A major underlying theme in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is the negative consequences of social prejudices towards appearance. The social prejudices of today are very similar to the ones in this novel. These irrational stereotypes are both shallow and frequently without reason, and often lead to harmful and devastating outcomes. An essential aspect of humanity is the sense of belonging, and to many times people are labeled castaways of society based entirely on their appearance. In today's society, people are frequently prejudged based on their race, body shape, and facial features. In Frankenstein, Victor's creation received the same foolish judgments because of his external appearance. While the creature desired to be accepted by society and to do good upon others, his decency was never developed due to social barriers based solely on looks. Like the negative consequences of prejudices in Frankenstein, the world today deals with the same catastrophes due to a social problem that can be eradicated.
             A major goal of every human being on Earth is to gain acceptance from society. Acceptance plays a huge role in the self-esteem and the feeling of self-worth for individuals. Appearance is the main feature that people use to evaluate others on whether they are worthy of acceptance. Today, people who are not physically attractive often never receive acceptance. They may be the nicest and most sincere people, but because of pre-existing stereotypes they never get a chance. This is exactly the case of the creature. During the creature's first moments of new life, Victor had already judged him based only on his looks. " His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes..."(935). Victor found this "miserable monst...