Monstrosity and the Boundaries of Humanity in Gothic Literature: A Critical Study of Frankenstein

Abstract

This qualitative study critically examines monstrosity and the boundaries of humanity in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, focusing on how the novel constructs, challenges, and transforms the concept of the monstrous. The study adopts a qualitative research approach and employs a descriptive-interpretive textual research design. The novel serves as the primary source of data, while purposive sampling is used to select significant passages, dialogues, character descriptions, and narrative episodes directly relevant to monstrosity, humanity, Otherness, social rejection, isolation, scientific ambition, and identity formation. Data are analyzed through close textual reading and thematic analysis, with recurring textual patterns coded and organized into broader interpretive themes. The analysis is theoretically informed by Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, together with the concepts of Otherness, the monstrous body, boundary transgression, and social exclusion. The findings reveal that monstrosity is initially constructed through the creature’s unnatural creation and grotesque physical appearance but gradually develops through social rejection, abandonment, isolation, and psychological suffering. The analysis further demonstrates that Shelley destabilizes the human–monster binary by presenting the creature as intellectually capable, emotionally conscious, and desirous of companionship, while Victor’s scientific ambition, irresponsibility, and obsessive pursuit introduce forms of moral monstrosity within the human subject. The study concludes that monstrosity in Frankenstein is not an exclusively inherent physical condition but a complex and relational identity shaped by bodily difference, social perception, exclusion, ethical failure, and individual agency. The study contributes to Gothic literary scholarship by demonstrating how Shelley uses the figure of the monster to interrogate the unstable boundaries through which humanity defines itself.