‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is this true about Frankenstein’s creation? essay

Pre –1914 prose

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is this true about Frankenstein’s creation?

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is a proverb. A proverb is a saying and often has two meanings. They also teach us things. This proverb means don’t judge people by the way they look. This proverb has some relevance because everyone judged him by the way he looked because he was so ugly and people thought he was evil.
When the creation first comes to life it has a macabre appearance because he was created by Victor Frankenstein and he is made out of dead body parts from different people victor took the best parts from different people and sewed it all together.
Although the creature has an ugly exterior/ it does many good things in the story for instance, while in the forest it feels happy because it’s on its own and nobody is there to hurt it. It fells free and good about itself E.g.’ I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often slaughted my ears, proceed form the throats of the little winged animals’
Many off the good deeds for the cottagers include collecting food and fore wood, which really helps as they have no food or firewood and it’s also winter and freezing cold. The creation does this because he wants to feel loved and part of a family E.g. ‘ the young women… appeared greatly astonished on seeing a great pile of wood… I observed with pleasure’ because he was abandoned by Frankenstein at the beginning. But after they have attacked it it leaves, although it could easily have harmed them, which shows it cares and is good at heart and doesn’t want to harm anyone.
When a young girl falls in the river the creation saves her it is then repaid by her father shooting him in the shoulder, this is because her father thinks it is attacking her because of the way he looks. This proves that he wants to do good but no one trusts him. The creation also teaches itself to read and write and speak he does this by watching a family from a hut and learning how to speak at the novels end, despite events the creature reacts to Frankenstein’s death by mourning over his dead body and wanting him back E.g. ‘when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die, now it is my only consolation’.
All of these things prove that the creation is capable of kindness and being nice despite the way it looks and although the villagers it first meets attack it because of the way it appears, they are wrong to do this because you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and you should never dislike a person just because of the way they look.
In this respect the proverb is true for the creature as it is ugly but everyone dislikes it because of its appearance and everyone is scared of it. ‘ Despite these good deeds, the creation also inflicts much pain upon others in the story’ during the book, it murders several characters it kills Frankenstein’s brother William because he’s just trying to shut him up he doesn’t mean to kill him but once it has killed William it feels a hellish joy e.g. ‘ I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph’ which proves that he didn’t mean to hurt him but once he has he feels good about it because he realises he’s related to victor he feels a hellish joy.
The creature also murders Henry and most brutally, Elizabeth. This is a cruel killing as it was her wedding night and he only did it to hurt victor she had nothing to do with it. Once Frankenstein found Elizabeth dead, he sees the creation gloating at the window. This indicates that it carried out the murder to get back at him because he didn’t create another monster so the creation could have a friend.
The proverb ‘ don’t judge a book by its cover’ is true to some extent because Frankenstein’s creation was ugly and looked evil but was a good kind person at the heart and didn’t mean to hurt anyone. However it may also be argues that he was evil and a killer because he killed Elizabeth just to get back at victor.


Laura Berrett 10.s