical portrayal of these ‘typical’ American housewives makes fun of the obsession with appearance that they have, even one of the main characters, Peg, whose whole job is about altering looks, follows this image-based acceptance of others. Thus, bringing the ridiculousness of preconceived views into light. Likewise, in Frankenstein, this prejudice solely based on appearance is demonstrated, when a man states ‘I am blind and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere.’ symbolising the prejudice many people hold due to how someone looks.

    Read More

  • Who Is Mary Shelley's Monster To Narcissus

    164 Words  | 1 Pages

    The literary criticism “Shelley’s Frankenstein” offers background information into the world of the Greek god Narcissus. Narcissus was the most beautiful being in the entirety of the Greek world, but was oblivious to his looks. One day, Narcissus drinks from a pool of dark, idle water and spots a reflection of himself. He is immediately entranced by his own appearance and cannot look away; he later dies of dehydration. Author, Terry Thompson, compares Frankenstein’s monster to Narcissus through appearance, saying that extreme physical appearance led to the demise of both.

    Read More

  • Beauty And Ugliness In Frankenstein Essay

    779 Words  | 4 Pages

    nkenstein is a novel written by Marry Shelley about a student of science named Victor Frankenstein , who make a monstrous but responsive being in an unconventional technical experiment. Shelley wrote it when her age was eighteen years old and the novel came when she was at the age of twenty. The first edition of her book was available in London and the second one in France. Frankenstein is basically filled with essentials of the Gothic novel and the Romantic Movement and is measured as one of the science fiction The aim of the study is to investigate about the mythical norms created by the society about beauty and ugliness and that if an ugly person reacts devastatingly then it’s just the mere reflection of the society that how they treat a person as we can witness in Mary Shelley Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein's Mother Research Paper

    426 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rianna Webb Mrs. Fornelli English 3 20 October 2017 Frankenstein’s Mother Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was born in London, England on August 30, 1797. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a feminist and she died a few days after giving birth; meanwhile, her father, William Godwin, was a philosopher and political writer. As a child Mary was not educated but she was able to use her father’s library to read (Biography.com 1). When Mary was young, her father got remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont. Clairmont had two children of her own and eventually had another one with Godwin.

    Read More

  • Feminist Epiphany In The Scarlet Letter

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    She is “repulsive” to the Puritan society that rejects her, the “attractiveness of her person [undergoing] a similar change” (148). Her personal choices lead to public shame, consequently leading to

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    529 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is many things: it is a horror novel, a retelling of a Greek myth, maybe the first modern science fiction tale, and a parable about how people treat the “other” in society. It is this final motif that will be the focus of this current essay--it is the one that will probably have the most lasting appeal. People judge others by many things, but how they look is often the first and most unfair way they go about it. The first example of judging people by their appearance does not even concern Victor Frankenstein and his “creature”

    Read More

  • Dorian Gray And Frankenstein Comparison Essay

    1136 Words  | 5 Pages

    In both The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein, Shelley and Wilde offer an insight to British people in the nineteenth century; they focus too much on outward appearance versus the character of a person. Dorian asserted that “[e]ven those who had heard the most evil things against him . . . could not believe anything to his dishonour when they saw him” (Wilde 111). Dorian’s acceptance from society comes from his looks, not his actions. Oppositely, Victor Frankenstein’s creation receives rejection from society for his looks, not his actions.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Inked Well By David Kirby

    354 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tattoos have played a role in human societies since their inception, as pieces of cultures and rituals across the world. To many, having a tattoo is an outward way of expression. However, the prejudice have not disappeared and are still greatly diminishing. In the article Inked Well, David Kirby examines the aspects of tattoo’s history, as well as tattoo’s iconic popularity among today 's middle class. Kirby’s stereotypical views on the tattooed “victims” quickly change as he goes on to interview some local tattooes of Tallahassee, Florida.

    Read More

  • Comparing Frankenstein And Rappaccini's Daughter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

    195 Words  | 1 Pages

    John Milton in Paradise Lost became the creator of the new kind of approach to the struggles Satan lived through the genesis and afterward, which before his literary work was unknown or not seen by many. However, after his masterpiece, Devil-Satan became personified with emotions and sensibilities that couldn’t be disregarded yet instead sympathized. Therefore within this Satan’s sympathized yet trickery mindset it started a new approach to the warfare between Satan and God, unlike before we couldn’t overlook to the misdeeds of the God. Milton’s creative art became greatly inspiring through the following eras that come after, and such works like “Frankenstein” of Mary Shelley and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” of Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses this newly

    Read More

  • The Wolfman And Frankenstein Comparison Essay

    526 Words  | 3 Pages

    In cinema nowadays, movies that are more famous among the people somehow engaged with explosions, gunfights, and superheroes. In the early days of cinema, the special spot for people had to do something with monsters and murderers. Some of these monsters have abilities to be sympathetic to the people who watch the movie. As a great example there is the movie Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein’s invention, is a monster that is created by an obnoxious scientist who decides to play god and it goes wrong.

    Read More

  • The Conflict Between Society And Society In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1213 Words  | 5 Pages

    The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a science fiction story about a creature created from non-living matter, by a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The conflict between society and Frankenstein’s creature is largely perpetuated by a split between those considered attractive, and those who are not. The conflict and language use in Frankenstein demonstrate that most of society judges others based on their physical appearance, which leads to excluding those who fall outside the accepted definition of beauty and sometimes life-threatening consequences for both groups. Frankenstein and his parents demonstrate that they also fall victim to the habit of judging others initially based off of their appearance. The Frankenstein parents first

    Read More

  • Role Of Family In Frankenstein

    924 Words  | 4 Pages

    Perhaps, if a human such as Frankenstein had accepted the creature, onlookers would have had an easier time welcoming someone with his appearance into their presence. Society’s false perception of what makes someone “normal” is what altered their first impression of The Creature. People had a hard time distinguishing the difference between mind and body, which resulted in The Creature’s undesired abandonment and a gut filled with hatred towards his creator. In contrast, Victor Frankenstein refers to his family in a positive way several times throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Beauty And Ugliness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1363 Words  | 6 Pages

    Beauty and ugliness is often used to justify the reaction of others in the novel, Frankenstein; in which the relation between external appearance and internal desires are shown to be related. The theme of how appearance affects judgement is often demonstrated through the characters response to the monster’s physical being. Shelley depicts this situation through Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the Delacey family, and through the monster himself. The use of appearance to determine judgement is shown to be a negative habit. By automatically associating ugliness with evil, and beauty with innocence, society unintentionally develops a negative being in those considered ugly, while at the same creating an illusion of innocence over beautiful individuals.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Double Analysis

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    In literature, a doppelganger is a device used to shape a protagonist’s double. This double exhibits the ability to impersonate their original, but can also possess different morals and ethics that revolve around bringing a dilemma to the protagonist. The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky uses the idea of a doppelganger when the main character, Golyadkin, finds an exact double of himself upon travel. His double ultimately has a goal of destroying Golyadkin’s reputation because he has the social skills that Golyadkin doesn’t, which creates madness in both characters. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein reveals that Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, and his monster each control different aspects that make up one human being.

    Read More

More about Frankenstein And Rappaccini's Daughter Analysis

Open Document