Frankenstein: What does it mean to be human?

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the major topics is what defines and qualifies a being as a human. Victor Frankenstein’s creature is not human because it was created, not born, has a non-humanlike appearance, and has superhuman abilities.

Victor Frankenstein describes the process of his creation, hoping that he “might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at his [my] feet” (38). The creature’s “dull yellow eye” (38) opens, and “a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (39). The creature was created by Victor, and is therefore not human. Humans are thought to have been created through evolution and by the course of natural events on Earth over the past millions of years, not by the hands of a human himself.

The creature’s appearance is definitely not that of a regular human being, which causes it to be shunned and detested by humans that it encounters. It describes itself as “endowed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome” (96) and knows that it is “not even of the same nature as man” (96). Even the creature can tell that it is not human, because of the difference in its appearance and in the way people respond to it.

The possession of superhuman abilities makes the creature seem even less humanlike. It tells of its own capabilities in contrast to those of humans: “I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me” (96). Because of the complexity of the human body, there are many restrictions and limitations to what humans can physically do. However, the creature is able to do many things that humans cannot do, which makes him different from people.

The origin of life is a topic that has been debated for almost a century. Most scientists agree that there was once a common ancestor that all humans share; that common ancestor links all humans genetically and scientifically. However, the creature’s origin of life does not involve this common ancestor, because it is merely Victor’s creation. Its body parts came from humans, but that does not imply that it is actually a human being. Even in appearance and in abilities, the creature is very unlike humans—it is over a foot taller than the average human man, does not depend on nutritious and specific foods, and can withstand extreme conditions with little to no damage to its body. The human body is so complex and intricate that Victor must not have been able to exactly clone a human being. Therefore, the creature cannot be human, due to its very unusual characteristics and physical features.