Starting with [extract from ch15], write about how Shelley presents the importance of love and acceptance to society.

Shelley presents the monster as someone who ‘yearned’ for love and ‘required kindness and sympathy’, showing that love and acceptance of others is felt by and needed by all people, even ones as different from normal humans as the monster is. The use of first person perspective allows the reader to fully empathise with the monster’s emotions. He greatly admires and loves the villagers, even without having spoken with them, as is evidenced by his descriptions of their ‘joys’, ‘sweet looks’ and their generous treatment of ‘the poor’ that came by. These detailed descriptions show how important love and acceptance are to the monster, and the fact these values are shared by the villagers demonstrates the universal nature of them.

The monster shows how important being loved and accepted is through his fear that he will be rejected by the villagers. He ‘dared not think’ about being turned away ‘with disdain and horror’, and instead focuses on his plan to ‘gain the good-will’ of De Lacey first. His optimism that the ‘blind old man’ will accept him and that the villagers might overlook his ‘unnatural hideousness’ comes from his belief that he is ‘not utterly unworthy’ of love, as he is a person. This links to his assertions that despite his monstrosity, he is deserving of guidance and protection from Frankenstein. However, his optimism is also rooted in attempting to avoid the significant possibility of being rejected for looking different as soon as someone sees him, which shows that he is willing to try anything to be loved.