MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Although Frankenstein’s monster and Watchmen’s Ozymandias appear to be very disparate characters, they actually share two unique and seemingly contradictory traits: they are both vegetarians and murders. Both characters are exceptionally empathetic, but while this drives them to unusual compassion and gentleness towards the innocent animals, this same quality also makes them more susceptible to moral outrage. By not eating the same food as other people, they set themselves not only outside of society but above it, and from this godlike position, they are willing to pass judgment. Their sense of intellectual and moral superiority disassociates them from their own kind, whom they see as morally corrupt, and, like their predecessors in revenge plays, these characters are driven to correct what they see as extreme moral wrongs. Therefore, these characters’ ability to empathize with humans is reduced while their willingness to resort to violence as a means to achieve their ends increases. Unfortunately, their feelings of moral superiority lead to a morally compromising hubris, and like many other hubristic characters, their attempts to pass judgment on, and to impose their values on, others leads to their own moral decay. While their food choices represent an attempt to be morally superior, their attempts to punish the moral failings of others reduces them to base murderers. Thus their vegetarianism makes them more sympathetic characters and also validates their critique of society, yet it also makes their willingness to kill more shocking.