Frankenstein Conformity Essay

Words: 965
Pages: 4
Open Document
Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, conformity, which is the compliance with standards, rules, or laws, seemed to be a hard concept to grasp for two main characters in this book: Victor Frankenstein and the monster Frankenstein created. Whether it be Victor’s struggle to conform to society’s ideals, or the monster’s rejection of conformity to mankind and having no mate, both of their battles lead to one thing, and that was chaos. This not only applies to these two characters, but also to the author of this novel, Mary Shelley, as well. Shelley was a female in an era in which she refused to conform to the standard roles that a woman had to play in society. With this said, conformity will always lead its way to rebellion and chaos, …show more content…
Directly after the monster is created, he is isolated and is left to take care of himself. As the monster takes to the woods for seclusion and for a place to survive, he comes across a family, who he quietly observes from where he is hidden. He then begins to take notice and recognize how human behavior works and how society has certain social structure and certain criteria that they have to meet. The monster also realizes that he, himself, would never be a part of a society, when he states that “I possessed no money, no friends, and no property. I was, besides, endowed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature of man.” He was excluded by mankind and society, being he did not have the standards, principles, or qualities of that of a normal human being. The monster also picks up the idea of companionship and relationships, from noticing the interactions between the De Lacey family. The monster states “But where were my friends and relations? I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me.” This then leads the monster to ask his creator, to create another mate for him, being the human race and society would never accept
Show More

Related Documents: Frankenstein Conformity Essay

Department of English Spring 2014 Course Descriptions Essays

means to think within this framework. Next, we will explore the Age of Darwin, who understood man as an animal. To see how this transformed the belief that man was superior to animal, we will look at nineteenth-century novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and some of Darwin himself. Finally, we shall read novels and films that suggest that man must cohabit this planet with other animals. Novellas like Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and J.M. Coetzee’s The Lives of Animals, and films like the recent…

Words 9501 - Pages 39