preview

Frankenstein: Self Education of the Monster

Good Essays

Q. “Self education plays a critical role in shaping the subjectivity of Victor Frankenstein’s monster”. Do you agree? Discuss.
Rousseau believed that humans were intrinsically good when in their natural state (before civilization). According to him, humans were corrupted by society. Frankenstein’s creature is a case in point. So, calling him a monster in itself is a problematic view. Joyce Carol Oates focuses on the benevolent nature of the creature in his essay entitled, ‘Frankenstein’s Fallen Angel’. According to him, the demon is human consciousness-in-the-making, naturally benevolent as Milton’s Satan is not, and received with horror and contempt solely because of his physical appearance. To substantiate his point, he gives an example …show more content…

In the hero of Werter, it sees “a more divine being that I ever beheld or imagined,” but the novel leads him again to feel a sense of alienation; “I found myself similar, yet at the same time strangely unlike to the beings concerning whom I read... Who was I? What was I?” In Plutarch it finds “high thoughts” but no answer to its question. But, Paradise Lost, which it reads as a “true history” contains the solution, “Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but... He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator... but I was wretched, helpless and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition....” Martin Tropp says, “Milton, therefore, provides the monster with an identity.”
In my

Get Access