Physical Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Words: 701
Pages: 3
Open Document
Society holds unrealistic beauty standards which people believe they must meet to be accepted. The characters in the novel Frankenstein submit to this ideology while shunning Victor Frankenstein’s monster, whom was carefully constructed from grotesque pieces of corpses. Because Victor's parents raised him to value physical appearances, he is blind to the idea of inner beauty and immediately rejects the hideous monster that he creates. However, throughout the creature’s character development in the novel, the monster is portrayed as inherently beautiful as he often commits generous deeds that go unnoticed. A common motif portrayed throughout Frankenstein is outer beauty, which underscores the theme of outward appearance as the basis of a person's …show more content…
While creating the monster, Victor combines the corpse pieces that are most beautiful: a large head for great intelligence and strong arms and legs for physical strength. However, Victor does not look at the monster until it is brought to life and is blinded by the monster’s repulsiveness when he finally does so. The monster’s “face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold” (105). Victor sees the horrid creature he has made and is appalled; the creature is physically repulsive. Since Victor values physical appearance more than inner beauty, he flees from the creature after witnessing its ugliness, rather than embracing it. Mary Shelley portrays Victor not as wanting to protect his creation but to avoid it. She attributes this to the creature's hideous attributes and develops a perspective that views the monster as something inherently devoid of value due to its appalling features, which depicts a basic theme of the …show more content…
After privately observing the De Lacey family for a time, he goes into the woods and sees his reflection in some water. Earlier, “[He] had admired the perfect forms of [his] cottagers -- their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions,” and he “was terrified when [he] viewed [himself] in a transparent pool!” (80). After viewing himself in the pond, he finally understands his disfigurement and convinces himself that he truly is a monster. The creature also values physical beauty, so this realization devastates him. However, his thoughts and actions depict that his personality is beautiful despite his physical appearance. He brings firewood to the De Lacey family in secret, and he does not fight back when they reject him and the son, Felix, begins to beat him. The creature continues to hold out hope and decides to ask Victor to create an equally terrifying woman to be his partner. Therefore, the creature understands and follows society’s standards of beauty as it substantiates the novel’s message. Mary Shelley makes an eye-opening statement about beauty in her novel Frankenstein. She illustrates Victor’s monster as an beastly abomination and associates its rejection from society as a direct consequence of its repulsive exterior, a key motif throughout the plot. Society should value inner beauty over appearance;
Show More

Related Documents: Physical Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The Importance Of Physical Appearance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein’s creation is not given any fair advantages in his life due to being a crafted creature never witnessed before. After analyzing the novel, one can easily distinguish that the creature does not exhibit any advantages due to his horrific physical appearance, his lack of basic knowledge, and his inability to obtain healthy relationships. The creature is at a tremendous disadvantage with his physical appearance. As Victor Frankenstein prepared…

Words 1480 - Pages 6

Frankenstein Essay

Frankenstein Essay Composition II Professor Turner October 4, 2014 Victor Frankenstein's monster became a monster due to the never being nurtured, being betrayed by his creator and being unable to communicate with others due to his lack of communication skills and his appearance. Through her story, Mary Shelley reveals the human trait of dealing with things that are different with revulsion and hate, something which tortured the monster throughout his life. In birth, the creature is described…

Words 1356 - Pages 6

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Essay

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Comparison and Contrast Introduction Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner are two story lines created in a different era, Frankenstein being an early published novel on the creation of an experimental monster that longs to have a normal existence whilst Blade Runner is a more modern take to a future society where there have been genetically engineered robots named ‘replicas’ that are in appearance indistinguishable…

Words 888 - Pages 4

Interpreting The Purpose Of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

support the will to live in others and reduce the amount of inevitable but avoidable suffering in life, they must not alienate others based on superfluous characteristics such as one’s appearance. The purpose of this text is different to purpose of the original text adapted, Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein. Shelley's primary purposes were to explore the ramifications of man playing God, the futility of revenge, and the true nature of man when they are created. The story is most applicable towards…

Words 246 - Pages 1

Theme Of Isolation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

force of the natural world within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is abandonment caused by the creator Victor Frankenstein. While it is healthy to have a certain fondness for various objects, it is not in society’s best interest to let these obsessions lead to isolation like it does in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein, who are main characters in the novel, share a common obsession with ambition—knowledge. The main characters of Frankenstein obsess over purpose, knowledge…

Words 626 - Pages 3

Frank: Novel Frankenstein Essay

Frankenstein From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the novel. For the characters, see Victor Frankenstein or Frankenstein's monster. For other uses, see Frankenstein (disambiguation). Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus Volume I, first edition Author Mary Shelley Language English Genre Horror, Gothic, Romance, science fiction Published 1818 (Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones) Pages 280 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by British…

Words 7465 - Pages 30

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay

Literary analysis Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, utilizes very profound imagery, its elevated language helps to develop a shift in tone, and Shelley’s overall message (theme) of not judging a book by its cover and to not mess with the natural order of life has a powerful impact on the work as a whole. On pages 43-44 ending with “so miserably given life”, these examples of literature are exemplified. Pages 43-44 of Frankenstein, gives good examples of imagery. One stormy November night, after months…

Words 615 - Pages 3

English Module A Essay HSC 2

The connections between texts highlight the timelessness of the values and concerns being explored. Whilst Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Ridley Scott’s film, Blade Runner, reflect their respective society’s reaction to a shift in core values, they similarly examine what it means to be human, concluding it is compassion that distinguishes ‘man’ from ‘beast’. Didactic in nature, both texts also warn the audience of the dangers of man’s hubris and his attempts to ‘play God’ on mankind and…

Words 1028 - Pages 5

Alienation In Frankenstein

“One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race” (Shelley 23). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein follows the path of a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, before and after the dramatic event which forever alters his life--his creation of life. His failure to maintain relationships and support his creation mirrors the failures of his own father. The beast’s carnage…

Words 2249 - Pages 9

European Stereotypes In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

uplifted by their contrast to Muslim identities but also differences in appearance between white Europeans and the racially-coded creature. Said said orientalism was based in “the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures” (1871), and this uneven dynamic surfaces when discussing the contrasting appearances of the creature and the white characters. The creature’s appearance uses European stereotypes about the “Mongolian race” to other him from…

Words 1042 - Pages 5