“Detested monster!” screams Victor, In Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, passionately as he confronts the most detestable thing in his entire existence (chapter 10). Thurston analytically states "A monster with vaguely anthropoid outlines, but with an octopus-like head" while looking at a sculpture of Cthulhu. The word monster is used in both quotes above, but one is used as an insult to evil and the other as a descriptive word of physical appearance. The same word is used two different times with different definitions raising the question of what makes something monstrous. Both Shelley's and Lovecraft's Frankenstein stories feature monsters and help the reader better understand what a monster truly is. In some respects, these authors' definition of monster is the same, while in others the definition diverges. Although Shelley and Lovecraft's monsters are characterized by their physical appearance, the outward appearance of their monsters does not determine the monstrosity of their characters. The real monster in the stories is the character who does bad things regardless of whether their outward appearance is bad. Although Frankenstein's creation is described by Victor as "horrific" (chapter 5), and the creation is called a monster multiplied times over, he himself is not the true monster of Shelley's novel. Victor, responsible for the evil of his creation, is the true monster of the story. By creating a horrible individual and avoiding him, he forces the creation to survive on its own with a forced handicap; Victor turns evil. This evil is equivalent to breaking someone's legs in the middle of the forest, with no chance of returning home, and then leaving him alone. Victor creates......middle of paper......; the giant monster in “The Dunwich Horror” was invisible, despite modern science saying invisibility is impossible, and the fishmen in “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” were bred by combining a human and a fish, despite the ridiculousness of this idea. Lovecraft's monsters are not only impossible, they are vague and inexplicable. This contrasts with Shelley's Frankenstein in which science, instead of disproving the possibility of creatures, is the reason for the creature. Although the reader never finds out how the creature is made, we are led to believe that Victor's scientific mind is the cause of his creation; he worked for years studying the sciences necessary to revive life. Both Lovecraft and Shelley are influenced by the period in which they find themselves, but Lovecraft's definition of a monster is shaped by the modern era while Shelley's is shaped by Romanticism.