Two Examples Of Alienation In Frankenstein

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Alienation manifests society’s inherently hateful bias, a projection of the fear of the different, the new, and the uncomfortable onto the screen of intrapersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals in opposition¬—whether voluntary or involuntary—to conventional norms, illustrating, through narrative, the superficiality of our condemnation of the unalike. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley scrutinizes the tendency to alienate, on the basis of physical deformity, in order to show the exaggerated importance of the visual aspect in the obfuscation of morality.
Even Frankenstein cannot accept the being he animates and is driven from his monster’s side in its first moments of life, an individualistic portrayal of a societal tendency. Upon reflection, he recounts, “breathless horror and disgust filled my heart… unable to endure the aspect of the being I created, I rushed out of the room,” but this rationalization lacks material justification. Frankenstein, as the creator, is endowed
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Frankenstein and his monster continue their war of attrition until Frankenstein can no longer withstand it and perishes during his fervent pursuit of his monster. It is only after Frankenstein’s death, that the monster is truly quarantined, without so much as a tie to a creator or to the earth itself. Looming over the body of his creator, the monster renounces his sins and despairs the cruelty of circumstance, cursing the superficiality of society’s visual prejudice. He is without friend or companion on earth and Frankenstein’s monster banishes himself from the reaches of man to die alone, just as he was born, without connection or belonging in the world at