Think Before You Judge - Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

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Think Before You Judge

In our present day we judge people before we meet them. We believe what we hear, truth or not, to be the true characteristics of the person.  People should be more open-minded and not judge people by what they hear, because it may not be true.  There are always two or more sides to a story.  After meeting the person and forming our own perception of the person, we can make the decision whether to believe what we are told or how we feel about the individual.  In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster’s narrative plays an important role in the story.  It provides the reader with “the other side of the story”.  Before the monster’s narrative we think of the monster as a mean and cruel individual. After the monster’s narrative the reader feels sympathetic for the monster.  Victor and the monster have different way of treating people; the monster approaches them with a mature attitude, while Victor’s attitude is immature.  The narrative also gives the reader insight into the personality of Victor Frankenstein.

The monster’s narrative makes the reader sympathetic to the way the monster lives.  The narrative is the center of the novel because our perception drastically changes upon reading it.  Unlike the monster’s narrative, Victor’s narrative leads us to believe that the monster is a horrifying creature.  Victor’s narrative never tells us that the only thing that the monster wants is for people to be like and respect him for what is inside.  When the monster was first created, he was amazed by the senses he had.  He was able to see light and touch the objects around him.  “[He] was delighted when [he] first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted [his] ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from [his] eyes” (130).  The monster then made his way to the village in search for food.  He was amazed by the all the cottages and huts, and the all vegetables in the gardens.  When he made his way to the store, he “hardly placed [a] foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the woman fainted” (132).  The monster had freighted the whole village.  Some people fled, while others attacked him with stones and weapons until he fled to the open country.  Everyone the monster encountered was too freighted to stop and try to understand him.  Against the monster’s wishes he was forced to confine himself to complete solitude.  We start to feel more sympathetic for the monster because we start to see the hardship that the monster is going through.  We feel that he does not deserve the solitude that he has been confined to.  The monster’s narrative illustrates that the monster is a kind and passionate person, who only wants friendship.  

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Another advantage of the monsters narrative is to give the reader insight into the personality of Victor Frankenstein.  It shows the hidden character of Victor, as the monster is an extension of Victor’s personality.  Victor is the object of perfection; a handsome man with the perfect family.  In contrast, the monster is the complete opposite; his appearance is frightful and he lives in solitude.  Victor would not stay to observe his creation because he was scared of what he would see.  He was terrified because parts of the monster’s personality would remind him of himself, since he was the creator. ...

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