Beauty Vs Ugliness in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Introduction

In our society, people subconsciously judge each other based on one’s appearance. People have a preconceived opinion about someone’s character based on one’s physical attributes. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one character that is greatly affected by society’s attitude towards unattractive people is the central character, Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the creature. Due to its hideous, horrid countenance, he is immensely judged based on his appearance, though in reality, he is benevolent. As a result of the judgments and the attacks he receives from humans due to his physical appearance, he isolates himself from society and becomes filled with hatred and vengeance. Feeling rejected and abandoned, the creature seeks revenge on his creator. Appearance plays a major role in determining how one is treated in society. Shelley shows that being unattractive leads to mistreatment. The contrast between the people who treat others who are beautiful and ugly is shown by the female characters and the creature. Elizabeth, Safie, Caroline, and Justine are judged positively and treated better for their beauty. On the other hand, the creature is judged negatively and treated worse for his ugliness.

Beauty and ugliness in Frankenstein

With the desire to have a daughter, Caroline Frankenstein adopts a poor young girl, Elizabeth Lavenza, because she is enticed by her beauty. Unlike her family, Victor describes that she “was thin and very fair, her hair was the brightest living gold… and… her blue eyes cloudless” (Shelley 22). Elizabeth possesses a dainty, delicate beauty that easily attracts people due to her charming appearance. Her physical characteristics reflect her personality when she is described “as of a distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bears a celestial stamp in all her features”. Unlike the creature whose devilish appearance is intolerable to humans, she is depicted as an angel-like being, who is kind and beautiful inside and out.

In the same way that Caroline is allured by Elizabeth at first sight, as soon as the creature sees Safie, he is instantly drawn by her beautiful countenance. He describes that he “beheld a countenance of angelic beauty and expression … Her features were of a regular proportion, and her complexion wondrously fair”. This is the first time that the creature talks about a character’s appearance. Considering that Safie’s beauty attracts the creature’s attention, it captivates her lover, Felix, the son of the old De Lacey, even more. For instance, when he sees her in prison visiting her father, he falls in love with her at first sight because of her beauty. However, when Felix, Agatha, and Safie see the creature for the first time, they are terrified of his appearance, and Felix violently attacks him. This shows that due to the creature’s monstrous countenance, he is driven away by those who see him.

Another beautiful character that the creature sees is Victor’s mother, Caroline Frankenstein. When the creature picks up the locket with her portrait, he describes that she is “a most lovely woman … that possesses … dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and … lovely lips” (144). The creature is softened and mesmerized by her attractiveness. Caroline is the epitome of beauty, not only because she has beautiful physical attributes, but since she is good-hearted as well. However, his rage returns when he remembers that he is “deprived of the delights that such creatures could bestow”. He cannot bear to be in awe of someone so beautiful while he is constantly rejected by humans who perceive him as ugly and fearful, unlike Caroline.

Shortly after, the creature compares Justine’s beauty to Coraline’s when he sees Justine sleeping in a barn. Even though she is not as beautiful as Coraline, he states that she is “blooming in the loveliness of youth and health… However, here … is one of those joy-imparting smiles bestowed on all but me”. The creature thinks that he is robbed of all the smiles he can get due to his fearful and monstrous appearance. Since the creature feels robbed from experiencing happiness and being treated well, this provokes him to frame Justine for the murder he has committed. Despite being beautiful, Justine is an example that proves that the statement “being unattractive leads to mistreatment” wrong, because her beauty was not enough to prove her innocence and save her from injustice.

The creature’s injustice and mistreatment come to play when his horrendous appearance drives Victor to abandon his newly made species. When he sees the creature for the first time, he sees that he has “yellow skin, … hair…of a lustrous black, … teeth of a pearly whiteness, … a shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”. Unable to endure the sight of his wretched creation, Victor runs away from the creature, leaving him to survive alone in an unfamiliar world. During his first encounter with a human, an old man, he recounts that in “perceiving him, the old man shrieked loudly… and … ran across the fields”. It surprises the creature that he runs away from him. When he arrives at a village, the villagers shriek, faint, flee or attack him after seeing his grisly countenance. Oblivious as to why humans fear and mistreat him, he sees a reflection of himself for the first time, unable to believe that he “was in reality the monster that he is, and that he … did not entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity”. This shows that the creature begins to see himself as the monster that everyone sees. A second instance wherein the creature is mistreated because of his appearance is when he turns to the blind De Lacey father to seek acceptance. The blind father says that he is “blind and cannot judge the creature’s countenance’”. He views the creature like everyone else, referring to him as a “human creature”. Since the blind father is unable to see and judge someone based on their appearance, he is the only character that sees his sincerity and kindness. However, like Victor, the creature is rejected and driven away by his prejudiced children, one of which attacks him. Another example that shows the creature’s mistreatment is when he saves a young girl from drowning. He says that he “had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense he now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound”. Even after all the humans he encounters mistreat him, he saves the young girl but is shot in return for his benevolence after witnessing his appearance, showing his injustice. With more resentment towards his creator, he goes to Geneva and sees William, a beautiful child that “was unprejudiced and had lived too short of a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity”. The creature becomes desperate in wanting to befriend William but fails when he screams at the sight of his face, fearing him just like everyone else. Because of his physical appearance, the creature is unable to be seen as anything else but a monster- a hideous monster who does not deserve to be treated as if he were human.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows that being unattractive takes a great toll on someone because society draws a line between the treatment of beautiful people as opposed to the treatment of ugly people. The female characters are treated well, while the creature is greatly mistreated because of humans’ misjudgments towards him. Society focuses on outer beauty more than inner beauty, and they have failed to see the creature’s goodness because that he is never given the chance to be viewed and treated like everyone else. If society had overlooked his deformities to see his kindness and sincerity, those killed by him would still be alive. One would learn that appearances determine how people treat others in society, and that first impressions last a lifetime.

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