Ugliness is such a hard word to define. What is ones understanding of ugliness? Is it a bruised, crippled, marked or deformed being? Maybe physical ugliness is a reflection of what you think of things and how you see them? In the Webster dictionary the word ugly is defined to be "Offensive to the sight; contrary to beauty; being of disagreeable or loathsome aspect; unsightly; repulsive and deformed." .
In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the author shows the created being as a compassionate creature that is troubled by his physical appearance. The characters in the novel ignore inner beauty as they judge the creature based on their first impressions. From the past to the present, human nature tends to avoid people with physical differences and rely on first impressions. Approval or disapproval is based on the physical beauty and ugliness of a being. Thus, humans tend to be ignorant of the inner beauty of beings such as the creature. Mary Shelley clearly pointed this out to the audience when she described the interactions between the creature and humans. The reader, therefore, is forced to answer whether these reactions to the physical ugliness of the creature is just.
In the novel Frankenstein the creature is abandoned on the day of his macabre birth by the only being that is supposed to love him, his father figure Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein selected the best parts to create the most beautiful creature, gathered them together, and went through a lot of trouble to create him. On the day of the creature's birth, Victor acquires an ugly horrible looking creature, opposite to what he had expected. He could not tolerate the physical ugliness and deformation of the new creature, so he abandons him. This abandonment creates an extreme shock for the creature. He is left alone in a world that does not accept him because of his physical deformity. He does not understand why he is being rejected since he is not born with any previous knowledge of what is considered ugly.
