Role Of Society In Frankenstein

Thomas Jefferson once said in regards to society, “A nation as a society forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.” I believe that this statement holds truth with respect to the question, “Which is more valuable, the needs of society or the needs of the individual?” Society consists of individuals and for it to operate properly and comfortably then there ought to be a sense of fellowship. Looking out for one another in a community leads to a functioning system and if individuals were to hold their needs over others then the society would collapse. As Thomas Jefferson said, each member makes up society and in turn with a functioning society comes respectable individuals. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein
is an example of what can go wrong when someone is more concerned with their personal value than the value of society. Dr. Frankenstein, having been too concerned with his own personal well being and worry that his reputation may be ruined, allows his creation to kill an innocent girl. His automatic individualist outlook on a situation resulted in damage to society as a whole. The individualist makes or breaks society but with saying that one must understand it is society that makes or breaks the individual as well. Individuals make up society and therefore with a happy individual you have a happy society, or so one would like to assume. There is a quote by an unknown author that goes, “Many people are extremely happy, but are absolutely worthless to society.” Happiness is not the only contributing factor to a useful, functioning society. Just because an individual is happy with how their life is does not mean all is well for society as a whole. In that way also, just because a person is unhappy with life does not mean the society itself is not functioning as it should. Similarly, with a society and community comes exclusion. Not everyone is going to fit in and Frankenstein’s monster figures that out in the 1818 novel Frankenstein. He’s rejected by what he felt was his people. The people he learned everything from and felt connected to looked at him and yelled at him to leave. The ultimate rejection is being cast out entirely from society. Your society and community because part of your identity and without it you have no label to cling to. While people like to say “labels aren’t everything” that is false, labels are everything. All that has to do with humans is labeled. The school we go to, our family name, even our hair color are labels and with these labels comes distinction and society. When Frankenstein is cast out by his society he loses his self proclaimed label, what made him feel like an individual is gone because with society comes individuality.