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Odajyan Diana
English 102
Professor Batty
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
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
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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
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
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
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
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willpower which elevate them to a god like creature that only induces panic, pain and fear and
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
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
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
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that can be caused by encounters with monsters include developing panic disorders, Social
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
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
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
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
Masterson Logan. What Makes a Monster Scary? Fantasy Authors Handbook. 8 July 2014.
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