Q: “What unites these variant readings is a consistent conception of the creature as a horrific by-product of philosophical or technological modernity.”
“The prominent feature of Shelley’s theory of the destiny of the human species was, that evil is not inherent in the system of creation, but an accident that might be expelled”
“Did I request thee, maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?”
“The story, in essence, narrates a process by which the world in which we live transforms Adam into Lucifer or, to put it another way, turns humans into monsters”
“From the creature’s birth onwards, it is the social assumption that visual monstrosity equates to moral monstrosity that shapes the creature’s fate. In this sense, the belief in evil creates evil in the novel.”
“the problem is not the thirst for knowledge, it is a failure of sensibility and understanding. More specifically, it is an incapacity to recognise humanity in those who differ too radically from ourselves”
C: This article talked a lot about how the real monster was Frankenstein himself for creating such a being but also abandoning it. The first quote I wanted to look at provided an additional outlook on the overall purpose/message for this story being written in the fact that it showed the technical advancements for the era and what potentially was to come. The second quote reveals that you will not get evil just by creation, or in better words, although Frankenstein created this horrible “monstrous looking creature,” he was not created with the intent of being evil and if he had been brought under better conditions once created the story would’ve gone much differently. However, it does not eliminate the chance of evil accidentally happening, like in the case of Frankenstein the creature became “evil” but it was not his fault as his initial reaction was to live with love and benevolence. The third quote I chose ties into the comparison between the creature and Adam. In which when the creature confronts Frankenstein and pleads his case, it is the equivalent to Adam approaching God or even if the creature were to represent humanity, it would be the same thing. The fourth quote plays off of that in that it brings together how the story really shows how humans can be turned into monsters. Frankenstein was turned into a monster when he decided to create the creature and abandon him, and the creature was turned into a monster when society would not accept him and forced him into his own isolation and made him miserable. In this story I think it is only right to consider the creature as a human as he expressed all the innate qualities of a human, wanting to be included, loved, noticed and most of all, treated like a human. The fifth quote sheds light on how sometimes us humans will equate how someone/something looks to its moral values and characteristics. For example Quasimodo was a deformed man who when people saw him, decided he was a monster. The same goes for the creature and that is why the blind man saw him for who he really was. The final quote embodies the hard truth that often times when we do not understand something or we see something not so familiar, we are very quick to dismiss it and write it off as wrong or even make up our own justifications.
Q: After reading this article I had realized how little us humans have the initial reaction of sympathy and compassion. My question is, although the times are changing and society seems to be up to date on acceptance and equality, are we on the right track in terms of extraordinary being society’s new “normal”? Or will we always have these confining “boxes” of normalcy holding those back from who they truly want to be?
