The novel: Frankenstein
Introduction
Since before the time of Mary Shelley and her captivating literal works, the rivalry between spirituality or faith and science has been quite evident. In her previous book, “The Penny Dreadful,” she faced a significant amount of disapproval from the public for choosing to concentrate more on science at the cost of spirituality. In fact, it’s now almost ten years since the British House of Lords passed the law favoring scientific experiments of cloning human beings. This is despite many discontents from religious groups urging the law chamber to resolve the ethical issues surrounding the research. Hence, in ‘Frankenstein,’ Mary Shelley continues with this captivating and mysterious literary writing style.
Exciting concepts and themes are passed through the story. It fuses fictitious behavior with actual encounters to communicate a specific message to her wide variety of readers. This essay will, therefore, explore one key point of concern that is evident in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” She has vividly developed and expounded on the theme of personal perception when referring to the character of Victor Frankenstein’s monster. The creature does not feel or consider itself to be an abomination. It only starts doing harm or awful things when people treat it as such. It, therefore, brings out the discussion that in the world today, there are several instances of abuse that end up creating ‘monster’s among us. When this happens, who should be held accountable? Similarly, how efficient is the novel ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley in explaining the peer perception issue and its impact on an individual’s integrity or character?
The theme of Personal Perception
The planned and timely scientific application in this novel is a reflection of the mind-blowing discoveries of the late 18TH and early 19TH century. It was in this era when electricity had grown into being a significant innovation and completely transformed the nature of human life (citation). It is this growing use of technology that led to the creation of the story’s monster. The creator forms a highly significant and symbolic factor that’s ‘echoed’ throughout the book. First, the primary function of the monster is to portray a symbol of life to the lifeless and those already dead. Second, it signifies the presence of a higher power that is almost eternal by nature. Although this monster is seen as a danger to society, it is seen continuously providing help to people and contributes significantly to solving critical situations throughout the story.
A good example is when the main character, Victor Frankenstein, succeeds in using electricity to give the monster life. Unfortunately, Victor becomes self-conceited, greedy, and selfish. He has a strong belief that he has the capabilities needed to control human knowledge as well as the world’s entire creation. The monster feels obliged to take Victor’s life to prevent him from harming the whole of the human population. Before he dies, the monster does a fantastic job of terrifying Victor because of his malevolent and evil actions. It is because of such type of behavior that people begin to see the monster as something capable of causing evil or devilish acts towards others (citation). This is, hence, the main misconception in the novel. The monster results in wicked deeds in its effort to do good, aside from that, the author portrays it to be a conscious being that can differentiate right from wrong.
Similarly, the modern-day society is filled with plenty of wrong prejudice and perceptions of others based upon what people hear or see. In many such cases, this prompts the victim of such criticisms to react in a forceful, demonic, or animalistic way. For instance, in the large and small companies alike, junior staff members may feel belittled by the senior management. As such, this growing sense of disrespect and unfair domination may cause them to openly questioned their seniors and further trigger severe worker strikes. Once this happens, the employees are judged, victimized, and branded as individuals of awful character.
It’s important to mention that the various literature works like “Frankenstein” address this crucial but sensitive problem of personal perception by talking about the multiple challenges which we go through (citation). Using such daily life considerations, the novel is quite practical and gives the reader a seamless process of relating to the story’s different themes.
Giving back to society is another suitable example of showing how people’s behaviors are termed as abuse or disregard for others. Frankenstein’s monster wants to protect the culture of human life by tormenting his creator Victor, who is out to cause harm. Its philanthropic acts are, however, misconceived as abuse to Victor and, overall, a danger to human life. In such a situation, one should blame the people who are adamant or stuck in their own beliefs that they fail to see reason. Their only concern is doing what they consider to be morally right.
Conclusion
From the novel “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley is probably the only author who has successfully managed to blend science with rational thought. Her explanation of the personal perception theme is quite evident as the monster is quickly judged as a devilish being when, in the real sense, it was trying to protect others. The idea is a direct reflection of what happens in daily human life where people are often judged and branded with wrong tags based on specific perceived actions. The best way to deal with such issues is by embracing one’s innermost personality and then using it to drive benevolent and informed decisions.