Odajyan 1

Odajyan Diana

English 102

Professor Batty

Prove you aren't the monster

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley describes the episode of Victor Frankenstein in

creating a monster. After graduating and gaining the required knowledge in the University of

Ingolstadt, he creates a grotesque creature from different, old body parts. An action he later

regrets after the monster he creates runs off and kills his brother. While taking some time off in

the mountains to calm his griefs, the monster approaches him and explains himself for the

murder of Victors brother including why he did it, which was a way to get back at Victor. He then

proceeds to Victor his grievances that include being alone and shunned and forlorn, a situation

the monster found unpleasant and thus required a companion. He begged Victor to create

another monster like him, a female version, so he doesnt have to be lonely and unhappy, which

Victor agrees to but eventually doesnt fulfill. The monster is enraged and ends up killing Victors

friend Henry and his new bride Elizabeth to revenge (Shelley, 1818). A quality that is capable of

making anyone a monster, therefore, what is actually monstrous and scary about the text is the

fact that human prejudice and discrimination is able to create a vicious monster out of a man or

any other creature. The unpredictability and the physical differences between a human being

and an actual monster can also cause us to be become prejudice.

What is scary about this book is the monster that Victor creates which is only scary in its

physical appearance but really friendly and in need in his psychological nature. The monster in
 Odajyan 2

the book is only a monster in its physical nature which is a definition made out of human

prejudice (Miller Elizabeth p.1). Since it is different from the normal humans in its shape and

form the humans castigated it, abandoned it and brandished it a scary monster when in real

sense it was a kind hearted creature that needed solace in an equally designed creature that

looked like it.

According to Frankenstein, the monstrous nature in the creature is brought about by the

discrimination from humans, but not from within. The creature only killed Victors friends and

family after Victor abandoned it and discriminated against it yet he was the one who created it.

Humans have over a long period of time discriminated against each other on basis of physical

differences like the color of the skin, language differences and difference in physical features.

This has effectively created animosity between different individuals culminating to monstrous

behavior of murder and torture of others for no apparent reason. McLeod (2008, p.2) describes

prejudice as an unjustified or incorrect negative attitude towards individuals who are members

of a different social group from theirs. Therefore in the real sense what is monstrous and scary

about the text is the physical nature of the grotesque creature created by Victor and the depth of

human prejudice and discrimination that is capable of creating a monster out of anyone.

There are a range of different reasons why monsters scare and frighten humans including

most clearly their physical nature which is derivative of the nature of the monster in question.

The other reasons may include the amount of physical energy they possess that is away above

what humans exhibit thereby giving them the ability to destroy and injure humans in whatever

way they desire. They are also heartless and cold creatures who do not have a soul and

therefore are not needy of anything. This quality makes them not care about life of any

individual and thereby invokes fear in others.

 Odajyan 3

Masterson (2014, p.4), emphasizes that monsters have a nature of being unpredictable which

is among the things that human beings fear thereby perceiving them as scary and frightening.

Humans have the exact physical and mental state as other humans and are therefore always

aware of what other humans may or may not do to them at any particular point however with

monsters it is a constant guess which may be wrong. Uncertainty in a man is the greatest fear.

Mary Shelley outlines that Victor was in constant fear that the monster will kill him on his

wedding night for failing to create a companion for him. However when the wedding night came

the monster went for his wife instead. This clarifies its uncertainty and the reason Victor feared it

despite being his creator.

Monsters also exhibit a disturbing capacity for violence which is not in the nature of humans.

In fact humans fear violence and as a result the fear of monsters. Despite the fact that the

monster could have talked to Victor about his insecurities before killing his brother, he went

ahead and killed his brother in order to get back at him. This made Victor more afraid of it than

he was in the first place at the time of its creation (Masterson, 2014, p.5).

Monsters also exhibit the nature of being extraterrestrial features that have never been seen

by anyone on earth before. It is therefore upon the humans imagination to determine who they

are and what they are capable of. Column (2017) believes that our imagination makes them

scarier than they may actually be. Due to the uncertainty of what they are, the human brain

tends to lean on the negative and thereby brandish them as frightening dangerous and scary

creatures that are capable of doing anything just for the sake of it, they have no soul or

conscience, therefore absolutely no cause for remorse of mercy and that is what makes them

monsters. Other features that make monsters frightening and scary include them being extra

powerful and beyond the humans control and having a terrifying appearance. Some people

believe that they have the power and ability to read minds and control humans action and
 Odajyan 4

willpower which elevate them to a god like creature that only induces panic, pain and fear and

therefor frighten humans.

The prospect of monsters and their immense and indifferent powers stirs different types of fear

and anxiety in the average human being. As already established, monsters are indifferent

creatures that are scary and frightening for different reasons. These reasons include their

different and terrifying physical forms, their unpredictable nature and the fact that they are

beyond the control of human beings. The very mention of the prospect of monsters raises a

range of different fears and anxieties in humans including: the most common fear and one that

is felt by everyone, fear of death. They exhibit a deep conscience which makes them remorseful

and merciful. Monsters therefore induce fear of death in them.

Due to their extraterrestrial nature however, and their possibility of having far much power

and strength, and the delicate nature of human beings that include the possibility of rapid

spread of diseases and over reliance to mechanical weapons, the fear of extinction is always

dominant among most humans. The fear that monsters might wipe out human beings and take

over the planet (Ruston, 2014, p.2). They also provoke the fear of being indifferent. This is also

fueled further by the nature of human beings being prejudicial and discriminatory. A monster

that has a different physical form, strength and orientation induces the fear of being indifferent in

a human who feels weak, threatened, worthless and afraid.

Monsters due to their unpredictability provoke different types of anxiety among humans. The

human nature becomes anxious and restless upon the encounter of strange and potentially

dangerous creatures or basically anything they havent witnessed before. Calm Clinic (2017)

describes anxiety as a state of restlessness that manifests itself in hundreds of different ways

including nervousness, rapid heartbeat, excessive trembling and sweating, nausea and

dizziness as well as weakness in the limbs and muscle tension. Some of the types of anxiety
 Odajyan 5

that can be caused by encounters with monsters include developing panic disorders, Social

phobias, Obsessive compulsive disorder as well as Post-Traumatic stress disorder. This

especially because such an encounter may present a traumatic experience for humans.

Through the actions of the monster created, of murdering Victors loved ones in order to be

heard and understood we learn that human beings are judgmental creatures who are quick to

judge others who appear to be different from themselves without first paying attention to them

and listening to their grievances. This selfish judgmental nature props up from the nature of

discrimination and prejudice that has been engraved in the character of human beings since

long ago (Ruston, 2014, p.1).

The monster was discriminated against, castigated and left on its own. This discrimination and

loneliness makes him desperate and provokes him to engage in desperate measures of killing

Victors loved ones to express his need for attention. Having created him blissfully and excitedly

and later on abandoning him illustrates how cold hearted and selfish we as humans can be in

situations that do not fulfill our desires. According to Cliff (2016) psychologists and sociologists

hold the origin of the emotionality of prejudice to be subconscious attitudes that cause a person

to ward off feelings of inadequacy by projecting them into a target. The monster directed his

feelings of inadequacy that included loneliness and feeling abandoned by his maker towards

Victors family in an attempt to catch his attention. The monster despite having a clean soul and

needing companionship, quickly learns from the human and transforms to using violence in a

desperate need of expressing himself.

The human nature is prejudicial and discriminatory and despite any available clean hearts

and soul, these two qualities are infectious and contagious and as soon as one becomes a

victim on the receiving end, then their character and nature automatically shifts to being

discriminatory and prejudicial.

 Odajyan 6

Works cited

CalmClinic. The Seven Main Types of Anxiety- The Anxiety Guide. 2017. Web 7 November

2017.

Cliff Notes. Prejudice and Discrimination. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017. Web 7 November

2017.

Klems Brian. Writing Monsters: What Makes a Monster Scary? The Writers Digest. 27 October

2017. Web 7 November 2017.

Masterson Logan. What Makes a Monster Scary? Fantasy Authors Handbook. 8 July 2014.

Web 7 November 2017.

McLeod Saul. Prejudice and Discrimination. SimplyPsychology. 2008. 7 November 2017.

- Literature, pp. 1-5.

Miller, Elizabeth. "Dracula And Frankenstein: A Tale Of Two Monsters." W

http://www.watershedonline.ca/literature/frankensteindracula/taleof2monsters.html.

Ruston, Sharon. "The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein." 2014,

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelley

s-frankenstein