In this paper I will examine the similarities between two characters, that are different yet so much alike. I will examine the resemblances and dissimilarities between Mary Shelley’s monster in Frankenstein and Indra Sinha’s Animal in Animal’s People and how these two main characters exhibit Lacan’s notion of lack, language, and desire. These two characters have suffered from different circumstances however are similar in a Lacanian perspective. Jacques Lacan argues that our entry into language is empowered by one’s experience of lack and feel the desire for something we do not have. Both characters often speak of their experiences in those terms. The monster, for example, only begins to develop language when he starts feeling the lack of a companion. On the other hand, Animal creates an illusion where he develops super human powers to understand several languages in order to be acknowledged as a human regardless his image. The experiences these two characters go through in each novel parallel one to the other. They experience the notion of lack and desire in a different yet so similar manner. I will tackle these similarities and differences throughout this paper. What makes them so similar and what makes them so different? Is Animal’s refusal to be treated as a human secretly the desire to be one?

Keywords: Psychoanalysis, modern, literature.