Sunday, March 22, 2015

Creating New Relationships

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, many new relationships are created.  The creature, however, usually only manages to create bad ones with the people around him.  When the creature meets the blind father of the DeLacy family, he is initially treated kindly.  Once he meets Felix, Safie, and Agatha, however, this new relationship is quickly ruined.  The creature says that Felix “…darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father… in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground, and struck me violently with a stick (94).”  All of the creature’s opportunities to create new relationships are ruined by his frightening appearance. 

                The creature’s relationship with Victor Frankenstein was also ruined by his appearance.  Victor described the creature as having “…yellow skin [that] scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath...” and luxuriously beautiful teeth and hair that “…only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips (35).”  When Victor saw the creature that he created he said that “…breathless horror and disgust filled my heart (36).”  Frankenstein was horrified at the creature he had created solely because of his appearance.  He was unable to see past this in order to truly understand the creature.  Due to this reaction, the relationship that was created between Victor Frankenstein and the creature also turned out to be a very bad one.  

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