Pattern of quote selection

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly contains many themes, ideas, and messages, from what it means to be human, to lessons about parenting. One of the most prominent messages, I noticed, seemed to be one about human nature. Shelly appeared to be saying that humans are naturally shallow, judgmental, beings, who base too much of their opinion on appearance, and their first impression of something, and that the implications of this can be quite extreme. I elected to illustrate this message in my quote selection. The quotes I chose mostly exemplify the premature judging of someone, whether it turn out positive or negative for that person. For example, in my chapter one quote, everyone seemed to like Elizabeth because she was so beautiful, and Victor’s mother even decided to take her in. On the contrary, Victor was appalled, and judged the monster several times (Chapter 5, chapter 7, chapter 10, etc.) completely based on his hideous appearance. Other quotes show similarities between Henry, Elizabeth, and the monster (Chapter 2, chapter 6, chapter 11, chapter 18). They all seem to be peaceful individuals, with a taste for the arts, and a love for humanity, but Victor loves Henry and Elizabeth, while despising the monster simply based on his looks, despite any similarities between the three. At other times, members of the judicial system prematurely judged Victor and Justine (Chapter 8, chapter 21), whether there was evidence or not, and in both cases, they were wrongly arrested. In the case of Justine, it led to her death. The lack of acceptance that the monster experienced (Chapter 5, chapter 10, chapter 15, chapter 16, chapter 17) led the monster into a state of constant fury towards mankind. While he was previously a peaceful, kind, thoughtful, and patient individual (Chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 16, chapter 17), he quickly turned into the murderous fiend that kills Henry and Elizabeth, and wrecks havoc on the life of Victor (Chapter 21, chapter 22, chapter 23, chapter 24). Victor’s excitement in the chapter 4 quote was quickly turned around by his judgmental nature upon seeing the monster in chapter 5. He never gave the monster a chance, which cost him dearly in the end. He even judged the his second monster based on inaccurate impressions of he first one, before he had created it, causing him to tear it to pieces, effectively along with his life. The tendency of humans to prematurely judge others caused many problems in Shelly’s novel, which goes to show that we need to be more accepting, and give people a chance before we shun them.