Preview

Acceptance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1487 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Acceptance In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Striving to be someone else in today’s society is a very common theme. Wanting to be someone different does not necessarily mean that they want to be just like another person that they see somewhere or a person that they look up to. Sometimes as humans in today’s society, they might simply want to be a better version of themselves. Acceptance is the act of being favored by a group of people in hopes of being able to fit in. In today’s society everyone is trying to figure out whether or not it is better to fit in for a certain period of time, or if it is better to stand out and be their own person even if it means potentially getting lost along the way. Mary Shelley, author of the novel Frankenstein uses the element of acceptance throughout all of her characters. Everyone is Victor Frankenstein’s life wants to be accepted by someone. It does not matter if they are the people he grew up with or the monster he created, they all have the same goal of being accepted into society in their own way. Early on in Victor’s life, his parents took in a girl by the name of Elizabeth Lavenza. When his family first met and adopted …show more content…
In today’s society, humans isolate themselves from other people because they do not want to deal with the cruel reality of life and dealing with the judgement of other people. “Social isolation is also defined as the absence of relationships with family or friends on an individual level, and with society on a broader level (Alspach).” People isolate themselves from others for different reasons and unfortunately sometimes they are not able to escape from other people. Some people try to escape their work life and others attempt to escape their family and friends for deep rooted reasons. Isolation is not good for a person’s health and contrary to popular belief it could do more harm than help, “People who feel isolated and lonely and excluded tend to have poor physical health

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    For many, it is difficult to consider that death and life coexistence with each other in an enviable union. Day after day people mourn death and celebrate birth. There is a common innate fear due to the uncertainty that death will bring, and while most people avoid any dangers or acts of self-destruction, some run towards it. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the main characters fear not death but life due to their horrific past, ongoing trauma, and building guilt.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Shelley uses aspects of Romanticism in the novel by having the Creature live in the heath. Romanticism is also displayed on Victor’s retreat to the mountains. Shelley displays an enormous amount of emotion in the novel which assists the reader to understand the feelings of alienation and neglect that the Creature is experiencing. With all of these aspects, the reader may begin to question whether Shelley had an extreme personal connection to one of the characters, whether it be the Creature or Victor.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel is about man trying to conquer the knowledge of the world and nature. This endeavor ultimately leads to his failure. In this novel there are references to a work by John Milton called Paradise Lost. In Paradise Lost God creates a man Adam and a woman Eve; Satan later tempts them to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge and they do (Dudczak). Once they eat the fruit they are cast from Paradise forever (Dudczak). Mary Shelley uses this allusion in her novel to show her opinion of Enlightenment as she herself was a Gothic Romantic. Shelley believed that trying to conquer nature would only lead to failure.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays her idea that creatures are born with good intentions, but this innocence is soon snatched away by the gnarled hands of life. The monster, when he is first created, wanders until he finds a family which he observes intently. At first the monster would steal some of their food, but “when [he] found that in doing this [he] inflicted pain on the cottagers, [he] abstained” (Shelley 99). The monster has been alive for a very short period of time and knows little of social norms, yet he has an instinctive predisposition towards good actions. Victor was also innocent in his youth, and remembers fondly how he was raised by devoted parents. Victor recalls, “I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor Frankenstein’s monster, appearing in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, represents a sympathetic character. The monster is a sympathetic character because he is in search for a companion: being abandoned by his creator and rejected by society, who misunderstands him. He’s shown the ideal family dynamic through the De Lacey’s, and he shows selflessness to save a girl from drowning, later being shot as a result. This abomination without a name gradually acquires sympathy throughout the text.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, I could not help think that the novel might have reflected some of the turmoil she experienced in her life. Major themes in the novel included fear of death, satisfaction of urges, and the effect of guilt on behavior. Mary Shelley never got the chance to get to know her mother because her mother died during child labor. Mary Shelley lost four out of the five of her children either to miscarriage or sickness. Furthermore, Shelley remained a widow for the rest of her life after her relatively short marriage to Percy Shelley. From a psychoanalytical perspective, the death of Victor Frankenstein’s mom subconsciously negatively influenced Victor’s behaviors and decision throughout the novel.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever felt judged or as if no one wanted to accept you? Well, then you may share some similarities with the monster in Frankenstein. Throughout the novel the monster searches for someone to accept him. However, the people in the novel cannot see past the monsters looks. I think this can teach us that we live in a world where looks and appearance will always dominate a person’s opinion. We rely on visuals too much and do not even bother to look deeper into a person if their appearance does not please us. In my opinion, what makes a person who they truly are is their character and personality.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ambition is a key aspect of human existence, for it allows us to accomplish goals and improve the world around us. However, in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Shelley points out the negative side-effects that ambition can have if handled improperly. Victor Frankenstein spends two years attempting to create life before “the beauty of [his] dream [vanishes], and breathless horror and disgust [fills his] heart” as he realizes that his ambition has created a monster (35). Although Frankenstein is clearly ashamed of the creature that he created, he resolves to remain silent, and in my opinion, this is where his mistake lies. At this point in the development of the global community, the elimination of ambition altogether is impossible, for ambition…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Humans are taught principles and morals as they grow older in order to set a boundary as to what people can and cannot do. Despite these morals, people still go out of their way to make their own decisions and make new discoveries, whether it’s beneficial or harmful. In Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein, Victor’s and the Creature’s morals are often questioned considering they were raised in two very different backgrounds. As the creature’s creator, Victor had a responsibility to fulfill the knowledge the creature seeks. Therefore when he chose to abandon and neglect him, the creature had no choice but to educate himself about the world on his own. Through this, he learns to develop his own principles and tries to make sense of everything around…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein created a creature who became a monster. Events like this that create monsters occur during the beginning stages of their life. Rejection, abuse, and living with the fact that every time someone encounters the creature that they run in fear. The question is, are monsters born or shaped by their life experiences? Monsters are not born but formed through rejection and abuse.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Once upon a time in a cramped cottage an elderly man sat alone by a dim candle regretting that he didn't fulfil his dream. Remembering when he was young.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alienation can be defined as “a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person 's affections from an object or position of former attachment”. Hence this denouement is caused when a person is incapable of feeling any rewarding gratification from their social connections; the individual’s morale begins to differ from the norm, ergo generating bouts of isolation. Subsequently, it is suggested that alienation can assemble many forms of emotions; however in its most simplified adaptation, the equivalence is that of fear, guilt and (or) resentment. Isolation is a self-feeding cancer that will encapsulate then devour your entire life and being. It affects every area of your life causing you to retreat deeper and deeper into yourself. You find yourself longing to feel needed and appreciated but when that desire is not recognized, you slip deeper into isolationism.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Victor Frankenstein was a boy who was born in Geneva, a happy child very talented and from a very educated family, as Alphonse Frankenstein his beloved father and Caroline Frankenstein his adorable and supportive mother, who had a happy marriage and after some years Victor now had two brothers, Ernest and William, and also a sister or a cousin who was adapted Elizabeth Lavenza, whom later he fell in love with and was about to get married, he was really close to his family even though he did not live so much with them (Curran, 2009, para.1). As we have mentioned earlier Victor is the protagonist of the novel and the major character of the novel also. Alphonse Frankenstein was such a friendly man and a man of unity who married Caroline Beaufort when her father died, whom Alphonse had a good friendship with,…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    We as a Society have become socially and mentally unable to be alone. Throughout the world their are people who are unable to function because they do not have a relationship. People are unable to cope with certain situations. Although relationships and isolation have benefits, isolation can be detrimental and relationships may actually cause an increase in stress and health problems.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Effect of technology

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Social isolation is characterized by a lack of contact with other people in normal daily living, such as, the workplace, with friends and in social activities. We isolate ourselves by walking around in our own little world, listening to our iPods or staring at the screen of the latest mobile device even when we are around other people. Studies have shown that people who are socially isolated will live shorter lives.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays