Judgement. Every person in the world is guilty of judging others based first impressions. These first impressions are derived from two factors: the outward appearance, and the portrayal of oneself. By portrayal, I mean how one presents himself through language, whether spoken, written, or body language. These two factors alone are what society uses to draw a conclusion about the type of person he/she is dealing with, whether right or wrong. Beyond these, understanding of the person within is hopeless. The so-called monster in Frankenstein demonstrates, through his own
             problems with understanding and being understood by the world, the importance and power of language on the one hand and of outward appearance on the other. As this essay will show, the novel shows these two factors to have very different functions indeed.
             First, let us look at the function of appearance, as the monster perceives it. From the first time he views himself in a pool of water, he knows that he has the features that make up a monster. He realizes that he does not carry the beautiful features that the humans he so much admires have. He is highly distraught and mortified by his own hideous appearance. He states: "Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity" (99). After this he experiences time and again how people, including the one who created him, flee in terror from his deformed shape, and finally, when all hope of a reversal of a like reaction has disappeared, he begins to use his own horrific appearance deliberately for purposes of revenge.
             The incident where he loses his last hope of ever being seen as anything but a monstrosity is when William Frankenstein, the younger brother of his creator and also a young and hopefully unprejudiced child, proves to see him the way any adult would, with disgust and horror. "As soon as he beheld my form, he placed his hands before his eyes and uttered a shrill scre...