A6

Our collage is a commentary on the conflicted identity of Frankenstein’s monster. We began with the composition of its face: the creature, in our representation, is half man and half monster. Frankenstein’s creation, in Shelley’s book, has many humanlike characteristics – he is an adept learner, he seems to feel humanlike emotions, and he is extremely perceptive. He is, however, fundamentally inhuman. On the technical level, he was not born of a human and therefore cannot be scientifically considered human. On a more figurative level, the world judges him, shuns him, and drives him to embrace inhumane characteristics.

Frankenstein’s monster is horribly misunderstood. When we observe his time at the DeLacey’s cottage, it is difficult not to sympathize with the creature. He simply wants to be loved and accepted. He is thrown into the world, knowing nothing, and abandoned by his creator. There is a lot to be said for his ability to learn so much so quickly by simply observing, with no teacher. He also shows a softer, more emotional – and therefore human – side, as he longs to be accepted by the DeLacey family. He further develops his humanity when he saves a drowning girl from a pond, though he is repaid by unkindness in the form of a gunshot. The human half of the face in our collage is representative of all of the undeniably human characteristics of the creature.

Despite his humanlike qualities, Frankenstein’s monster does also display many characteristics that seem monstrous. We get our first glimpse of his barbarity in the scene of William’s murder, and the monstrosity only escalates. After killing William – and also framing Justine for the murder, causing another innocent death – Frankenstein’s monster proceeds to kill Henry Clerval, a move which drives Victor Frankenstein to madness. And it doesn’t end there: just as he warned Frankenstein that he would be present on his “wedding night,” the creature ensures that Frankenstein will attain none of the happiness that should come with a marriage, as he murders Elizabeth on the night of their wedding. The creature then leads Frankenstein on a wild goose chase through horrible conditions, causing Victor Frankenstein’s already miserable life to end in frustration in the Arctic. The monstrous half of the creature’s face in our collage represents all of the creature’s unforgivable and inhumane actions.

The creature cannot be held fully accountable for its inhumane tendencies; the actions and the judgments that the world imposes lead to the inhumanity in his identity. We placed a collage of faces around the creature’s head to represent the judgment of the outside world. Despite any of his efforts to act like a human – for example, by learning to speak and read – Frankenstein’s monster cannot escape his monstrous appearance. Everywhere he goes, the world shuns him. When he is at the DeLacey’s, he is initially treated kindly by the father – but only because the father is blind. As soon as the monster is seen, he is met with unkindness and banished from the home. His appearance, rather than his internal characteristics, defines him in the eyes of the world. We covered the entire remainder of the page with faces to represent the breadth and the depth of the influence of the outside world in driving Frankenstein’s monster to his ultimate conflicting identity.