![]() Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) is revealed in an enciphered picture of feelings, which are insentient for her awakening boldness too painful and formidable to cope with. Throughout, I indicate when changes to Shelley’s 1816-1817 draft were made to arrive to the 1831 wording, paying also attention to who effected them. Though both positions are credible, I argue that the storyline supports the creature’s view that the criminal might be a monster, but created by those it vengefully hurts. ![]() Both perspectives adapt tropes that can be found in criminal biographies still reprinted in the 1810s. The monstrous creature counteracts its maker’s presumptions by interpreting its own criminal behaviour similarly to Christian Wolf’s self-analysis in Schiller’s short story “Der Verbrecher aus Verlorene Ehre.” A close reading of the circumstances of each of the monster’s four crimes demonstrates how deeply its criminality is interlocked with social rejection caused by its own external deformity. Frankenstein’s accusations rely mostly on its creation’s appearance, borrowing from Johann Kaspar Lavater’s principles. ![]() Victor Frankenstein’s physiognomic prejudice and the creature’s discourse designating social exclusion as the cause of its mischief. ![]() ![]() This article offers a criminological reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein based on the 1831 edition. ![]()
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