Argumentative Essay on Frankenstein's Monster Is Not Human

Imagine being the first living thing created by somebody and not knowing whether you are human or not, and not having nobody to care for you. In Mary Shelley's story published in 1818 Gris Grimly's Frankenstein the author does just that when an eager scientist named Victor Frankenstein creates an out-of-the-ordinary creature from scratch. Many people questioned if it was human or not. In this case, he's not because he was made, not born and he was not embraced by other people in the novel.

One of the reasons why Victor's creature is not human is because the creature was made, not naturally born. One thing that reveals him being made is when Victor is physically creating the body, on page 39 of the story the illustration shows Victor building and putting together his creation, it revealed Victor's hands holding a human heart and placing it into the ribs of the creature. This demonstrates why the creature is made, not born because Victor physically placed body parts inside of him. If he was born he would have natural human parts and not transplanted ones. This is important because this proves that it is not possible for the creature to be a natural human since Victor built him. Another example is when Victor once again was building his creation and finishing it off, on page 39 the illustration shows Victor precisely sewing together thick skin around the creature's bones. This proves that the creature is not human because Victor physically sewed skin together to make the creature look like a person. Victor used real bones to create the creature and skin to cover it, to make him look even more realistic. This is important because Victor had to go as far as finding human-like skin with the intent of having the creature look and feel like everyone else. These details add up to Victor's creation not being considered human and the creature being just another invention he created.

Contrary to the idea that the creature is not a real person some readers say he is because the creature interacts with other humans. Perhaps that could be true, one example of that being so is when the creature purposely tried to interact with somebody else, on page 113 of the book the creature is shown holding up a child and attempting to interact with it. This could make sense because he knew how to interact and communicate with an actual human being, so people might claim he is human because he knows how to communicate around them. Although the creature was able to show some interaction with humans, that does not mean that he fully accepted himself or others did. A way to prove this is when the creature fully admits that he was scared of himself, on page 190 the creature says, “I abhorred myself.” However, the creature could not even see himself as a human so, how could others. He was scared of his own appearance, power, and lost all his sense of thinking he was human. Even though some might see the creature as human, in reality, the creature was man-made and for the purpose of Victor's own satisfaction.

A second example of the creature not being considered a person is that he was not embraced by others. Throughout all the creature's life, he always questioned the way he looked and on page 113 in the novel, a little boy says “Hideous monster! Let me go; My papa is M. Frankenstein, he would punish you.” The creature picks up a little boy in hopes of a new connection but the boy was frightened by his appearance and did not want anything to do with a “monster”. This is important because the creature was already struggling with him being different from everyone else, and the child saying he was a “monster” gave him extra validation. Furthermore, every time the creature tries to build relationships with others it always fails, for example on page 108 of the book the illustration shows a blind man's son from a cottage attacking the creature because he and his family were frightened by his appearance once again, the son raised his fist up in the air and caused great mental and physical pain to the creature. This shows that he is not embraced by humans because now, cottagers are afraid of the “monster” they have seen and it has led to keeping this creature out of their lives. This is relevant because the creature is not getting the love and attention he needs in order to be stable with himself, which caused the creature to get used to people not caring for him. Therefore, those examples of the creature not being embraced by humans showed why the creature is not a human being

In conclusion, Victor Frankenstein's creation was not human because it was created by a man, and it was not embraced by other people. This was shown when Victor physically put body parts into the creature. Even more proof of the creature's inhumanity was revealed when a cottager attacked the creature because of how frightened he was and how un-human his attributes were. Even though Victor's creation might have been a milestone for him, the creature suffered all his life not knowing if he was human or not and waiting for acceptance from others. According to Plato in his book Phaedrus "Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; "