Mary Shelley's Monster Lives On!

Stephen Witty discusses the significance of the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". He easily relates the story from centuries ago to this century and the generations to come. Sara Karloff states, "The story of Frankenstein applies itself to every generation" (Witty). Witty then accentuates her quote by saying "...the feeling of being ostracized...And I think people have always felt that, and so they can feel for the monster too." Every being can relate to the monster's emotions; ostracism is inevitable.

Unfortunately for the monster, he receives isolation to the extreme. Very rarely do you find a case this severe. The extreme lonliness of this creature takes over him and essentially turns him into someone of the contrary. "The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition" (Shelley 120). The monster had no one. Everyday thousands of kids are isolated because of their looks, sometimes they are even bullied. The same thing happened to the creature in Shelley's story. Because he looks different from the "normal" person, he was shot for saving a girl's life. It's not often do you hear of that sort of reward for a good deed. It is the children that live every day, fearing school and leaving their house, knowing that they are going to get picked on at school, that can relate to this monster the most because they know what it is like to have no one.

Witty makes it apparent that Shelley wrote about the realities of life, not only the progression of science in everyday life. By reading her novel, each reader can relate to the monster when he confronts Victor for the first time. Ostracism is a huge problem in the world and if anyone was going to exploit it to the world, Shelley is the right person; she knew what isolation feels like better than anyone.