How Far Do You Agree That Mary Shelley’s Viewpoint on Prejudice Shows It Has a Destructive Capability?

How far do you agree that Mary Shelley’s viewpoint on prejudice shows it has a destructive capability?

Shelley presents Victor’s unmitigated abhorrence and rejection towards his conception throughout the beginning of Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, yet majority of this rejection is presented in Chapter 10, when the event of Frankenstein first encountering with his creation occurs, this emblematically portrays the way in which abandonment can conduct to destruction on not only a personal level but on an extensive societal level. In the view of the audience, it may seem that Shelley is illustrating the “vile insect” as a representation of the oppressed masses of the working class people, in Europe at the turn of the 19th century, who are rebelling against the prejudiced hierarchal system since they were invoked by the 1789 French Revolution, which now seems assured to take advantage of their numerical power in a promptly changing society as the era greeted in the Industrial Revolution that was to embed social changes never before seen.  Shelley also symbolises the monster as the working class at the time of great social upheaval in 1816.

Prejudice is a forlorn characteristic that plagues the human race. The verb/noun prejudice precisely means to judge something beforehand and/or give rise to prejudice in (someone); make biased, it occurs when a wrong opinion is formed about something based on irrelevant characteristics and not on the important things that matter. Shelley unfurled this controversy by expressing it through the creature in her novel Frankenstein. Throughout the entire novel, the creature is fusilladed with undeserved prejudice. Shelley used the creature in her novel to raise awareness to the issue of prejudice and its harmful effects by showing events of prejudice against the creature and the damaging results of those events. The prejudice starts from the very beginning of the creature’s life when its own creator unfairly rejects it. In chapter five, Victor, the creator, despises it from moment he laid eyes on it: “the beauty of the dream vanished, and the breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” As soon as Victor saw the creature, he rejected it and deserted it: “Unable to endure…I rushed out of the room...”  This was an unfair judgment because Victor based his opinion strictly on looks and didn’t know anything about its personality. Shelley’s use of the noun “beauty” suggests the idea how Victor imagined his conception of his ambition will turn out to be, yet it is also argued by Shelley that Victor’s “dream” is never going to be possible as dreams do not always become true, highlighting the proposal that Victor’s ambition caused by his isolation from his family, will lead to destruction and the absolute power this holds. Shelley’s use of the adjective “breathless” connotes that Victor is scarcely able to take in the “unearthly ugliness” of the “devil”, leading to the idea that Frankenstein will not be able to give his creation a name at all.

Frankenstein’s absolute revulsion and rejection towards his creature is continued to be demonstrated in chapter 10, when he encounters with the “daemon”, having previously been so disgusted at its appearance that he effectively neglected it. Shelley utilises the repetition of disgust by Frankenstein towards the “unearthly ugliness” of his “wretch” that he initially studied it to be “beautiful”.  By proposing the monster’s “hideous” appearance, Shelley is evoking the simplistic nature of a society too impatient to judge and reject. Moreover, Shelley’s use of repletion on how Frankenstein consecutively calls the creation different names, as shown through the use of negative epithets that define the creation as; “wretch”, “daemon”, “abhorred monster!”, “devil”, and “vile insect”. These epithets offer how Frankenstein continues his incapability to give a proper name for his “monster” as well as unable to provide the conception with familial and parental love, which Victor did not receive from his mother, as she died from scarlet fever when Victor was aged 7, which is probably why he is unknown to that feeling and is not able to provide the monster with it. Frankenstein’s lack of ability of naming the monster dehumanises the creature which is conceivably mirrors society’s incapability to recognise the humanity of everyone and the danger that accompanies it. Shelley’s application of not positive epithets puts emphasis on the rejected relationship between the monster and it’s “creator and source” as the monster was “such a thing even Dante could not have conceived”. This literary allusion demonstrated by Shelley designs a semantic field of hell and the creature which reflects the fall of Lucifer, evokes from the epigraph Paradise Lost produced by John Milton that exemplifies Frankenstein’s dehumanisation of the monster. Victor’s dehumanisation illustrates the society’s lack of capability to notice the humanity in everybody, this is evident when Victor’s “wretch” declares to him “do your duty towards me and I will do mine towards you” the direct speech conveys Shelley’s caution that is if the society is to remain intact it must do so by morality of it protecting everyone from the optimum misery and degradation.

Shelley essentially proposes the creation’s countenance with a metaphor as it “bespoke bitter anguish” along with its “unearthly ugliness” to demonstrate the jeopardy a society that is fast to prejudice and abandon. Here, Shelley is symbolising the wretch as a Tabula Rasa; a belief originated by John Locke that no one is born evil but innocent as a blank slate. Shelley presents the idea of her preferring the idea of nurture over nature and that human beings are not brought into existence with an original sin so the “vile insect” is innocent. This is proven when the monster’s development copies one a child would have since he enquires “the art of language” with ardent curiosity. This produces the reader to convey the monster as guiltless as Shelley underpins the monster alternates from being “benevolent” and “good” to being vengeful and “misery” only due to the unworthy events he has suffered from the society and his source. Arguably, this may suggest that the monster in this chapter is the monster society has created because of the society’s prejudice and rejection that lead to the destruction of the creature’s innocence.

Additionally, society’s inability to distinguish the humanity of people is further proven and demonstrated through the De Laceys in chapter 16 of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when they declined the “devil” who declared to them “Do not you desert me in the hour of trial!” in hope of being free from the torment of isolation. Shelley’s use of exclamative punctuation illustrates the conception’s agony and aspiration due to the noun “trial” reflecting a casualty who is entreating to be noted as innocent, which is how the creature views himself as by the means of the metaphor when the “daemon” initiates the option “was to rob me of or bestow happiness on me forever”. However since the humanity is unable to recognise past its own prejudice as Shelley deliberately presented when De Lacey, who is imperceptive, was unbiased towards the “catastrophe” as undoubtedly revealed through him employing to the wretch as a “human creature”, the conception was “heart sank within [him] as a bitter sickness.” Shelley’s use of a simile and metaphor evoked the impact and effect of one of mankind’s most determined and destructive flaw: prejudice.