 The reviewer for The Critic dismissed it as " an unpleasant story .... There is humor in the telling , but it is humor of a rather grim character . " Julian Hawthorne , son of author Nathaniel Hawthorne , also ultimately disliked the novella , calling it " an outrage on art and humanity " . He did , however , point to the similarities between Crane 's " monster " and Victor Frankenstein 's creation in Mary Shelley 's most famous work , stating that Crane , like Shelley before him , successfully depicted an innocent outsider being tormented by townspeople who are themselves made monstrous by their irrational fears . Other critics have since echoed the comparison between Shelley 's character and Henry Johnson ; Elizabeth Young explained the parallels in that , similar to Frankenstein 's narrative — in which " a male body is hideously transformed in a scientist 's laboratory and brought back by the scientist from the dead — Johnson 's disfigurement takes place in a doctor 's laboratory , and it is Trescott that ultimately saves him . 
