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Frankenstein Maslow's Hierarchy Analysis

Decent Essays

The Prevalent Existence of Maslow’s Hierarchy
Asha Aweys
University of Missouri, Kansas City

In everything living and existing, an individual is said to have not reached true happiness without accomplishing Maslow’s hierarchy. In Frankenstein, it is seen that the monster, Frankenstein seems close to achieving this goal of happiness. On the contrary, one of A Brave New World’s main character, Bernard Marx, seems to never find the happiness he wants and believes he deserves. Maslow’s hierarchy, originating from Abraham Maslow, has five levels to it: 1) physiological needs, 2) safety, 3) social needs, 4) esteem, and 5) self-actualization (McLeod, 2007).
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, a man by the name of Victor creates a monster who is referred to as “Frankenstein”. Once created, Victor dislikes his creation and shuns him, along with society, from the start. This rejection of Frankenstein is what causes him to only truly reach the stage of self-esteem and not self-actualization. Frankenstein naturally longs for his physiological needs of water, food, …show more content…

He has constant access to food, water, and shelter. When he reached the stage of social needs, he ultimately failed. Although he was capable of getting a woman such as Fanny Crowne, he was an Alpha male who never was able to reach his complete physical structure. As a consequence, his constantly endured the “…laughter of the women to whom he made proposals, the practical joking of his equals among the men. The mockery made him feel an outsider” (Huxley, 65). This social rejection and height deficiency led to a highly low self-esteem level. Bernard Marx always felt the need to “…avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity” (Huxley, 65). More importantly, all this robbed him of his own self-actualization. Not once did Bernard ever feel like he was

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