Literature

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In the novella Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the theme of injustice as well as justice in different aspects. Several individuals in the novella suffer injustices due to the actions of others at levels get justice bestowed upon them by either nature or forced by other characters in the novella. It all starts with Frankenstein, the protagonist who is a wealthy powerful and brilliant individual and also he is well connected. Frankenstein personal qualities and his social position in the society provides him with great power. Instead of using the power granted to him well, he tends to act with impunity, where he only seeks to satisfy his own personal and selfish interests rather than considering the feelings of others and the common good. Frankenstein does not act like the other members of the family and friends. Just like the monster points out, it is true that Victor is not willing to take any responsibility that has resulted from his actions.

The first issue regards about the thought of how justice is the degree to which people should be held accountable for their acts of omissions as well as the actions to which they are not directly responsible. Frankenstein himself is not a murderer nor does he as a person lay false witness against the victim, Justine. Victor’s failure, on the other hand, to nurture his creation, the monster and instills in him the sense of moral values. The members of the community do make him complicit in the monster’s murders. Frankenstein’s failure to admit the truth makes him complicit Justin’s death for a crime that she does not happen to commit. Frankenstein gradually over the cause of the novella comes to the awareness and feels increasingly guilty for his actions, but still takes the most accessible road in the sense of attempting to destroy the monster rather than attempting the most laborious task of rehabilitation.

The monster just like Victor also attempts to deny personal responsibility, blaming his circumstances for the actions he committed rather than accepting that he had the opportunity to make good or bad choices. Regarding the issues regarding justice and injustices, the novella makes us think about the various issues about the nature of justice. Firstly, is the degree to which parents are held responsible for the actions that are committed by their children. The second one regards whether it’s just to punish only the criminals of the acts but not the forms of the inaction to which allows the crimes to take place. The last issue is the degree to which people should take into account the background as well as the environment in thinking about justice.

William suffers as a result of Victor’s actions, and the monster kills him upon hearing him mention Victor. The monster gets annoyed and kills him, and he goes ahead to blame Justin who upon poor investigations is held responsible for the murder of William. Justine gets hanged while both Frankenstein and the monster are in watch and no one could talk or admit that Justin wasn’t the real murder despite their inner thoughts knowing so. The actions by the monster therefore indirectly caused injustice to Justin being punished for a crime that she never committed.

The monster, having been created by Victor, also suffered injustices in the sense that Victor denied his responsibility. The reason behind is because Victor deserted the monster upon its creation due to its ugliness. He didn’t take the responsibility to rehabilitate the monster and teach him the right ways. He abandoned a clueless monster with the innocence of a child to teach himself all the way. Here we don’t expect the monster to act nicely to its creator particularly when it came to know that it was rejected due to its ugliness, making him suffer self-denial living a lonely life in the forests. Due to this, he decides to revenge and the first instance he murders William.

On the other hand, when the monster asks Victor to make him a partner just like the other humans, he accepts though he had no other choice but destroys the female monster before he could bring her to life. Frankenstein does this in front of the monster, humiliating him, making him vow to revenge against Victor’s actions by saying it’s not over. During Victor’s wedding with Elizabeth, the monster appears and kills her. The killing of Elizabeth makes the monster feel comfortable as he has done revenge similar to what Victor did to him by killing his female monster. Nature also has its way of making justice prevail; victors dies in the Atlantic while chasing the monster an act to which the monster celebrates while still mourning his creator’s death.

Justice and injustices in the novella however been introduced in different manners. The neglect of parental duties is one of the injustices that Victor commits to the monster. The monster identifies himself as Victor’s son when he says,

‘I am thy creature: ought to be thy Adam but I am rather the fallen angel,’

Through this the monster calls for Victor to fulfill his duties as the father. All his deeds of mischief and murder are as a result of pain, suffering abandonment, and this makes Victor partly take responsibility for the deaths of William, Justin, and Elizabeth. Victor is not able to provide friendship as he cannot forgive the monster for Williams’s murder. However, he does not realize that he possesses no right to withhold the gift of the female creature and that it would be just to create her. Denying the monster a mate is denying him his natural right to a fraternity.

The monster is not the only a victim of social injustice, a majority of the people in the novella get punished for the crimes that they didn’t commit. The monster suffers due to his physical aspect as he is considered ugly and people don’t judge him like themselves as he is termed to be always frightening. In an example, Felix drives the monster out because on seeing him physically he thinks he is a criminal. And it is for this reason that then he becomes bad and vindictive as people are injected with him basing their opinions on exteriority, and the only person who talks to him is Felix’s father as he is blind and can’t see whom he is talking to and so cannot judge.

There are other victims who suffer injustices. Safie’s father is treated unjustly by the French government, the De Lacey family suffers from poverty due to the injustice, and as well Frankenstein himself who is first proven innocent gets imprisoned and declared guilty for the death of his friend Clerval. Elizabeth is against the attitudes of the people who brought Justine to death, and she also says that while Justine is executed unjustly for a crime that she didn’t commit, the real murderer is free again and perhaps even more respected.

At last, both William and Elizabeth become victims of social injustices as they are killed unjustly due to the injustices caused by the monster. The theme of justice and I justice, therefore, is displayed all over the novella, with all being triggered by Frankenstein with his action of the science experiments creating the monster. The government also seem to be corrupted and is responsible for the social injustices in the society.

Reference

Shelley, M. (2016). Frankenstein (Second International Student Edition)(Norton Critical Editions). WW Norton & Company.