Frankenstein: A Critique of Beauty Standards Jessica Fatzinger 12th Grade

The conflict in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is rooted in the appearance of the creature. While he learns to speak eloquently, no one is willing to talk to him because of his inhuman appearance. In her thesis on the culture of bodies, Courtney Huff-Oelberg describes that the “creature’s body is unable to be classified into a social category”, which causes society to reject him. The rejection he faces leads to the creature’s mentality of destruction as a means of revenge. The creature’s struggle with fitting into social norms highlights the struggle that the human characters also face in that regard. Mary Shelley criticizes the importance of beauty in society through how appearance impacts the characters in Frankenstein differently. By making society treat Frankenstein poorly, basing the female characters’ fate on their appearance, and judging men solely off of intellect rather than their beauty, Shelley attacks the value of beauty.

Society treats Frankenstein poorly solely because of his ugly appearance. When the creature finally comes to life, Frankenstein is appalled because he “selected his features as beautiful … but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast” (Shelley 58). Frankenstein confirms that beauty is an...