This story was extremely grim in my opinion. It appears as though every single family found in this book has been hit with some sort of death or loss of sorts. This consistency of misfortune can be seen with the monster as well. the monster is equally detached from his family as Justine and Elizabeth are. It could be that Mary Shelley is attempting to draw a parallel between the establishment of the families in this book. Each family has problems and dysfunctional attributes that are not to be seen in a standard family. They find themselves disarrayed by orphans and adopted children. This could be attempting to show the unjustified hatred felt by society towards the monster. The monster would obviously not fit into a standard family due to his physical appearance. This shows the Hypocrisy of Frankenstein and the other members of society towards the misunderstood monster.
The monster does not fit into the same category as those that I have previously knowledgeable from my readings in arts one. what I have not seen from previous monsters is this level of intelligence. In Frankenstein, he is able to learn to speak very quickly. Not only does he learn language, he masters it, becoming extremely eloquent and able to make cohesive arguments. These arguments are sound and too effective in my opinion to have come from a monster.
Perhaps my idea of a monster is similar to what Sam has stated in class. A monster is simply a creature which cannot argue its point whether it is because of a lack of intelligence or too radically different. Because of this, we feel a disconnection from these “monsters” and lose empathy for them. When one reads Frankenstein they do not have such sentiments towards the monster. Instead, they look at the monster and feel remorse for him. They see his point of view more fully over Grendel’s because of language. Without such a strong ability to communicate, the monster in Frankenstein would be much more monstrous. He would not be perceived with the same light if he was unable to argue his point. This is the reason many do not view Medea as a monster. She was able to in over the views of some through her strong argumentative skills and intelligence. By having these characteristics, she was able to be seen as less monstrous.
