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. …show more content…
Victor Frankenstein, who describes his surrounding in great detail, based on physical appearance. Shelley reflects Victor’s judgement on physical representation based on the environment he is in. Using his situation in the cold and treacherous mountains to a negative and almost deathly environment, conicondently the place where he meets and speaks to the monster, and the beauty and calamity of home, a place where Elizabeth is often located. There is a major contrast in how he describes his lover, Elizabeth, and the monster he created, in which he relates their appearance to their innocence or evilness. When speaking about characters like Elizabeth and Justine, Victor often relates their physical appearance to their innocent behaviours. Creating a scenario in which the more beautiful and young a character is, the innocent and caring they must be. When we are first introduced to Elizabeth, Victor begins to first describe her beauty in relation to her being, “Her person was the image of her mind...she appeared the most fragile creature in the world...everyone adored Elizabeth” (Shelley 66). Through her beauty and youth, Elizabeth is seen as fragile, kind and easy to approach. Even when close to death or dead, Victor describes Justine innocent, despite her surroundings in jail, and Elizabeth as beautiful as she once was when she was alive. Their beauty and youths give them an advantage, in …show more content…
This family unintentionally aides the monster in learning english, french, and developing his understanding of human nature. Though they are thought to be low class, the monster, from observation of their physical appearance and treatment towards their father, often views Felix and Agatha as superior beings, and having a good disposition. For this reason, the monster expects their lives to be at peace, and yet is surprised when he sees them weeping, “I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but i was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect solitary being, should be wretched” (Shelley 127). The monster is quick to judge, that based on physical appearance, the Delacey family should have the perfect life with little to no reason for being sad, compared to his life of imperfection and solitude. This experience allows the monster to realize, that despite being perfect beings, even beauty can experience sorrow, just as ugliness can experience serenity. The monster also learns that the family is in similar position as his own, in which they are isolated from their society due to their crimes. From this judgement, the monster is able to approach the father of the household, by disguising himself as a lowly traveller in need of shelter, the
The monster has to deal with solitariness and reclusiveness because he is an outcast and is not welcomed in society. Both of these characters find a sense of healing within nature. Victor states, “These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized it.” (Pg. 92)
The monster shows his sorrow after being rejected by the cottagers; “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom” (Shelley 97). The creature leaves where he was abandoned to a cottage of the Delacey’s there he learns about humanity. After learning he accidentally drives the Delacey’s apart from him, causing great depression and anger (Frasait).
That all the deeds done by the monster in the novel is totally the fight towards beauty and ugliness. This throws light upon the idea it is not always simple to know about goodness and evilness with regard to outer beauty but it’s the beauty of the soul as the victor was projected as a good and loving human being and the monster evil but we can realize throughout the novel that this might be up turned for both victor and the monster Mary Shelley depicted the phenomena of beauty vs. ugliness of the soul very prominently in the novel Frankenstein .
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic novel that tells the story of scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his obsession with creating human life. This leads him to creating a gruesome monster made of body-parts stolen from grave yards, whom upon discovering his hideousness, the monster seeks revenge against his creator, causing Victor to regret the creation of his monster for the rest of his life. Shelley uses the literary elements of personification, imagery, and similes to give a vivid sense and visualization of Victor Frankenstein’s thoughts and feelings as well as to allow us to delve deeper into the monster’s actions and emotions. Throughout the novel, Shelley uses personification of various forces and objects to reflect the effect in Victor’s actions.
Isolation and a lack of companionship is the tragic reality for the monster, who was abandoned by his creator and is repulsive to everyone that he comes across. Victor removes himself from society for many months; severing nearly all human contact then renouncing his creation based on the monster's appearance. As the monster matures he begins to understands the relationship the cottagers share with one another, while the monster, “yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition. ”(Shelley). Armed with nothing but the longing for a real connection, the monster approaches his unknowing hosts only to be “brutally attacked—by those he trusted...because of their human ignorance.
In order to gain companionship, he must create relationships with humans, but he is incapable of doing this as everyone immediately feels aversion to him before he can do anything about it. From this, when the creature finds the De Lacey family, who don’t attack him (although they do not know of his existence), he obsesses over them and their worries become his, unveiling his desire to escape loneliness (Hall). He refers to the family as his “beloved cottagers”, and even goes as far to say that he learned to “admire their virtues and deprecate the vices of mankind” (Shelley 128), showing the positive impact that even minor social connection has on him. Alongside the De Lacey family, the monster is put in a much more peaceful state and even begins to enjoy life, performing generous acts to the family and craving knowledge, supported by his new foundation of
According to the novel, is beauty important? In Frankenstein, I think that the important of this novel is not only a friendship but also beauty important to the soul of the characters. Every character including monster prefer beauty to ugliness. As the monster that looks ugly when he saw himself the first time he was afraid of himself.
Society would never accept him as society treats outcast and people that are any 'different ' atrociously. The monster acquired books of "Paradise Lost", "Plutarch 's Lives" and "The Sorrows of Werter", which "gave him extreme delight" as he studied and exercised his mind. When he came across the DeLacey family, hope sparked inside of him as he believed he would finally be accepted by at least a small part of society. Intelligently enough the monster made his move and approached the blind old man, in which he knew wouldn 't be able to see him or judge him by his distorted appearance. He finally grasps the chance into talking to the old man, De Lacey and he acknowledges that if he fails in being accepted by them he will be "an outcast in the world for ever".
In the film Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein the theme of mistreatment based off physical appearance is portrayed through Frankenstein 's monster. The society is often fearful of the creature and made judgements of his actions based solely off his disturbing physical appearance, without knowing his true characteristics. Even Victor, the man who created the fearful monster eventually abandons him because he is is appalled by his creation. He believed that by creating a being made of the finest parts, the end result would be of equal quality, but when the monster awakens, Victor can see what he has created and recognises that he has done wrong. The creation of an unnatural being, by unnatural means ultimately disgusts Victor.
In his attempt to satiate his hunger for success and acceptance, he brought forth the story of the monster, who similarly sought to belong and be understood by those around him, coming across Felix and Agathe in his pursuit, who were excluded from society and lived in segregation, also wanting acceptance. The importance of understanding
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
The monster initiates by understanding the culture, language, and society by observing the DeLacey family. Gaining educations prospects and knowledge is considered as an aspect of the Nurture philosophy of his stability. These new social duties and standards create a new kind of experience and involvement for the monster. Later on, the monster continues to develop a form of love and relationship with the family by aiding in their wood stack and other tasks inside the property explicitly demonstrating an everlasting kindness. However, his decent deeds aren’t sufficient to overlook for his difference in looks which leads to rejection and denial of the DeLacey family that he had established love for and thought to be his adoptive family.
Monstrosity is a deceiving word that can cause society to act in a particular way blinding them from looking at the inner traits and rather focus on the physical traits. A person 's personality has now no longer defined whom they are but instead, their physical appearance has. For quite some time society have judged those who are any different and don’t meet the standard of normality and as a result, people tend to lash out of anger, leading many people to accept the fact that mankind is nothing but corrupted and evil. One of these people being Mary Shelley 's who shared her views on mankind in her novel Frankenstein, as she presents a creature that had been viewed as an abomination to society for its appearance and wrongdoings. However, these
He chooses to frame her for a crime she did not commit. The character of Justine Moritz has both inner and outer beauty she shows self esteem, beauty and a friendly personality and she pays for that with her life. In today’s society one of the most difficult objects of a beautiful woman can face is social rejection. May or may not be true but some women see beauty as a threat to steal their man away from them.
Frankenstein: Hero or Villain (A Discussion of Victor Frankenstein as Either Hero or Villain) Throughout history, many pieces of literature have been composed that tell the tales of various heroes and villains. Oftentimes, it is quite clear which characters are heroes and which characters are classified as villains. However, there are also several texts that have characters that can be argued as appearing in either category of characters.