Comparing Frankenstein, Racial Science, And The Yellow Peril '

In "Frankenstein, Racial Science, and the Yellow Peril" by Anne Mellor, she suggests the idea of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein creature being created based on racism. Specifically with Asian nationality as the core focus of said racism. Throughout her article she brings light to a particular person, William Lawrence, who may of impacted both Mary and Percy Shelleys's views on race in addition to exterior influences. Within the article Mellor uses specific passages from Frankenstein to explore deeper the possibility of race and how it played within Mary Shelley's novel. Mellor carries on to introduce us to the concepts of humanity during the eighteenth-century, as to help us better understand how Mary and Percy Shelley viewed race during their time. In
From these five groups he deemed Caucasian as the oldest and superior race. William Lawrence was a disciple under Blumenbach and believed in the five races, with Caucasians being dominant. It is understandable with Lawrence's understanding and views, while being a close friend and physical psychian to Percey and Mary Shelley that they may speak and believe also that any race other than Caucasian was less than. Mellor's views and ideas about racism in Frankenstein are noted not only with the phsyical apperance of the creature but also when Victor is speaking to the creature about creating a mate for him. It is here that Mellor suggests that Victor is disgusted by the idea that upon creation of a female companion for the horrid creature, it may see man, in this case possibly Victor himself who is Caucasian and be inclined to want to mate with him. Disgust is mentioned in this part of the novel because it can be viewed as interracial mating, Victor one race, while the creature another. However, Mellor also suggests that it is possible that Mary Shelley saw interracial mating as a positive, saying that "racial difference and interracial mating are social evils only when we see them and write them as evil"