“my primal sense of ugliness, my lifelong belief that, as a transsexual, I was a monster” – Joy Ladin
Reminder of when the Creature stumbled upon a pool of water and was immediately overcome with disgust and self-hatred.
“At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflecting in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification.” -The Creature, p. 104
“with its (Frankenstein’s) twin interests in the artificial animation of living beings, and the sociopolitical phenomenon of isolation and neglect, Frankenstein presents these key forces of modernity in a state of profound and unresolved dissonance.”
These issues presented in Frankenstein do appear to go unresolved, both in the book and in the real-life issues the book was actually presenting. Isolation and neglect are still a huge problem with those who are considered to be “different”.
“Creature is physically a super-sized adult, but experientially a baby with no past history”-Martha Stoddard Holmes Putting a super-sized man in a world where he has no idea what is going on is a recipe for disaster. However, it seems that Frankenstein has a large capacity for knowledge, as he quickly picks up on language, cultural themes, and even reads classic books of the time. This again could relate to the question of how much of what happened was the monster’s fault. Was he intelligent enough to realize what he was doing was extremely wrong, or can we just pass it off on the monster not understanding right and wrong?
“The scenes of his birth, recounted by Victor, dramatize an unsatisfactory parental response to the birth of a disabled child.”- Holmes
“the Creature’s demand for a mate “as hideous as myself” suggests how fully the Creature has learned the values of a society that has difficulty envisioning—or perhaps, acknowledging—certain kinds of difference as desirable”
After reading Holmes’ work, I thought she made the greatest connection to Frankenstein and disabilities. The way she compared Victor’s and other characters’ actions with those of people involved in the lives of the disabled was very convincing.
