Introduction
Probably all cultures have sayings or proverbs that tell about how not important is defining a person by an appearance. Many fairy tales and fables talk about the understanding of monstrous; quite often monstrosity is not about the appearance at all, but rather someone’s actions, beliefs, and inner moral compass. In Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Lolita, the authors each try to define their characters monstrous in their own way, and in the interim, make the reader to review his or her own thoughts on individual’s monstrosity.
Monstrosity
One of the most important elements of monstrosity is choice. In the legal system, a person can be held responsible for any deeds, only, if those were done knowingly, and if a person chose to commit the crime. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein gives life to his Creation without actually knowing what the Creation would do once it was alive; the Creation is intelligent, and becomes a victim of circumstances stating: “I knew that I was preparing myself for a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse I detested yet could not disobey. Yet when she died! Nay, then I was not miserable. I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my feelings. Evil thenceforth became my food. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen” (Shelley). Shelley’s work revealed the idea that Dr. Frankenstein was the monster, as it was him, who gave life without any plan or thought, playing God with no responsibility that this action entailed. For this reason, the monster is not the Creation, but rather the doctor. Although the Creation in Frankenstein does some horrible things, it cannot control the circumstances it was put into. This point is essential, the idea of a free choice, the choice to make good or bad decisions, which is fundamental in consideration of an individual’s monstrosity. The Creation in Frankenstein acts out in terrible ways, and is not actually responsible for his actions, with the only person to blame - his creator, Dr. Frankenstein.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the virtuous character is contained within the same consciousness and body as the character that is considered monstrous. While Dr. Jekyll is considered to be the virtuous character, it is exactly Dr. Jekyll, whoconsciously makes a choice to become Mr. Hyde several times throughout the novel. Again, Mr. Hyde has little or no control over his actions as a character, however, Dr. Jekyll is aware of the situation, and still keeps turning into Mr. Hyde anyway. Dr. Jekyll himself knew this, saying: “Between these two, I now felt I had to choose [] To cast in my lot with Jekyll was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast in with Hyde was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and for ever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal, but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would not even be conscious of all that he had lost” (Stevenson and Schreiner). The acknowledgement by Dr. Jekyll that Mr. Hyde is not conscious is the turning point for the character, and it is during this time that the character truly accepts the idea of monstrosity and evilness of his behavior.
Lolita presents a slightly different version of monstrosity than The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. Unlike two previous novels, Lolita depicts the monster in a sympathetic light, while in other two texts the character was presented as a foil that had no choice about committing monstrous acts; Lolita simply follows a man who commits monstrous acts with no apparent feeling of guilt. In Lolita, the main character laments the loss of the child he had been molesting: “What I heard was but the melody of children at play, nothing but that, and so limpid was the air that within the vapor of blended voices, majestic and minute, remote and magically near [] but it was all really too far for the eye to distinguish any movement in the lightly etched streets. I stood listening to that musical vibration from my lofty slope [] and then I knew that the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolita’s absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from that concord” (Nabokov). The main character of Lolita convinces himself that he is in love with the child, and, thus, runs her life by molesting her. He does not think about the outcome of such connection, giving himself in to desires at the moment. This is what makes the main character a monster: he plots, plans, and creates situations in which he can carry out his monstrous acts, although he is aware that those are wrong, thus hides them from Lolita’s mother, and the outside world.
Conclusion
Appearance is not enough to declare someone or something a monster, as outward appearances can often be misleading, and the most angelic look can hide an individual’s monstrous character. It is only by getting to know the individual that a conclusion can be made about the character; without knowing the fabric of an individual’s being, it is difficult to know whether that person is good or bad. Indeed, most people are neither good, nor bad; it is their choices that define them in the long run.
Works cited
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Lolita. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Library,
1996. Print.
Stevenson, Robert Louis and Olive Schreiner. The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Chicago: M.A. Donohue & Co., 1896. Print.
