THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
ALM No.86, February 2026
ESSAYS
Introduction
The popular gothic fiction novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus which is composed of twenty four chapters was written by the English feminist author Mary Shelley both in England and Switzerland between the years 1816-1817. “Frankenstein is based on Shelley’s vision of the society and interrelation between the people which she tried to express it throughout the novel with the Monster’s ugliness” (Isolation and Loneliness). In the book, normally the protagonist[1] is Victor Frankenstein while the antagonist[2] is the Monster but it changes depending on one’s perspective, which creates the “Frankenstein Paradox[3]”. At the beginning of the novel, Victor Frankenstein who is interested in Natural philosophy tries to create a human being for years and finally he achieves, but he is not pleased with the result. This is the reaction of the Frankenstein when the Monster opens his eyes: “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!” (55). Because of the Monster’s ugliness, Victor rejects him and leaves him all alone. Not only Victor but also the other people ostracize the Monster because of his physical appearance. Eventually, being a leper triggers the Monster to do evil things, even if he is a good and kind person in reality. The judgement on the Monster by people based on his physical appearance, and how it affects him are the prominent themes of the novel.
Outcomes of the Monster’s Avoidable Ugliness
The physical appearance of the Monster is the biggest obstacle which ruins his life no matter how much he tries to be well tempered and improve himself in terms of self-development. Imagine being judged by your physical appearance throughout your life by everyone, including your creator, and alienated because of that. This situation is what the Monster lives in his entire life. His painful story begins when Victor Frankenstein judges him for outward appearance and he does not take responsibility for him. Frankenstein considers that the physical appearance of the Monster is too ugly to bear, and he describes the Monster’s ugliness as “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived” (56). Victor’s disappointment can be understood with Bayo’s these words: “As he sees his creature, he is deeply disappointed by its ugly appearance and can hardly believe it to be the results of months of hard labour and arduous dedication” (Isolation and Loneliness). In addition, the Monster ostracized not only by his creator but also by the people. For instance, De Lacey family is one of the most prevalent examples of it whom the Monster sees them as his protectors. When De Lacey was alone in the cottage near the Monster’s hovel, he went to the blind man “De Lacey” in order to impress him as he cannot judge him by his physical appearance, but things does not turn out as he expected. When the other residents; old man’s children Felix, Agatha and Safie came back, they horrified the appearance of the monster. Agatha fainted, Safie rushed out of the cottage, and instead of taking a moment to think, Felix tore the Monster from his father and struck him violently with a stick. In short, “they saw the creature’s horrid appearance and even though the creature as doing no harm they assumed anything with looks like the creature would not be up to anything good” (Murray). Another example of the people’s judgement of the Monster based on his physical appearance is that the Monster helps a little girl in need and in return, a man who knows the little girl wounds the Monster judging by his horrifying appearance. The reaction of the Monster towards this event is that “This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone” (136). In conclusion, The Monster’s physical appearance deprives him of the life which he anticipates.
Even though the Monster has a pure heart, just because of his ugly appearance, being brutally judged, insulted, and beaten by people came to the boil for him to bear all of them. These led him want revenge on the people, especially on his creator. The Monster describes how he used to be and what made him a fiend with these words: “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend” (96). He experiences unfortunate events which bring about his alienation due to his physical appearance no matter how nice his attitudes are. For example, one morning, because he was starving, he was looking for a place to find something to eat. When he finally found a small hut, he entered but the old man in the hut scared of his appearance and ran across the fields. This was the first time he experienced alienation due to his scary appearance. On the same day, he ran out a village and entered a hovel, as soon as he entered, he confronted a total chaos. When he appeared at the door of the hovel, the children screamed, one woman fainted, some people fled, and some of them attacked him with various weapons. As stated by Campos: “This is an incredibly strong reaction to someone based solely off of their looks, even if there is a kind of inhumane quality about them” (Physical Appearance). After that incident, even if he found the hovel’s appearance pleasing, he dared not enter it again. The case that hurts the Monster deeply is the De Lacey family. The Monster loves this family a lot, and he even sees them as his protectors. He avoids interacting with them in the first place due to his unfortunate experiences. When he finally does, it results in failure, just like the previous ones. This event affects the Monster so deeply that the Monster’s view of life, his benevolent feelings and attitudes towards people completely changes. The Monster explains his malevolent feelings resulted from the disappointment towards De Lacey family to Victor with these words: “There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared ever-lasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery” (131). As seen in the examples, the events experienced by the monster drags him into a depression and causes him to collapse psychologically and want to take revenge. To take revenge from Victor, the Monster murders Victor’s loved ones, including his little brother, his close friend, and his wife. As specified by Black: “These murders, he thinks, have completed his fall from goodness to wickedness” (We Shall Be Monsters). In brief, even though the beast had not actually harmed anyone, bad events which he went through just because of his physical appearance forced him to do things he did not really enjoy doing.
Conclusion
To summarize, the importance of physical appearance of the Monster and how it changed his whole personality are discussed in the novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley. At first, the Monster is innocent, kind, thoughtful and lively; however, no matter how good qualities he has, he is exposed to discrimination by people, including his own creator, due to his physical appearance. As a consequence of this, the Monster changes his character deliberately in a negative way so as to take revenge from Frankenstein and human race. That is to say, this situation affected him psychologically in a bad way, and it caused him to lose his goodwill. In conclusion, in her novel, Mary Shelley has successfully emphasized the importance of being judged by physical appearance for centuries, and how it has created the prejudice of people against each other through the Monster.
WORK-CITED
Bayo, Melanio, 2016, Isolation in “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. The perception of being isolated and its dependence to endogenous and exogenous causes, Munich, GRIN Verlag.
https://www.grin.com/document/412546
Black, Jeff J.S. “We Shall be Monsters”: Frankenstein and the Ugliness of Enlightenment. Annopolis, Maryland. February 23, 2018.
Campos, Cara. What is the Significance of Physical Appearance in Frankenstein?
October 2, 2014. https://blogs.baylor.edu/britlit/2014/10/02/what-is-the-significance-of-physical-appearance-in-frankenstein/
“Isolation and Loneliness in Shelley’s “Frankenstein”.” StudyCorgi, 8 Oct. 2021.
https://studycorgi.com/isolation-and-loneliness-in-shelleys-frankenstein/
Murray, Shania. 2014, The Creature in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
https://the creature.weebly.com/citation.html
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus. Clays Ltd, St Ives plc. Penguin Books, 1994.
[1] Protagonist: the leading character or one of the major characters in a play, film, novel, etc.
[2] Antagonist: a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.
[3] Paradox: a device used to force the reader to consider a statement or idea more deeply or critically than at face value.
Zelal Zehra Önsal holds a degree in English Language and Literature from Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University. She completed an Erasmus exchange at the University of Naples Federico II in the CDS Modern European Languages, Cultures and Literatures. Her academic interests include literary writing, editing, and translation.
