White and Christian identities and values are not only 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 the white characters and, ultimately, uplift whiteness and white standards of beauty (Mellor 174). When Frankenstein gives life to the creature, he says that is has “dull yellow eye[s]”…show more content… By exploiting this fear, the novel justifies Western dominance over the rest of the world, creating what Said called a “relationship of power” between dominant white Christians and subordinate non-white, non-Christian peoples (1870). According to Allan Lloyd Smith, the creature’s violent actions give credence to white, male fears of black men stealing white women and children either by kidnapping, raping, or murdering them. While the creature does not rape any women, Smith states that “[t]he death of Elizabeth, Frankenstein’s bride … arouses echoes of dominant cultural anxieties and rape fantasies about white women and black men” (217). The creature murdered Elizabeth on Frankenstein’s wedding bed before he consummated his marriage with Elizabeth, and by taking her life there, the creature metaphorically took away her life and virginity, even if he did not rape her. Furthermore, when the creature is living alone after destroying the De Lacey’s household, the creature “was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child” (126), and he says, “If … I could seize him … I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth” (126). The creature attempts to kidnap this child, who is Frankenstein’s brother, William, but kills him when William reveals his heritage. Like…show more content… The creature’s actions, like other aspects of the book, inadvertently justify colonialism by perpetuating orientalist views. In Frankenstein, European Christian identities are defined, in part, by the way other races, religions, and countries are othered, as seen in the depiction of Safie and the creature, similar to Said’s idea of the West claiming power by creating stereotypes about the Orient. While the book does portray an orientalist worldview, this orientalism is subtext while other clear references to colonialism are critiqued. The orientalist subtext appears in the glorification of whiteness and Christianity when compared to other cultures, which are portrayed as barbaric. Orientalism is an important concept for understanding as this book as, like Said described, Frankenstein justifies colonialism by glorifying whiteness and denigrating non-white, non-Christian cultures. This conflicting depiction of colonialism reveals that, though some people may not support the violence of colonialism, they may still glorify their own identities when comparing them to the identities of others. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is, in a sense, a depiction of Europe’s complex and often conflicted relationship to
