Beauty is a phenotypic state, driven by genes, but it is also socially constructed within society. Beautiful people often receive preferential treatment and are seen as superior and charming. On the other hand, ugly people are viewed differently, are often treated as outcasts and seen as socially inept and morally harmful. The reproduction of dominant ideologies, such as these, reinforces cultural norms, which are expectations and signals within society, and the power of the dominant classes. This ideological power is used as a means of social control, through cultural hegemony – the overbearing rule of an ideology that causes conformity and omnipotent consensus. These hegemonic powers normalize and reinforce social inequality between various socially constructed normative traits within our society, especially beauty in Frankenstein terms. Combining the social construction of beauty and the self-fulfilling prophecy, society often associates expected social roles with learned behaviors and often correlates the two with each other. This idea is clearly depicted throughout Frankenstein, when society automatically links an ugly appearance with an immoral character. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the socially constructed category of beauty is reinforced and directly influences morality. Specifically, this can be seen through the self-fulfilling prophecy and in Victor Frankenstein's creature, and how his external aesthetic of being ugly and grotesque forces society to correlate his appearance with being evil and monstrous, ultimately changing the his morality from benevolent to corrupt. appearance is often the first characteristic seen in others that leads to judgment, as it is predominantly moved outward, into the middle of the paper, through the reinforcement of dominant ideologies and social hierarchies. If these ideals are fought, society could prevent the inequality and rejection that arise from the overbearing power of these social structures. Works Cited Gigante, Denise. “Dealing with the Ugly: The Case of Frankenstein.” Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Modern Critical Interpretations of Bloom. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. 125-143. Print.Heymans, Peter. Animality in British Romanticism: The Aesthetics of Species. New York: Routledge, 2012. 118-136. Print.Seabury, Marcia Bundy. “The Monsters We Create: The Edge of Time and Frankenstein.” CRITICISM: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 42.2 (2001): 131+. Literary Resource Center. Network. November 10, 2013. Shelley, Mary W. and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein. London New York: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.