Social Norms In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein by author Mary Shelley was published in 1818. The novel was published at the end of the French Revolution and at the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution. With these major events occurring when the novel was being written and published, revealed how this novel was influenced by socioeconomic standards. Marxist theory attempts to reveal how socioeconomic system is the source of our experiences and conflicts we portray in literary works, as well as how literature in turns to serve to influence the minds of the people. Frankenstein follows Marx’s social theories of how socioeconomics have profound effects on literary works and how they are interpreted.

In Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein, Shelley introduces a Creature who represents many symbols throughout the story. Such as the war between passion and responsibility, the effects of a corrupt society, and the Creature is a symbol of nature vs. nurture . through this Creature we see mainly the effects of society on an abandoned, innocent being and how it matures in the story fending for itself against society as a whole.

The creature from Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" displays many different human qualities. Some of these qualities include: the creature's ability to learn, his capability to feel pain, his desire to be accepted, and his need for affection and sympathy. The need for affection and sympathy is something which the creature is unable to attain. This unrequited desire to be accepted causes the creature to be the victim of the novel. The creature is never given affection by human society because of his physical deformities, Dr. Frankenstein's denial to create him a mate, and the creature's violent behaviour.

Though the conclusions arrived at here are of the same theoretical place as the philosophical minds had deliberated before, the explanations had by Burke and Shaw circumvented parallel processes of thought, to more rely upon their similar conclusions, both rooted in historical precedent. With Frankenstein, however, Shelley stays committed to its endgame in practicing metaphorical weight and symbolic meaning, not only for setting the classical arguments incorporated here, in definite terms. This isn’t even in creating some microcosm of a singularized case in which man had sought to defy the natural barriers, and replicate the things he saw, and experienced. Instead, interactions between characters and unfolding conflicts set upon them, are to represent both these spheres converging. They are depicted less as staunch absolutes, but more so met with being altered, and changing the perceptions drawn up all along. Conferred later in an accounted byproduct of a more recent mindset, this nonetheless stands for lessons at the underpinnings of how we have grown as a society in general, which Shelley would seem to remind us of. As opposed to some alleged “Modern Prometheus,” Victor’s pursuit comes up barely mythicized, and as Bate says, “is a healthy disorientation… to realize that the Western man may not after all be the master of all things” (Bate 480). Likewise, the creature takes on a role within the self-fulfilling prophecy, subject to the maltreatment of human benefactors, and,

The creature of the novel Frankenstein is intelligent, naïve, powerful and frightening. He seeks vengeance, kills three people, and haunts his creator to the end of his (Frankenstein’s) days. Why? What inspired and what enraged the creature so much so that he felt this was the only path to pursue?

Victor Frankenstein’s treatment of the monster is the main reason of its hatred toward human kind due to the hate he is seeing from his creator. “you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us” (68), this is said by the creature to shame Frankenstein and reveal to him what had first taken away the pure innocence he felt before discovering of the abandonment by his creator. Even though the creature acted in the wrong way to express his feelings of loneliness and neglect, it had the ability to be purely good and due to the mistreatment of the humans he had crossed paths with, he could not see his true potential for being truly

Frankenstein is a complex novel written during the age of Romanticism. It contains many typical themes of Romantic novels, such as dark laboratories, the moon and a monster; however, Frankenstein is anything but a common novel. In this paper, I shall analyze some aspects that make this novel unique in the history not only of Romantic literature but also of literature in general. At first, I shall deal with the socially constructed morality present in our society. Later, I argue how appearance may be central with respect to social interactions. As it is known, morality and appearance are concepts which are constructed in social interactions. We may notice that by comparing how these

An interesting perspective is given by Higgins as he further explores the moment the creature begins to view himself as a monster, “The creature’s initial response to his own reflection is fear, followed by a disconnection between his sense of his own identity and the image he sees; his self, as it were, becomes split” (Higgins). We see the same reaction from children who grow up in bad neighborhoods who seemingly do not have a lot of opportunities, so they decide not to work for them at all. In the same way have been made to believe they were bad kids and something to be afraid of; therefore they become the stereotype forced upon them because they know how they are viewed anyways. This is exactly how Frankenstein’s creature felt in this very moment. He was rejected time and time again with all the desire in the world for just one accepting friend, but was treated like a monster everywhere he went because of his appearance. Finally, he sees the face that no mother could love and now knowingly excluded from society, he decides he might as well give these humans something to be afraid of. As Higgins said it was his “reflection on his reflection” that

Unequivocally within the ground-breaking gothic novel Frankenstein Mary Shelley calls upon her reader to feel a strong sense of sympathy for the creature dubbed a ‘monster’. Through depicting the creature as innately human through his desire for relationship and the challenges he faces at the hands of the prejudged enlightenment society he is brought into Shelley elicits sympathy from his situation. Ultimately however, the audience’s sympathies lie with neither Frankenstein nor his creation but rather it is those silenced within society, that Shelley depicts through the notable absence of the female gender that are portrayed as being most deserving of sympathy.

The society accepts those who fit the norm and reject those who are the outliers. What is considered to be socially accepted? In today’s society, cultural norms are heavily influenced by many factors: Celebrity, Models, Athletes, Influential Speaker and even culture. These factors put societal norms in order. As one moves from norm to another, they adjust their behaviour accordingly in order to feel socially accept – the desire to belong. In Shelley’s book “Frankenstein”, the creature is the prime example of someone who was rejected by the society norm. His abnormal behaviour and unusual appearance did not meet the expectation and the continuous rejection from human society only added more grief to his life. By combining all these aspects, he struggles to achieve his essential survival needs – The Maslow Hierarchy. In Mary Shelley’s book “Frankenstein”, the author established the creature to not be successful in Maslow’s Hierarchy because he did not exceed society's norms’ expectation.

Frankenstein's monster didn't want to accept his individuality. He wanted to blend in with the human race and be socially accepted. But since he clearly is far from the social norm, it's going to change society. To be a true individualist, one must completely be different from the human race, a monster. Frankenstein's monster does have the potential to destroy our our cultural norms and a way of knowledge, because since not everyone fits in with the social norms, some people will be very interested in the way Victor created his creature and will want to follow his footsteps.

A block of unmoving ice sits waiting until someone makes use of it. For an unknowledgeable amount of time it spends its existence waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, it melts and no one discovers it. Ice cannot converse, it cannot socialize.

Mary Shelley’s Gothic Romantic novel Frankenstein creates a critical social commentary on the human drive within scientific development and the effects of social class and gender in societal treatment within the environment and conflict of the creature and Victor Frankenstein. Shelley, rather than beating around the bushes, clearly portrays several questions of egotism, use of knowledge, justice versus revenge, and nature versus nurture, blending into an observation and inquiry of the errors of the human race and its consequences, affecting the thought process during reading into a search for conflicting opinions on society’s treatment of specific peoples.

The creature begins as an innocent and lonely being who longs for love and compassion but realizes that he will never be accepted by the community because of his abomination. He was first abandoned by Victor, leaving him to fend for himself and later rejected again and again by the community with anger, hatred and violence. Shelly uses this theme to reflect the shallowness of society where social prejudice is founded on appearances and stress the idea of society's injustice towards abnormalities. It can be understood that the monstrosity in the creature is a social product.

Mary Shelley creates an allegory between the community’s reaction to the monster and human nature. The monster physically appeared different from humans; therefore he was rejected by society to the point where he was the target for objects being thrown at him and scared the villagers to the point where they fainted. The monster acknowledges his difference when he said “its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes” (104). The community’s reaction is an allegory to human nature to reject the one’s who are different. Ordinary people are raised to accept those who are like them and avoid the outcasts, therefore the monster is unable to find acceptance among the community.