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Beauty in Frankenstein
Beauty is only skin deep and most people only want to be associated with those who considered pretty. People are only happy when friends and lover who are good-looking surround them. Mary Shelley, in her novel Frankenstein, talks about how beauty is important to people. Society makes people think that pretty people are the only nice ones and that everyone else is mean if they are not pretty. The Creature in the book she wrote is a monster but he is nice before he realizes that he is a monster. When everyone around him is mean to him because he is ugly, he realizes that he is a monster and then starts acting like one. She thinks that peole who arent attractive are unhappy because they arent attractive.
In this novel, the Creature who is created by Frankenstein is nasty. However, he before he realizes how ugly he is he is generally a pretty nice guy. He says, "I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity" (69). Then he realizes how ugly he is and gets mad when no one can see that he isnt ugly on the inside. But even though he kind of knows that he’s ugly, its still a pretty big shock when he sees himself for the first time. "At first I stared back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification" (80). The Creature later states: "Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding" (165). The Creature at first thinks that everyone will be able to look past how ugly he is and maybe begin to think that he’s pretty cool.
The Creature does good things for other people because he wants everyone to know what a good guy he is. For example, for one really poor family he gives them wood to keep them warm at night. He thinks that he’s being nice and that the world will see how nice he is if he gives this family wood. This is before he realizes that being ugly makes him a monster.
"I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting wood for the family fire; and, during the night I often took his tools, the use of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days… I observed, with pleasure, that he did not go to the forest that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage and cultivating the garden" (78).
He also, when walking in the forest, saves a young girl from drowning when she fell into a rapid stream. "I rushed from my hiding-place, and, with extreme labour from the force of the current, saved her, and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and I endeavored, by every means in my power, to restore animation…" (101). He does good things for other people because he wants people to know that he is not as ugly inside as he is on the outside.
The Creature gets pissed off when he realizes that no one is going to ever think that he looks good. This makes him become a bad person. He makes Frankenstein begin to regret that he ever created him because of how horrible and ugly and repulsive the Creature has become.
"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? … I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health…but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart" (35).
The poor family that he helps also hates the Creature because of how ugly he is.
"Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? … Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force drove me from his father, to whose knees I clung; in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick…my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness" (96-97).
When the Creature saves the girl, no one is nice to him and think that he is trying to do bad things to the girl just because he looks bad and this makes the Creature mad and makes the Creature think that no one in the world is ever going to be nice to him or think that he is a good person and then the Creature becomes bad. Because of how he looks a man who was hanging around when the Creature saved the girl thinks that the Creature is trying to hurt the girl. "On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms, hastened toward the deeper parts of the wood…when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun…at my body, and fired. I sank to the ground…" (101). Soon everyone begins to hate the creature and the creature begins to hate everyone.
The Creature hates everyone because he is not cute. He knows that no one will ever like him. He is a monster and will be a monster forever and he will always be ugly and never be good because he is a monster. He is shot after saving the girl and says,
"This was the reward for my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness, which I had entertained but a few moments before, gave place to hellish rage… I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind" (101).
Then the Creature begins to hate Frankenstien because Frankenstein made him so horrible and repulsive. Even Frankenstein thinks that the Creature is ugly.
He says: "…when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness; that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me, he sought for his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the indulgence of which I was for ever barred, then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance" (164).
The Creature’s life is painful and no one understands him. He is ugly and that is that. He will never be a good person because he is ugly. While once the Creature was nice, now that he has accepted the fact that he is a monster, he decides to start acting like a monster and then he is not nice anymore because monsters arent able to be nice.
The Creature is lonely because no one wants to hang out with him because of how ugly he is. The Creature decides that he wants a girl to be friends with and asks Frankenstein to make him a chick to hang out with. Actually, he makes Frankenstein do this because he feels that he has to do becauese his life is so miserable and he owes it to him.
"I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself; the gratification is small, but it is all that I can receive, and it shall content me. It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account, we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel" (105).
The Creature knows that he’s never going to be happy and thinks that it would be cool to have a girl who is unhappy to and then they can be unhappy together. Also, they would both be ugly and that would make life a little bit easier, and maybe even happy even though he’ll never be really happy because he is so ugly. The Creature continues in his speech to Frankenstein: "…make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request" (105).
The Creature thinks that if there is another person who looks like him then maybe he will be considered normal. With his female, he says he will run away to a place where they will both live together and be free. He’ll also start being nicer because he’ll be happy that he has a wife now. "…with the companion you bestow I will quit the neighborhood of man, and dwell, as it may chance, in the most savage of places. My evil passions will have fled, for I shall meet with sympathy!" (106). Frankenstein, however, doesn’t give the Creature his wish because he thinks that the lady Creature will be as bad as the one he already made. He doesn’t want to make another ugly monster. Especially since the monster he already made was so mean, he doesn’t want to make another one.
The Creature is a monster because he looks like one. Before he considered himself a monster, he was a nice guy and wanted other people to think he was nice and stuff. Then he realized that he was a monster and started to act like one. He realized that he was a monster because other people treated him like one so he must be one. The Creature starts being mean because monsters are supposed to be mean. He starts to hate Frankenstein for making him a monster because he never really wanted to be a monster but now he kind of has to be one. The Creature may have been able to stay nice if other people saw that he was trying to be nice but I don’t know, because monsters are monsters and all monsters are supposed to be mean and the Creature was defintely a monster and therefore he is always mean. But maybe if other people didn’t see him as a monster he wouldn’t have became one.